New Israeli parliament to take aim at Netanyahu as Eisenkot seeks government
Israel’s new parliament is prepared to be sworn in Tuesday with a mission to take aim immediately at caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as rival Gadi Eisenkot vowed quickly to cobble together a new government.
President Isaac Herzog will deliver a speech at 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) for the swearing-in of the 120-seat parliament, in which neither Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition nor Eisenkot’s broad left-to-right anti-Netanyahu bloc will hold a majority.
“I am committed in this complex situation to form a national-emergency government as quickly as possible,” Eisenkot, a 66-year-old former military chief who only recently entered politics, said as he prepared to be sworn in.
Eisenkot’s allies hope to use their newfound legislative power to move rapidly on key priorities, including a commission to investigate security failures under Netanyahu that allowed the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, the deadliest day in Israel’s history.
Herzog on Sunday gave Eisenkot the initial mandate to form a government, starting the clock for him to cobble together a coalition within 28 days, with a possible 14-day extension.
Ahead of the opening of the parliament, known as the Knesset, Eisenkot’s party announced agreements on key people to replace allies of Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, who has been in and out of office for nearly 20 years.
Eisenkot’s bloc announced it would put forward as parliament speaker Matan Kahana, a former senior military figure who clashed with ultra-Orthodox Jews in a past stint in government.
Avigdor Liberman, a right-wing member of Eisenkot’s bloc who has played a key role in deciding who can enter the government, will be nominated as chair of the foreign affairs and defence committee.
Arab-Israeli lawmakers said they would support Kahana, all but guaranteeing he will take the most votes and, with it, the helm of the parliament.
Parties representing the Arab minority — descendants of Palestinians who stayed after Israel’s creation in 1948 — won a record number of seats in the October 27 election on the back of anger over Netanyahu’s hard-right government.
But Eisenkot needs 61 votes — a majority — to become prime minister. Liberman has made clear that he will refuse to join a government that relies on Arab-Israelis, even if they stay out of the coalition and prop up a government without a majority.
“A minority government would only lead to the return of Netanyahu with 70 members of the Knesset,” Liberman told reporters.
Arab-Israeli lawmakers under fire
Netanyahu has accused Arab-Israeli parties of supporting Hamas and accepting foreign funding, allegations the lawmakers deny and call smear tactics.
Liberman, a former aide to Netanyahu turned critic who shares hawkish views, said he would use his new position to investigate allegations of foreign funding to the parties.
Entering parliament, Mansour Abbas, leader of the Israeli-Arab party Raam, rejected Netanyahu’s accusations of fraud by Israeli-Arab parties and pointed out that Netanyahu faces corruption charges which could land him in jail if he loses power.
“We will keep up the process of replacing the government,” Abbas told reporters. “We aspire to be part of the solution.”
Abbas confirmed he supports a two-state solution with the Palestinians, a stance shared by neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot, a former military chief who has sought to appeal to the centre.
Shunning Israeli Arabs, Liberman has instead proposed an alliance with ultra-Orthodox Jews, despite his years of bitter denunciations of the community for its singular priority on maintaining an exemption from mandatory military service.
Eisenkot’s core bloc has 48 seats, but would achieve a majority if the 19 Arab-Israeli lawmakers either enter the government or, more likely, vote for it without joining.
The two ultra-Orthodox parties hold 13 seats. United Torah Judaism, which has seven seats, has stopped short of recommitting to Netanyahu, leaving Israel’s longest-serving prime minister with 46 seats.
The two parties were long allied with Netanyahu, who backed the exemption from military service without enshrining it fully into law.
An alliance with either group would likely be fragile, with a small number of lawmakers able to bring Eisenkot down over their particular concerns.