{"id":665781,"date":"2026-11-03T16:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T16:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/665781\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T16:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T16:38:08","slug":"israels-opposition-leaders-back-eisenkot-to-oust-netanyahu-israel-election-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/665781\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s opposition leaders back Eisenkot to oust Netanyahu | Israel Election 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel\u2019s opposition leaders have agreed to back former military chief Gadi Eisenkot<\/a> as prime minister, promising to replace Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

The five party heads met on Tuesday in the city of Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, in their first joint meeting since the October 27 election<\/a>, which left neither bloc with a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

The agreement comes a day before President Isaac Herzog begins consultations with parties on who should form the next government.<\/p>\n

But the bloc remains divided over whether to ally with Arab-led parties, whose support could prove decisive.<\/p>\n

\u2018National emergency government\u2019<\/p>\n

In a joint statement, the leaders said all their parties would recommend Eisenkot, head of the Yashar party, to Herzog, and that negotiating teams would immediately begin drafting policy guidelines and coalition agreements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe party leaders are coordinated and will act immediately to replace the \u2018Oct. 7 government\u2019 with a national emergency government,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

The meeting brought together Eisenkot, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, Yair Golan of the Democrats, and Yair Lapid, who heads the Yesh Atid party, according to The Jerusalem Post.<\/p>\n

The leaders stood by four principles set out by Eisenkot, including that all parties in government recognise Israel as a Jewish state and label Hamas a terrorist group, conditions that could exclude some Arab-led parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have time \u2013 we must act with great urgency,\u201d Bennett, whose party came third, told reporters.<\/p>\n

\"IsraeliIsraeli left-wing activists hold placards during a demonstration outside the home of Gadi Eisenkot in Herzliya calling for the formation of a government that includes Arab-led parties [File: AFP]Arab parties hold the balance<\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s bloc won 53 seats, the opposition 48, and Arab-led parties 19, with the Joint List taking 11 and Ra\u2019am eight. A majority requires 61 seats.<\/p>\n

Yousef Jabareen, head of the largest Arab-led party in the next parliament, said the opposition needed to accept \u201cpolitical reality\u201d and join forces to remove Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

Golan is the only opposition leader openly backing an alliance with Arab-led parties, saying it is racist to exclude them.<\/p>\n

He met the leaders of Arab-led parties before the talks and promised to tackle high crime faced by Palestinian citizens of Israel in their communities.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, the two sides stressed their \u201cshared interest in using the parliamentary majority to bring down the Netanyahu-Ben-Gvir-Smotrich government and replace it\u201d, according to a statement.<\/p>\n

Liberman has firmly opposed including Arab-led parties, although he also wants to avoid another election.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s minority Arab population has long been marginalised in politics, and even more so since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7 and Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza.<\/p>\n

At least two former Palestinian politicians and one current member of the Knesset have been arrested briefly for comments or acts deemed critical of Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza and its occupation of the West Bank.<\/p>\n

Arab citizens of Israel are descendants of Palestinians who managed to remain\u00a0within the borders of the newly established Israeli state in 1948 after the Nakba<\/a>, or catastrophe. They make up about 20 percent of Israel\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

\"FILEPalestinian candidate Yousef Jabareen of the Joint List party speaks as he reacts to exit polls during Israel\u2019s national election, at the party election headquarters in Nazareth, northern Israel [File: Jamal Awad\/Reuters]Netanyahu seeks \u2018broad national government\u2019<\/p>\n

On Monday, Netanyahu called for a \u201cbroad national government\u201d under his leadership, saying his Likud party, with 27 seats, remained the largest. No opposition leader has expressed openness to joining him.<\/p>\n

He has ruled out a coalition with Arab-majority lists, alleging they \u201csupport terrorism and deny the existence of the Jewish state\u201d.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu, 76, Israel\u2019s longest-serving prime minister, is on trial on corruption charges and is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.<\/p>\n

More than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed in the enclave since Israel began its war in October 2023.<\/p>\n

Herzog will hold consultations on Wednesday and Thursday. Eisenkot could receive the most recommendations if he secures the backing of Arab lawmakers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s opposition leaders have agreed to back former military chief Gadi Eisenkot as prime minister, promising to replace…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,286552,44,47,43,48],"class_list":["post-665781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-election-2026","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-palestine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}