Eisenkot cancels Likud talks, calls Netanyahu 'unfit' after divisive Knesset speech

On Tuesday, as the 26th Knesset was sworn in, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood at the podium and gave a speech that ended, within hours, a planned round of coalition talks. Gadi Eisenkot, whose Yashar party was due to sit down with Likud negotiators on Wednesday, told his team to cancel the meeting.

Eisenkot said so publicly on X. He wrote that he had listened to the outgoing prime minister's "delusional, divisive, hateful and disgraceful speech" and accused Netanyahu of abusing a state occasion. The experience, he said, had convinced him even more that Netanyahu was unfit to remain in office for one more minute. He called for an urgent push to establish a national emergency government, said Netanyahu's continued rule was dividing Israel and endangering its security, and urged opposition leaders Yair Lapid, Yair Golan, Avigdor Liberman and Naftali Bennett to take responsibility.

The meeting had been arranged after Yashar appealed to all Knesset factions for sincere negotiations built on four principles it had set out for forming a government. In a statement, reported by The Jerusalem Post, the party said Netanyahu had once again shown he did not want to bring Israelis together. When the gravity of the moment and the resilience of Israeli society are weighed against his political survival, it said, he will always choose himself, at any cost.

The speech came a day after Netanyahu had urged opposition leaders to join a national unity government, arguing that the Iranian nuclear threat demanded a united front. He repeated that appeal in the Knesset. But he also turned on opposition leaders who are weighing a government backed by Arab-majority parties. According to AP, he asked whether they were prepared to be dependent on those whose goal is the destruction of the Jewish state. On X he called a government supported by Ra'am and the Joint List dangerous, writing that forming one with the "terror supporters" of those parties was forbidden.

Likud called Yashar's cancellation "puzzling". It said Netanyahu would turn over every stone to achieve national unity and was willing to meet any faction seeking it. The party argued that Eisenkot and other opposition groups were continuing talks with Arab parties even as they called off talks with Likud. Its criticism followed the departure of Arab lawmakers during the national anthem at the swearing-in, as reported by The Jerusalem Post.

The arithmetic explains the stakes. The election left the 120-seat Knesset without a clear majority: Likud's faction won 53 seats and Yashar 48, and a government needs at least 61. President Isaac Herzog gave Eisenkot the mandate to form the next government after his bloc secured recommendations from representatives of 67 lawmakers, including Ra'am and the Joint List. Eisenkot has up to six weeks. If he fails, Herzog is expected to give Netanyahu another chance. A success would end Netanyahu's run as Israel's longest-serving prime minister.

Meanwhile, Eisenkot's bloc has begun working in the new parliament. It has introduced bills for a government-led inquiry into the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, for term limits on the prime minister, and for reversing the outgoing government's changes that curbed the judiciary's powers. It has also started the process of replacing Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, who is backed by Netanyahu, and has nominated Matan Kahana, a senior Yashar member.

Netanyahu and his Cabinet stay in office during the transition. As caretaker prime minister he keeps authority over national security and the military, though court-imposed limits apply to some of his powers. What to watch now is whether any channel between Yashar and Likud reopens, and whether Eisenkot can hold together a 61-seat majority within his six weeks.