At 5 PM on Sunday, Israel’s President Herzog is expected to give the leader of the Opposition parties, retired general and former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, the first shot at consolidating a governing coalition. This gives Eisenkot 28 days to get agreement from a minimum of 61 MKs, and raises the prospect of a Jewish-Arab alliance, breaking out of the geopolitical straitjacket imposed since Israel was granted independence in 1948. There are numerous obstacles which Eisenkot must overcome, and Netanyahu has made it clear he will do anything in his power to sabotage the agreement.

One of those obstacles is dealing with Avigdor Lieberman, chair of the Yisrael Beiteinu Party, which is part of Eisenkot’s coalition. Lieberman announced on Friday that he will endorse Eisenkot after agreeing to a compromise on the issue of deferments for Haredi (Orthodox)) Yeshiva students. He said “it pains me” to do this—he had been totally opposed to any deferments from military service—but accepted an unspecified compromise for the sake of ousting Netanyahu. However, he told the press that he “vehemently opposes any minority government that relies on the backing of Arab Israeli parties,” according to a report in Haaretz.

As for the Arab-Israeli parties, they are prepared to vote for Eisenkot to form a government, but not participate as members of that government. Their 19 votes would put the Change Bloc of Eisenkot over the 61 necessary votes. The leader of the Ra’am Party said they will vote for Eisenkot without a deal to be part of the coalition, while the other leading Arab coalition, the Joint List, announced that it won’t back the government but will not act to topple it. It is still not fully clear what the two orthodox parties that had backed Netanyahu, Shas and United Torah Judaism, will do, meaning Eisenkot has no margin to spare.