President Isaac Herzog announced Saturday evening that he intends to task Yashar! chairman Gadi Eisenkot with forming Israel’s next government.
The formal ceremony granting Eisenkot the mandate will take place Sunday at 5 p.m. at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.
Eisenkot, who received recommendations from 67 members of Knesset, will have 28 days to form a government. If he is unable to complete the task within that period, he may ask Herzog for an extension of up to 14 additional days.
Herzog met separately with Eisenkot and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend and informed both of his decision.
Netanyahu, who was recommended by 46 lawmakers, earlier released a video in which he proposed for the first time since the election forming a unity government with parties from the bloc seeking to replace him. After promoting claims in recent weeks that the election was being “stolen,” and after previously limiting himself to calls for a “broad national government” without explicitly using the word “unity,” Netanyahu said in a recorded address: “Citizens of Israel, this is a time for unity. You know that I called for it during the election campaign and repeated that call afterward. This is the will of the people, and this is what the hour demands.”
Benjamin Netanyahu
(Photo: Prime minister's office)
President Isaac Herzog and Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu
(Photo: President's office)
Netanyahu also made clear that he had no intention of abandoning the parties in his bloc as part of such a government. “There is only one choice, not national suicide, but national unity,” he said. “I call for the establishment of a national unity government that includes all the parties of the national camp and all the Zionist parties that want to protect our country, the one and only state of the Jewish people.”
“A national unity government will permanently remove the Iranian nuclear threat, preserve Israel as a Jewish state and bring unity among us,” he continued. “I call on everyone to show responsibility at this decisive moment. This is what the hour demands. This is imperative for our survival.”
Shortly afterward, Yashar! responded to Netanyahu’s statement and signaled that it would agree to a unity government only if he abandoned what the party called the “extremists” in his bloc. Eisenkot’s party described Netanyahu’s remarks as a “hysterical speech.”
“If Likud and its partners are suddenly interested in ‘unity’ and a broad government, they are more than welcome to publicly announce that they are breaking their alliance with the extremists, accepting Gadi Eisenkot’s four principles and are prepared to enter a government under Prime Minister Eisenkot,” the party said. “Until then, this is nothing more than a pathetic spin.”
In his recorded address, Netanyahu also claimed that Eisenkot intended to establish a government as early as the coming week that would rely on Arab parties. “Already this coming week, there are those who intend to hurriedly swear in a government with supporters of terrorism,” Netanyahu said. “To establish a government in the State of Israel with those who seek to eliminate the State of Israel, with those who want to establish a Palestinian state on its ruins.”
“We all know the truth,” he continued. “A government dependent on Hamas supporters will not fight Hamas. A government dependent on those who hate Judaism will not preserve Israel as a Jewish state.”
Netanyahu added: “A government dependent on radical Islam will not fight radical Islam. Such a government will not remove the existential threat from Iran, and it will not protect our heroic soldiers in Gaza and Lebanon when a third of its members call IDF soldiers war criminals and praise the Nukhba murderers and Hezbollah. A government like this, dependent on Islamists, will dismantle the State of Israel from within, as is happening in European countries, and much worse than that.”
‘He understands his days in office are numbered’
Yashar! reiterated in its response that it would agree to a unity government only if Netanyahu severed his alliance with the “extremists.”
“Outgoing Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered a hysterical speech,” the party said. “The man who divided, incited and set Israeli society against itself is heard using the word ‘unity’ only when he understands that his days in office are numbered. Unity is an important value for Israel. Netanyahu acted systematically and determinedly against it even during the most difficult war in our history.”
Eisenkot’s party added: “Netanyahu established unity and emergency governments and always worked against them from within. He never honored an agreement he signed with political partners and formed the Oct. 7 government with Itamar Ben-Gvir as a senior minister, contrary to his own promise.”
“As the prime minister of the failure who did not dismantle Hamas rule and excelled only at dismantling Israeli society, he continues this evening to sow destruction while cynically using a value he always worked against: unity,” the party said.
First published: 21:46, 11.07.26