Eisenkot said to rule out unity gov’t even if under Trump pressure, as Netanyahu claims he’s ready

With discussions about a potential unity government heating up ahead of the start of Wednesday’s consultations with President Isaac Herzog, both of Israel’s major blocs appear unprepared to join a coalition with each other.

While Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot reportedly ruled out this possibility even under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is open but also wants to keep his current partners, which likely rules out any opposition party joining him.

On Monday, Kan News quoted Eisenkot as saying that he “will not sit in a government led by Netanyahu,” during a recent closed-door meeting.

“If Trump calls me, I will respect the president and come, but I will insist that this is an internal Israeli matter and will avoid interference,” Eisenkot said, referring to reports that the Trump administration wants to push him and Netanyahu to establish a unity government.

Netanyahu issued a first public statement about this possibility on Monday, claiming to be ready for a “broad national government” while conditioning this on remaining prime minister and keeping “our partners,” signaling he won’t abandon the ultra-Orthodox parties, Religious Zionism or Jewish Power.

“The Israeli public does not want a government dependent on Ra'am and the Joint List, parties that support terrorism and deny the existence of the Jewish state,” Netanyahu said.

“From day one, our hand has been extended toward forming a broad national government. A clear majority of the Jewish public chose Likud as the largest party and chose me as prime minister to lead the next government,” he said. “We aspire to establish a broad government with our partners and with any party that wishes to join and does not support terrorism.”

On Tuesday, the heads of the self-declared “change and repair parties” met to coordinate their next steps and agreed to recommend Gadi Eisenkot as their candidate to President Herzog, making it likely he will be first to receive the mandate for forming a government.

Joining the meeting alongside Eisenkot were Democrats chairman Yair Golan, Yisrael Beitenu chairman Avigdor Liberman, and the heads of the Together Party, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid.

According to Israeli media reports, they agreed to replace the Knesset speaker as a first step, but reached no agreement on a candidate.

Regarding potential coalition partners, Golan, who met with the heads of the Joint List earlier, reportedly remained the only one advocating for cooperation with the Arab parties. Golan said that the meeting with the Joint List focused on efforts to replace “Netanyahu, Ben Gvir and Smotrich,” without mentioning the ultra-Orthodox parties.

The opposition heads reportedly also agreed not to rule out a coalition with United Torah Judaism or Shas at this point, despite having made universal military service a core demand in their campaigns.

In a joint statement, they wrote that they intend to “act immediately to replace the October 7 government with a national emergency government, and to exercise the clear parliamentary majority in the Knesset.”

They also declared their intention to “establish a Zionist government based on the four principles set out by Eisenkot” as well as exercise “the clear parliamentary majority immediately—in the first days of the Knesset's term,” in reference to the replacement of the Knesset speaker, which would allow them a measure of control over the parliament.

However, the current coalition will stay in place as a caretaker government until a new coalition is formed.

The statement didn’t mention a unity government while attacking the Likud party’s “dangerous and deranged campaign of delegitimization… against the election results.”

Despite this, the opposition heads said they want to establish a government “as quickly as possible” and prevent “Israel from being dragged into another election.”

Liberman, who has ruled out virtually all viable paths toward a government in social media posts over the past days, wrote ahead of the meeting: “We must prevent another election. In the current political situation, there is enough room for maneuver, and with the right navigation, we can quickly establish a functioning, stable government without Ra'am or the Joint List.”