November 8, 2026
Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s decision to assign Yashar Party leader Gadi Eisenkot to form the next government has created a sharp political division in the country, amid efforts to speed up the end of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rule, differing positions of the Arab and Haredi parties, and reports of American intervention to push the process of political change.
This decision came after consultations conducted by Herzog with the parliamentary blocs, during which Eisenkot received the recommendations of 67 deputies compared to 46 deputies for Netanyahu, while 7 deputies abstained from the recommendation, based on the results of the elections that took place last October 27, which resulted in the “Likud” party obtaining 27 seats and “Ya’shar” obtaining 21 seats, without any camp obtaining an absolute majority of 61 seats. The official commissioning ceremony is scheduled to take place today, Sunday, at 5 p.m. local time, after Eisenkot pledged in a post on the “X” platform on Saturday evening to make every effort to form a “national emergency government.”
In reactions, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir launched a sharp attack on the camp recommending Eisenkot, accusing it of “stealing the elections and lying to the people of Israel,” demanding a rerun of the elections, and considering that the proposed unity government would be a “government of paralysis.” In contrast, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak called for accelerating the formation of the government to end Netanyahu’s era, expressing his support for the participation of Arab parties, and his non-objection to the Likud Party joining on the condition that Netanyahu does not head it.
In terms of parliamentary support, Haaretz newspaper quoted an official in the “Unified Arab List” as saying that the list is ready to support Eisenkot’s government even without a formal coalition agreement, which is of great importance in light of the fact that the “Joint List” and the “Unified Arab List” together have 19 seats. In the same context, circles in the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party (7 seats), which had previously refrained from recommending any candidate, expressed their willingness to negotiate on regulating the conditions of religious institute students and the controversial issue of military recruitment.
In a remarkable development, Israeli Channel 12 revealed that parties close to US President Donald Trump conveyed a message to those close to Eisenkot before he received the assignment, calling on him to speed up the formation of a new government and bring about a leadership change that would oust Netanyahu.
This political crisis comes in the career of Netanyahu, who ruled between 1996 and 1999, and from 2009 until 2021, and returned to power in December 2022. Since 2020, he has been facing a criminal trial in corruption cases that his defense denies, in addition to the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant against him on November 21, 2024 on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip. Gaza.
Thus, Eisenkot faces a complex phase of coalition negotiations that require transforming parliamentary recommendations into real understandings that ensure the prospective government gains the confidence of the Knesset. Otherwise, Israel will head toward a new round of consultations with Netanyahu’s government remaining in the caretaker position.
