Benjamin Netanyahu used Tuesday's swearing-in of the 26th Knesset to demand a national unity government, accusing the Arab parties Ra'am and the Joint List of seeking "the destruction of the Jewish state" — in a furious speech to a chamber his camp no longer controls, delivered hours before President Isaac Herzog handed his rival Gadi Eisenkot the mandate to form Israel's next government.
Netanyahu built his case on Iran. "Iran is working to revive the nuclear threat. The only way to permanently eliminate this existential threat is to destroy the nuclear program, not just to stop it," he said. "In the face of these threats, we must do one thing in this house: put aside every other consideration and establish a national unity government." Turning on the parties the incoming coalition may need, he asked: "Are you prepared to depend on people whose goal is the destruction of the Jewish state?" — claiming of Ra'am and the Joint List that "the only difference is that they disagree over what kind of state should be established here on the ruins of the Jewish state."
The chamber answered him in kind. Naftali Bennett interrupted, shouting: "What about investigating the events of October 7? What about your Qatari advisers? Why don't you declare Qatar an enemy state?" Labor MK Gilad Kariv shouted back: "Ever since the balcony in Zion Square, you haven't stopped inciting." Yair Golan and the Democrats' members walked out in protest. Netanyahu pressed on, appealing over the heads of the opposition to the ultra-Orthodox parties: the Eisenkot bloc "will promise you the world," he warned the Haredi MKs, while he had "safeguarded and will continue to safeguard the sacred values of Israel." Bennett's reply: "That is not how you build unity."
Eisenkot answered in writing: "I sat and listened to the delusional, divisive, hate-filled and shameful speech of the outgoing prime minister," he posted. "I became even more convinced that he is unfit to remain in office for even one minute more." He repeated his pledge to form a national emergency government — one, he says, of healing and unity. Later that evening, Herzog formally handed Eisenkot the mandate to form the government, after 67 lawmakers backed him.
The numbers explain the fury. In the October 27 elections Netanyahu's camp won just 53 seats and lost its majority; the anti-Netanyahu bloc holds 67, with Ra'am and the Joint List on five seats each — the very parties Netanyahu says no government may depend on, and the votes a narrow coalition may yet need. The bloc has already agreed on Matan Kahana as its candidate for Knesset speaker, and the vote to replace Amir Ohana is set for next Tuesday.
For Washington the fight is not distant: Israel is America's closest partner in the Middle East, and the government that emerges from this brawl is the one that will face Iran, negotiate the new military-aid arrangement President Trump wants signed, and decide how closely Jerusalem marches with the United States. Netanyahu's speech was his opening argument that only he can be trusted with that partnership — made, for the first time in years, from the weaker side of the room.
📰 ProfiloPolitics Member News — choose your news, share it, earn credit:
https://white-curlew-963569.hostingersite.com
Never miss a story — Join our Telegram channel
Breaking U.S. political news, live as it happens — plus the stories the big outlets sit on.
Join ProfiloPolitics on Telegram