Gadi Eisenkot, the former military chief tasked with forming Israel’s next government, has accused caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of refusing him regular security briefings, and has asked the attorney general to intervene.
Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, wrote to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Wednesday, saying he should receive “regular, structured and comprehensive” briefings and access to intelligence assessments because there is currently no opposition leader under the law and President Isaac Herzog has tasked him with forming a government. He said his team’s attempts to arrange the briefings with Netanyahu’s staff had failed.
Eisenkot also urged the attorney general to ensure that any military or operational action is properly discussed and approved by the cabinet and government, as required by law, and warned the prime minister not to deploy security forces for non-urgent action during the transitional period following the election.
Netanyahu responded by saying Eisenkot was trying to politicise national security, and that such matters should not be discussed in public. The prime minister remains in office as caretaker until a new government is sworn in, and retains control over the government and the security forces.
The dispute is the latest sign of the tension surrounding Israel’s post-election deadlock. In the election on 27 October, Netanyahu lost the parliamentary majority that had kept him in power for the past four years. His Likud party won 27 seats, the largest tally for any single party, but his right-wing and religious-nationalist bloc secured only 53 seats, eight short of a majority.
Herzog formally tasked Eisenkot with forming a government on 8 November, after factions representing 67 of the 120 members of the Knesset recommended him, against 46 for Netanyahu. Eisenkot has 28 days to negotiate, with a possible 14-day extension. If he fails, the mandate passes to another candidate for 28 days.
Eisenkot’s challenge is that his 67 supporters come from six ideologically diverse parties, from right-wing to Arab parties, that have not all agreed to work together. His plan is to form what he calls a “national emergency government”: a minority government made of the four Jewish opposition parties, which together hold 48 seats — his own Yashar, Together, led by former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu, and the left-wing Democrats, led by Yair Golan.
The two Arab-led parties, the Joint List with 11 seats and Ra’am with eight, are part of the wider bloc that recommended Eisenkot, but whether they would support a government from outside, or join it, remains unresolved. Eisenkot’s main obstacle is said to be Liberman, a former defence, foreign affairs and finance minister, whose demands have complicated the negotiations.
Among the priorities Eisenkot’s bloc has set out are establishing a state commission of inquiry into the 7 October 2023 attacks and introducing term limits for prime ministers. Netanyahu has proposed a unity government under his own leadership, but Yashar has rejected the arrangement.
If Eisenkot fails to form a government, Herzog has three days to decide whether to assign the task to another lawmaker, potentially Netanyahu, or to leave the next step to the Knesset. If Netanyahu also fails, the mandate returns to the Knesset for 14 days to propose another candidate. For now, the new Knesset has been sworn in, the mandate clock is running, and the dispute over security briefings has added a personal edge to an already difficult negotiation.
