Despite Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likkud bloc winning the most seats in the Knesset in elections in mid-October, Israel’s president Isaac Herzog has decided to give the first shot at forming a new government to his opposition, the Yarash bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot.

Likkud came out with 53 seats compared to Yarash’s 48 in final tallies. Herzog seems to think Yarash might be able to cobble together a coalition or at least a confidence agreement with some of the so-called Arab parties who came out with 19 Knesset seats. Sixty-one is the magic number for a majority in the Israeli parliament, which has 120 seats.

Netanyahu poured cold water on the idea of siding with the Palestinian parties, saying they were dedicated to dismantling the Jewish state. Some of the Yarash bloc coalition parties also said before the election they would never countenance an alliance with the Arab parties.

At the first sitting of the Knesset Tuesday, Lnesset members from the two Arab parties walked out during the Israeli national anthem, HaTikvah, The Hope. Ra’am (United Arab List) leader Mansour Abbas remained in the chamber during the anthem but did not sing, according to Israeli media reports. United Torah Judaism chairman Yaakov Asher also reportedly stood without singing.