By Maayan Lubell and Alexander Cornwell
JERUSALEM, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Benjamin Netanyahu's position in the post-election battle to stay on as Israel's prime minister weakened on Thursday after a majority of lawmakers endorsed his main opponent to try to form a government.
Israel's October 27 election ended in deadlock with neither Netanyahu nor Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief, securing a clear path to a majority in parliament.
That has set up a tough task for President Isaac Herzog, whose mostly
ceremonial role comes with the post-election responsibility of picking a candidate he believes has the best chance to break the deadlock in a deeply divided country.
Herzog held talks with factions on Wednesday and Thursday during which they endorsed candidates. Parties representing 67 of parliament's 120 elected lawmakers picked Eisenkot, while factions representing 46 lawmakers picked Netanyahu.
Herzog has until November 11 to pick a candidate. Netanyahu will remain prime minister in a caretaker government until a new coalition is formed, or through another election which must be held if no candidate succeeds.
Though Netanyahu outperformed expectations in the vote and his own Likud Party won the most seats, his nationalist-religious coalition lost its governing majority.
In a setback for the prime minister, United Torah Judaism, one of two major parties representing ultra-Orthodox Jewish voters and a longstanding Netanyahu coalition ally, declined to recommend any candidate to form a government.
And while Eisenkot, like Netanyahu, has so far ruled out forming a government with Israel's two Arab-led parties, both factions endorsed Eisenkot, giving him backing from a comfortable majority of lawmakers.
'REMEMBER THE ISSUES TEARING US APART FROM WITHIN'
Herzog has called on parties to do their utmost to avert another round of elections.
"Any reasonable person need only look at the security and diplomatic challenges before us, at the changing region around us, and remember the issues tearing us apart from within, to understand that an immense responsibility rests upon us," Herzog said.
Likud won the most seats of any single party with 27 in the 120-seat Knesset, but Netanyahu's wider religious-nationalist coalition garnered only 53 in total.
That was still better than Eisenkot's anti-Netanyahu coalition spanning four centre-left to right-wing Jewish-led parties, which won just 48 seats despite pre-election polls pointing to a close race. Two parties representing Israel's Arab minority won an unprecedented 19 seats.
CRITICS ACCUSE NETANYAHU OF TRYING TO UNDERMINE ELECTION RESULTS
Netanyahu, at risk of losing power, has seized on an investigation by election officials into possible vote tampering to cast doubt on the results, accusing Arab-led parties of stealing the vote. Critics accuse Netanyahu and his partners of trying to undermine the results, which he denies.
Israel's Central Election Committee said on Wednesday that the election's integrity had not been compromised. The head of the committee, Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, has called on Israel's elected officials to protect public trust, rather than shake it.
"This is a real danger. One of the foundations of democracy is the peaceful transfer of power," Sohlberg told Herzog at his residence on Wednesday. High voter turnout, including among the Arab minority, was a blessing, he said.
Netanyahu's allies on the far-right, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have called for the immediate arrest and interrogation of Arab party leaders.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Alexander CornwellEditing by Rami Ayyub, Peter Graff, Ros Russell)
