Pay attention to Gadi Eisenkot’s language. Even though 67 Knesset members recommended him, he cannot form a 61-seat coalition.
These 67 lawmakers only agree on one thing: Benjamin Netanyahu should not be prime minister. Since they do not agree on anything else, they have no ability to govern democratically. If you can’t govern democratically but govern anyway, that is tyranny.
This is exactly what Eisenkot means when he repeatedly says that he wants a “national emergency government” and that “creative and unconventional political moves will be required” when he governs.
Let’s be as basic as possible: democracy is rule by the people, and the people rule by majority. Eisenkot wants a minority government. No Israeli government has ever taken office after an election with fewer than 61 seats. Others have led a minority government, but only after first securing a majority coalition. Planning to govern as a minority from day one is undemocratic.
Eisenkot’s bloc, including Yashar, B’Yachad (Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid), the Democrats (Yair Golan), and Yisrael Beytenu (Avigdor Liberman), holds 48 seats. To reach 61, he needs either the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties or the Arab parties.
The haredi path is a long shot. Liberman dropped his longstanding veto on the haredi parties and offered to “be flexible and compromise” on the draft law, and United Torah Judaism welcomed the “flexibility.”
But Shas said it “is part of the right-wing bloc.” It sat in the 1992 Rabin government that brought us Oslo, but its voters in Netivot, Ofakim, Safed, and Tiberias are within rocket range of Gaza and Lebanon and have only moved Right since. Beyond that, when Liberman opened the door, Eisenkot restated his demand for universal service.
That leaves Eisenkot’s preferred path. He plans to swear in a government “based on the four Zionist parties” and let others join “immediately, or gradually.” That means a minority government of 48, backed from outside by the anti-Zionist Joint List (11 seats) and the Islamist Ra’am party (8 seats), which has nominally called Israel the Jewish state but refuses to call Hamas a terrorist organization.
Liberman, whose seven seats are among the 48, said he will vote against it.
Even if Liberman caves, what holds the 67 together? The Democrats and the Arab parties (27 seats) want a return to Oslo. Yashar, B’Yachad, and Yisrael Beytenu (40 seats) presumably want Hamas destroyed, Hezbollah pushed back, and Iran’s nuclear program stopped.
Rebuild Gaza or finish off Hamas? Withdraw from Lebanon or stay? Attack Iran or rely on diplomacy? This coalition cannot answer any of these questions. Loathing Bibi is not a governing agenda.
Then there is the budget. The Joint List will not vote for military spending. And if a budget does not pass in time, the Knesset dissolves. Liberman is right that a minority government would be short-lived and would only strengthen Netanyahu.
The real emergency
So what does Eisenkot want? He wants to undo the past four years of right-wing governance. This is why he uses emergency language, even though Israel is in less of an emergency today than at any point in the last three years.
Eisenkot’s emergency is not Hamas, Hezbollah, or Iran. It is Netanyahu and the outgoing government, which he said: “Threatens, at the most basic level, the existence of Israeli democracy, no less.” But that government was elected by a majority. It passed laws with a majority. In other words, it governed as a proper democracy.
Eisenkot wants to revoke the changes of the past four years through a minority government. How will he do so? He wants to be “creative and unconventional.” His first priority is to replace the Knesset speaker. He wants to remove Likud’s Amir Ohana on the Knesset’s opening day, before a government even exists. It tops his list of “parliamentary measures.”
Ohana noted that a speaker is usually elected when a government is formed. Likud broke that custom in December 2022 when it seated Yariv Levin two weeks early to pass its coalition’s laws. But that was a 64-seat bloc about to govern together. It rushed to do something that it was going to do anyway.
The 67 people who recommended Eisenkot cannot agree on a government at all.
His bloc also plans committees to repeal laws before any coalition exists, and a bill to bar anyone under indictment from forming a government, meaning Netanyahu. Maybe they’ll also pass a term-limits law to bar Bibi, for good measure. The Arab parties will vote this anti-Bibi agenda, giving it the veneer of a majority, but ruling when you lack a majority is anti-democratic.
Eisenkot justifies all this by declaring, “We are in a time of emergency.” Israel has had emergency governments before. Levi Eshkol brought in Menachem Begin on the eve of the Six Day War. In October 2023, Netanyahu brought in Benny Gantz and Eisenkot himself.
Each widened an existing majority. Eisenkot’s would provide cover for minority rule.
Eisenkot served Israel with distinction. But invoking an emergency to govern without a majority is how tyrants talk. They tell you they are here to save you and that the times require extraordinary measures. In the end, they rule over you and make your life bitter.
We came home “to be a free nation in our land.” This is not an emergency. Eisenkot should form a real coalition or hand back the mandate. We don’t need politicians getting creative and unconventional with our lives.