Generals, Gavels, Walkouts: Knesset Fights Over Who Rules

Israel's parliament was sworn in on Tuesday without a government, and within hours the day's main product was a canceled meeting. Moments after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finished a 21-minute speech, Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party scrapped a negotiating session with Likud that had been scheduled for Wednesday. Its statement called the speech "divisive" and the prime minister's conduct "disgraceful," and said that "when faced with a choice between the gravity of the moment and the resilience of Israeli society on one hand, and his political survival on the other, Netanyahu will always choose himself. At any cost."

Likud answered that it was "puzzling" that the opposition would cancel a meeting with Likud "while continuing to advance negotiations with Arab parties." Two blocs, each accusing the other of refusing to talk, each insisting it alone wants unity. Nobody in the chamber was asking the 120 seats' worth of voters what they wanted next.

The Arithmetic of Rule

The numbers from the October 27 vote read like a ledger of leverage. Netanyahu's Likud-led alliance with far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties holds 53 of the Knesset's 120 seats. Eisenkot's Yashar and its patchwork partners hold 48. Israel's Arab-led parties hold 19, and they are aligned with Eisenkot in opposing Netanyahu. Eisenkot has until December 6 to assemble a coalition, with a possible two-week extension to December 20. He has called his own path "extraordinarily complex."

His options, as laid out in the base reporting: a minority government propped up by Arab-party votes, a deal with ultra-Orthodox parties that have said they won't join him, or a unity government with the man he just stopped negotiating with. If every candidate fails, another election follows. Netanyahu stays on as caretaker prime minister meanwhile, and he retains authority over national security.

President Isaac Herzog, presiding, told the new lawmakers: "You must do everything to avoid a repeat election." He urged them to "look upon one another with generosity." Then the prime minister stood up.

Who Counts as 'The People'

Netanyahu asked the opposition whether it was "prepared to depend on people whose goal is the destruction of the Jewish state." He called the 19 Arab lawmakers of Ra'am and the Joint List "supporters of terrorism who hate Israel." Naftali Bennett shouted from his feet. Yair Golan walked out. So did several Arab lawmakers. Some newly elected lawmakers walked out during the national anthem. Netanyahu has also challenged the certified results with what the base article calls unsubstantiated allegations that Arab-led parties manipulated the vote; election officials say they've seen no evidence of fraud that could have influenced the outcome. Arabs make up a fifth of the population.

Outside, right-wing protesters warned of "civil war" if a government forms with Arab-party support. The fight over who may be counted in a ruling majority is the state's founding logic, performed live.

Reform by Gavel

Eisenkot and his allies immediately filed bills: a state commission of inquiry into October 7, term limits for the prime minister, and repeal of the judicial overhaul and other laws enacted under Netanyahu's government over four years. They also moved to replace Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana of Likud with Matan Kahana of Yashar. The speaker controls the legislative agenda, which is why the vote matters. According to one account, 67 lawmakers signed a request for an early vote, scheduled for Nov. 17, uniting Zionist parties opposed to Netanyahu with Arab lawmakers.

The pitch is familiar: swap the people holding the levers and the levers will behave. Yachad MK Noam Tibon, newly sworn in, said a stable Eisenkot government should serve four years and that Israel needs a constitution based on the Declaration of Independence, "a short document with a small number of articles that are difficult to change." He called for passing a commission-of-inquiry law and said "we need to establish a different government here, headed by Gadi Eisenkot." A new government, a new constitution, a new speaker. The machine stays; the operators rotate.

Eisenkot, a former general and former military chief, said his government would act "for all citizens of Israel, those who voted for us and those who did not." The chamber also saw its human cost: at least 11 newly elected lawmakers have lost close family to the October 7, 2023 attacks and the war that followed, Eisenkot among them, who lost his 25-year-old son Meir in Gaza. Elisha Madan, a reservist who lost both legs fighting in Gaza, took his oath on prosthetic legs to a standing ovation. The institution that sent them honors the casualties, then argues over who gets to command the next ones.

The base reporting says nothing of what any of this means for Palestinians, who have no seat in the room where it's decided. Netanyahu says the only difference between his rivals' Arab partners and himself is "what kind of state will arise." On that, at least, the whole chamber agrees: there will be a state, and the fight is over who runs it.