Israeli opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot received the presidential mandate to form a government after securing 67 recommendations, setting up a high-stakes legislative clash as the new Knesset convened on Tuesday.
Eisenkot Launches Bills in Parliament
As France 24 reported, Eisenkot and his allies launched an immediate legislative push targeting caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legacy during the opening session of parliament.
If Gadi Eisenkot and the opposition bloc are remotely serious about getting rid of Netanyahu, and about Israel’s democratic future, they’ll do the obvious, strategic, and non-racist thing of forming a government with the Arab parties. A Jewish-Arab political partnership is…
The newly elected parliament features 33 female members, marking the highest share since Israel’s founding in 1948, according to Dw.
Eisenkot’s Yashar Party submitted a series of bills moments after the swearing-in ceremony. The proposals include establishing an independent commission to investigate the security failures surrounding the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks, alongside legislation to impose term limits on the office of prime minister and repeal the judicial overhaul pursued by Netanyahu’s outgoing government, as detailed by The Guardian.
The opposition agenda includes installing Matan Kahana, a member of Eisenkot’s Yashar party and a former minister for religious services, as Knesset speaker. Kahana is a keen advocate of establishing a state inquiry into Netanyahu and the government’s failings ahead of the Hamas-led attack.
Opposition lawmakers also moved to advance measures targeting the structural framework of the judiciary and law enforcement. These include the March 2025 amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary, which restructures the nine-member Judicial Selection Committee by replacing the Israel Bar Association’s two representatives with public representatives chosen as attorneys qualified for Supreme Court appointments—one selected by the coalition and one by the opposition.
Did you criticize Israel's Central Elections Committee when it tried to ban the Arab parties? Did you criticize Netanyahu when he warned that "Jewish women from the left are leading Arab women voters to the polls"? Did you criticize the Jewish parties that said they would… https://t.co/5o2d8fWJkl
Additional proposals target the June legislation that restructured the Police Investigations Department, known as Mahash, removing it from the State Attorney’s Office and establishing it as a separate body within the Justice Ministry with new appointment and oversight mechanisms.
“We will act for all citizens of Israel, those who voted for us and those who did not, out of deep commitment,” said Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar Party, prior to the swearing-in ceremony, as noted by Dw.
All the proud declarations that Israel’s democracy gives 2 million Arab citizens the vote will ring increasingly hollow if the opposition refuses to govern with their support — even if that means leaving Netanyahu in power.
He also vowed “to form a national-emergency government as quickly as possible,” according to France 24, explaining that such a government would comprise the Jewish opposition parties.
Opposition Blocs Seek Knesset Majority
Following the October 27 election, Netanyahu’s right-wing and religious alliance won 53 Knesset seats, while Eisenkot’s centrist Yashar Party and allied Jewish-led opposition factions secured 48 seats in the 120-seat parliament, as reported by Israel & Jewish News – JNS.
'So if there are 61 seats, then Hamas is a terror organization?'@ariel_oseran presses Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas on making his willingness to call Hamas a terrorist group conditional on a place in a governing coalition pic.twitter.com/wRdHfrq3Vh
Neither bloc holds the 61-seat majority required to independently form a government.
Eisenkot’s coalition bloc comprises four Jewish opposition parties: his own Yashar Party; Together, led by former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid; Yisrael Beiteinu Party; and the left-wing Democrats, led by Yair Golan, which holds eight seats.
During the consultation process, Eisenkot secured the support of 67 members of the incoming Knesset, including 19 from the two Arab parties, while Netanyahu received 46 recommendations. A crack in Netanyahu’s bloc emerged when the Ashkenazi Haredi ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism (UTJ), holding seven seats, declined to recommend him. Together with Shas, the two ultra-Orthodox parties hold 13 seats between them.
They’re going to promise you the moon and the stars but one minute after, God forbid, they form a government run by the left, all of those promises will vanish.
Benjamin Netanyahu, caretaker Prime Minister
Rivals Clash Over Knesset Leadership
The opposition moved immediately to strip Netanyahu’s allies of institutional control by seeking to depose current Knesset speaker Amir Ohana, a Netanyahu ally. Ohana agreed to schedule a vote on his replacement for the following Tuesday, saying:
despite my strong opposition to the intention of the emerging coalition.
Amir Ohana, Knesset Speaker
The inaugural session was immediately marked by tense exchanges and shouting between lawmakers. During the swearing-in ceremony, far-right caretaker National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir harassed and loudly heckled Arab-Israeli lawmaker Yousef Jabareen, leader of the Arab-majority Joint List, shouting, “You want to form a government with them?”
Finance Minister and Religious Zionist Party chairman Beizar Smotrich also criticized the parliamentary maneuver, saying that being appointed Knesset Speaker with the votes of Israel’s enemies is illegitimate.
Netanyahu used his address after the inaugural session to renew his call for a national-unity government to confront threats from Iran. Eisenkot dismissed the speech as a shameful exploitation of the occasion, declaring Netanyahu unfit to remain in office, according to France 24.
Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats, and Yoav Segalovich, a Jewish-Israeli former police chief who ran on the slate of the Islamist Ra’am party, walked out of Netanyahu’s speech in protest.
Golan posted on X: “Netanyahu is struggling to accept that the Israeli public fired him. Now he is lying and inciting against the Arab public in an attempt to cling to power by force.”
Liberman posted news of the walkout on social media, writing: “You want to form a government with them?” President Herzog opened the Knesset session by urging lawmakers to “reach out a hand for compromise, even between rivals,” as reported by The Guardian, echoing past votes in the 120-seat parliament.
Earlier coverage: Arab parties could help opposition bypass Netanyahu in Israel
