Netanyahu won the most seats but not the mandate. Now he wants talks with Eisenkot with no preconditions, and no longer says he must lead
Benjamin Netanyahu has asked Gadi Eisenkot, the Yashar leader tasked with forming Israel's next government, to meet behind closed doors without preconditions and agree on a national unity government. Unlike his earlier calls, he did not say he would have to lead it. Eisenkot's camp had not responded publicly by early Sunday morning, Perth time.
Live updates
- 2.55am AWSTLatest
No public response yet from Eisenkot or Yashar to Netanyahu's offer.
- About 1.30am AWST
Likud releases Netanyahu's video calling on Eisenkot to meet without preconditions on a unity government of Jewish-majority parties.
This page checks for new updates automatically.
Three things to know
- Netanyahu's Likud won the most seats at the 27 October election, 27, but President Isaac Herzog gave the mandate to Eisenkot, who was recommended by 67 of the Knesset's 120 members against 46 for Netanyahu.
- Eisenkot's own bloc has 48 seats. With both ultra-Orthodox parties, United Torah Judaism (7) and Shas (6), he would reach exactly 61, a bare majority without the two Arab-led parties that backed his bid.
- Netanyahu's pitch targets that gap: he says a government relying on Arab parties cannot confront Iran, and he says the fight over drafting ultra-Orthodox men into the army can be settled with their representatives.
Israel’s caretaker prime minister has blinked first, or at least changed his terms.
In a video statement released by Likud on Saturday evening Israel time, about 1.30am AWST Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu invited Gadi Eisenkot to “sit down together without preconditions” and form a unity government of all Jewish-majority parties. He called it a “government of hope” and warned that the alternative would be a “shaky and dangerous government”.
What was missing mattered as much. Netanyahu has called for a unity government before, but with himself at its head. This time he did not say he would have to lead it.
Eisenkot, the former army chief who leads the Yashar party, holds the mandate. Herzog handed it to him on 8 November, sidelining the leader of the largest party.
Why now?
Netanyahu said a security briefing he gave Eisenkot on Thursday “only strengthened” his view that Israel needs a broad government. He said Iran is trying to rebuild its nuclear weapons program and that the threat must be removed “once and for all”.
He also said the two Arab-led parties support Hamas, and that a narrow government, or one depending on what he called “supporters of terrorism”, could not meet that challenge.
Those two Arab-led parties, Ra’am and the Joint List, won 19 seats between them and recommended Eisenkot to the president. Without them, Eisenkot’s path to a majority runs through the ultra-Orthodox parties, and he has said that is where his efforts are focused.
What is the sticking point?
Conscription. The ultra-Orthodox parties want their community’s young men to stay exempt from military service; many Israelis, after years of war, want them drafted. Netanyahu said the issue could be “solved together with representatives of the Haredi public”, signalling he would bring those parties into any deal.
That puts him in direct competition with Eisenkot for the same 13 seats.
How did relations get this bad?
Last week, Yashar cancelled planned coalition talks with Likud after Netanyahu’s address at the swearing-in of the new Knesset, which it said was divisive. Eisenkot has since accused Netanyahu of fuelling a “violent and racist” campaign against Arab citizens of Israel.
Yashar has said Likud is welcome in a coalition with Eisenkot as prime minister, but without what it calls extremists.
What does it mean beyond Israel?
Whoever governs will decide Israel’s next moves on Iran, where Netanyahu credits two operations in the past year with removing the immediate danger, and on Gaza, where at least 1,600 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Those decisions also bear on the war around the Strait of Hormuz, where the UN says 25 seafarers have died since February and through which much of the fuel bound for Asian refineries passes.
VNN will update this story as more is confirmed.
How we got here
The key moments that brought this story into focus. Open any moment for detail.
27 October 2026Israel votes
Likud wins 27 seats, the most of any party, but Eisenkot's bloc and its allies outnumber Netanyahu's supporters.
7 November 2026Herzog picks Eisenkot
The president says he will task Eisenkot, recommended by 67 members, with forming the government.
8 November 2026Mandate handed over
Eisenkot receives the mandate and says "unconventional steps" will be needed.
12 November 2026Security briefing
Netanyahu briefs Eisenkot on security after Eisenkot accused him of refusing to.
14 November 2026Offer without preconditions
Netanyahu calls for closed-door talks on a unity government and does not say he must lead it.
What happens next
Eisenkot has 28 days from 8 November to form a government, which runs to early December, and Herzog can extend that by up to 14 days. If he fails, Netanyahu could be given a turn. If no one can form a government, the Knesset would be dissolved and Israel would hold another election. Netanyahu remains prime minister while talks go on.
Sources
- VNN
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