“Let us go into the room, without preconditions,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot on Saturday calling for a national unity government to confront the Iranian threat.
Eisenkot quickly rejected the appeal as political spin, setting up a high-stakes legislative showdown as a new Knesset convened in Jerusalem.
The push for a coalition comes after Netanyahu’s bloc lost its parliamentary majority in the October 27 election, winning 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Eisenkot’s four-party bloc secured 48 seats, while Arab-led parties won a record 19 seats, according to Al Jazeera. President Isaac Herzog tasked Eisenkot with forming a government after 67 lawmakers endorsed him.
In his video statement, Netanyahu argued that a government relying on Arab parties cannot protect Israel or address Iran’s nuclear program. “only strengthened my understanding of how essential it is at this time to form a national unity government, a government that will include all parties that support the existence of Israel as the state of the Jewish people,” Netanyahu said in a video statement regarding a security briefing he gave Eisenkot on Thursday.
Netanyahu also suggested reaching agreements on the controversial conscription of ultra-Orthodox community members.
Eisenkot dismissed the Prime Minister’s overture, noting that negotiating teams from Likud and Yashar had already scheduled a meeting for Sunday before the public video was released. “Nice try, but these tricks don’t work on me,” Eisenkot said, according to The Times of Israel. He accused Netanyahu of trying to obstruct a new government because an absolute majority of lawmakers oppose him.
The immediate political test arrives on Tuesday with a vote to appoint Yashar lawmaker Matan Kahana as Knesset speaker. As The Guardian reported, the opposition aims to seize control of the parliamentary agenda to introduce term limits and establish a state commission of inquiry into the October 7, 2023 attacks. Eisenkot insisted that if Likud and Religious Zionism want a genuine partnership, they must instruct their lawmakers to support Kahana.
Meanwhile, freshman Likud lawmaker Elisha Medan set up a protest tent outside the Knesset on Saturday night, calling for a unity government led by Netanyahu with Eisenkot included. Medan lost both his legs in a blast from a booby-trapped tunnel shaft while serving in the army during fighting in the Gaza Strip in November 2023.
| Political Bloc | Knesset Seats | Key Figures |
|---|---|---|
| Netanyahu-Led Bloc | 53 | Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich |
| Eisenkot-Led Opposition Bloc | 48 | Gadi Eisenkot, Matan Kahana, Avigdor Liberman |
| Arab-Led Parties | 19 | Ra’am, Joint List |
Eisenkot has maintained that anyone holding central power during the Hamas invasion must step away from public life, explicitly ruling out Netanyahu remaining prime minister.
