Ex-Generals Carve Up Knesset Posts Before Government Exists

Gadi Eisenkot hadn't formed a government by Tuesday, but he'd already handed out the furniture. The Yashar party leader announced that he'd reached agreement with Naftali Bennett, Yair Golan, Avigdor Lieberman and Yair Lapid on who gets which Knesset gavel. Matan Kahana of Yashar becomes speaker, if the votes hold. The bloc, as the announcement put it, is seeking to exert control of parliament even before a new government is formed.

The resumes tell the story. Al-Monitor described Kahana as, like Eisenkot, a former senior military figure. JNS called him a former minister. Lieberman takes the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Roy Folkman of Yashar chairs the Arrangements Committee (Haaretz and JNS call it the House Committee). Liran Avisar Ben-Horin of Together (B'Yachad) takes Finance. Five party leaders divided the spoils in a room, and the plenum gets to nod next Wednesday.

The Speaker's Chair Is the Prize

The speaker's job isn't ceremonial. Replacing Likud's Amir Ohana would give the bloc greater control over the legislative agenda, including the scheduling of votes and the advancement of legislation. The post is particularly significant during the transition between governments. That's the point. Whoever holds the gavel decides which bills live and which die.

The stated goals are concrete. Al-Monitor reported the opposition hopes to move quickly on a commission to investigate the security failures that allowed the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, now in the fourth year since the attack. JNS named four Netanyahu-era measures as repeal targets: the March 2025 amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary, the attorney general legislation passed in July by 65-51, the June restructuring of the Police Investigations Department, and Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi's broadcasting reform. The Arrangements Committee can grant exemptions from the usual 45-day waiting period for private members' bills. Lieberman has advocated barring criminal defendants from serving as prime minister. Bennett has proposed an eight-year limit on prime ministerial tenure.

Note what's happening. One faction of the parliamentary class is rewriting the rules to constrain the other faction's rules. Nobody is proposing to constrain the parliament.

Who Needs Whom

The arithmetic is ugly for everyone. Netanyahu's right-wing and religious alliance won 53 seats. The four Jewish-led opposition parties headed by Eisenkot hold 48. The Arab parties hold 19, which would give Eisenkot's side 67 of 120. Herzog gave Eisenkot the mandate, with a 28-day clock and a possible 14-day extension. Herzog himself admitted the clarity is thin: the consultations may appear clear, he said, but "given the mutual vetoes between the blocs and within the blocs themselves," it isn't entirely clear who can form a government.

Those vetoes are the real story. Eisenkot's four Jewish parties need outside support: the Arab-led United Arab List and/or Joint List, both of which endorsed him, or the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, which refused to endorse anyone. Al-Monitor reported that Lieberman had been clear he would not allow Eisenkot to rely on Arab-Israelis to come to power and has instead proposed an alliance with ultra-Orthodox Jews. Nineteen Arab-party seats are useful for the count and unacceptable for the cabinet. According to Al-Monitor, an alliance with either group would likely be fragile.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, keeps his own machinery humming. Haaretz reported he'll bring Gideon Sa'ar's appointment as interior minister before the cabinet on Wednesday. He initially offered the post to MK Ofir Katz, who waived it to coordinate the right-wing bloc's parliamentary efforts. Netanyahu's side has been trying to push back the speaker vote, and his associates have reportedly warned that replacing Ohana could jeopardize unity negotiations. Ohana, for his part, said he'd schedule an early vote within a week if 61 lawmakers formally requested one: "We will respect the members of Knesset." A 2020 Supreme Court ruling against then-Speaker Yuli Edelstein limits his room to obstruct.

Same Game, Different Gavel

Gideon Rahat of the Israel Democracy Institute told JNS that Netanyahu "no longer commands a majority in the Knesset. His opponents can replace the speaker and change parliamentary procedures." Read that again. Procedure is the weapon, and both blocs treat it that way. The 26th Knesset, sworn in Tuesday with 120 lawmakers from 11 party lists, 46 of them first-timers, hasn't passed a single law, and its first act is a fight over who controls the calendar.

The JNS analysis closed by asking whether the opposition can convert its majority into lasting advantage without destroying the alliances needed to replace Netanyahu. Nowhere in the reporting does anyone ask whether the people living under whichever bloc wins have any say in the matter between elections. They don't. They get a ballot every few years and a front-row seat to the committee assignments.