Caretaker Rulers Bicker Over Who Gets to Start the War

Gadi Eisenkot needed the attorney general to get a security briefing. That's the headline buried in the polite choreography of Thursday's meeting at Netanyahu's Jerusalem office: the man tapped to form the next government had approached the prime minister's office several times over the week asking to see the military secretary, Guy Markizano, and the sit-down only happened after Eisenkot asked Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to step in, according to Haaretz. The meeting ran more than two hours. Afterward the two men issued a joint statement saying Eisenkot had been briefed on the security and diplomatic challenges facing the State of Israel. Nothing else was said.

The subject under the surface is Iran. The Yashar chair is worried that the outgoing government could launch a large-scale operation during the transition. Seventeen days after the Oct. 27 elections, the cabinet that lost its mandate is still the one holding the keys to the arsenal. Eisenkot wrote to Netanyahu on Wednesday urging him to refrain from "dangerous moves that can wait until a new government, enjoying the confidence of the Knesset, is sworn in." He warned that deploying security forces without a direct and immediate threat could have "devastating consequences for Israeli democracy and public trust in government institutions."

The State's Monopoly, Caretaker Edition

Defense Minister Israel Katz answered with a statement issued during the briefing itself: he, Netanyahu and military chief Eyal Zamir "see eye-to-eye on the Iranian threat and are in full coordination." On Thursday morning he went further, saying the government does not need the opposition's approval to instruct the military to operate in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria or the West Bank. Four theaters, no permission slip required. On Iran, he promised "determination and reason, in full coordination with the military."

The law says a caretaker government should exercise restraint, particularly on consequential decisions made without a current parliamentary mandate. The base article's own phrasing is the tell: it's "expected" to. Expected by whom, and enforced how? Avigdor Lieberman asked the attorney general on Oct. 26 to investigate suspicions that Netanyahu was pressuring security chiefs to take steps that could provoke an Iranian attack on Israel. On Wednesday he wrote on X that a caretaker government isn't authorized to make decisions that could drag Israel into war without parliamentary oversight. The whole safeguard, in other words, is a letter, a complaint and a social media post.

Who Benefits

None of this is happening in a vacuum. Ynet reported a tense weekend phone call between Netanyahu and President Donald Trump, with Netanyahu pushing to resume military action against Tehran while Trump favored a diplomatic approach. Netanyahu's office denied the call was strained. Al-Monitor reported as early as Nov. 3 that Netanyahu was phoning Trump's associates several times a day to press for renewed attacks. There are also reports of renewed tensions between Netanyahu and Zamir over restarting action.

So the decision about whether to bomb a country sits in a loop of one prime minister, one American president, a defense minister and a chief of staff, with the Knesset reduced to a bystander. Netanyahu told that Knesset on Tuesday, during the swearing-in of its new members, that "soon, we will face international pressure to accept a nuclear-armed Iran and the continued existence of a regime of terror that seeks to destroy us." Fear is the framing; the timing is the point.

The Oversight Theater

Even the machinery of opposition is being stalled. Likud blocked Lieberman's formal appointment as chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, postponing it until Monday, although the committee itself was established Wednesday. Kan reported the security cabinet hadn't met for more than a month, despite Netanyahu and Katz instructing the military to step up preparations for a possible resumption of conflict with Iran. Netanyahu's office says it will convene Sunday.

Eisenkot has 28 days from Herzog's Sunday appointment, extendable by 14, to build a coalition. Five days are gone. The people who'd absorb the consequences of whatever gets decided before then, in Tehran, Tel Aviv or anywhere in between, weren't in the room, and weren't asked.