Herzliya (Israel) (AFP) - The Israeli opposition bloc, led by Gadi Eisenkot, pledged on Tuesday to form a government as soon as possible to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but it has not yet clarified the mechanism for achieving this, in light of disagreements between them regarding the alliance with representatives of the Arab parties.

Published on: 03/11/2026 - 12:53 Last updated: 04/11/2026 - 00:17

The heads of the five parties in the opposition bloc met at a hotel in the city of Herzliya to consult on the next stage, for the first time since the elections that took place on October 27 and did not produce a decisive result in terms of ensuring a majority in the Knesset to form a government.

In a joint statement, opposition leaders said their goal was to form a government "as quickly as possible, and to prevent Israel from being dragged into new elections."

The leaders affirmed their adherence to four principles established by Eisenkot, including the requirement that any party participating in the government recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and condemn the Hamas movement as a “terrorist organization.” These conditions may lead to the exclusion of some Arab representatives from participating in the government.

The statement said that the leaders "agreed on the necessity of forming a Zionist government as soon as possible, based on the four principles identified by Eisenkot."

Israeli media reports indicated that opposition leaders gave preference to forming a coalition with the ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious parties, which are traditionally considered supporters of Netanyahu, at the expense of an alliance with Arab parties.

Neither of the two competing camps, namely Netanyahu's right-wing coalition (53 seats, including 27 for his Likud Party), or the bloc led by Eisenkot (48 seats), obtained a majority, making the choice of the person who will form the government a decisive matter.

Arab representatives can provide a parliamentary majority for Eisenkot.

The Joint Arab List and the United Arab List “Ra’em” achieved a historic result by winning 19 seats out of 120 in the Knesset, thanks to the broad participation of voters from the Arab minority inside Israel.

Despite the differing positions of Eisenkot bloc party leaders on a number of issues, including the role of Arab representatives, they all declared their support for him to form the next government.

Naftali Bennett, the former right-wing prime minister whose party came in third place, told reporters, "We don't have time. We must move very quickly," stressing his support for Eisenkot.

"Open to dialogue"

Opinion polls conducted before the elections showed a division among Israeli Jewish opposition supporters regarding the inclusion of Arab parties in the government, while right-wing Israelis strongly oppose this option.

The Arab citizens of Israel are the children and grandchildren of 160,000 Palestinians who remained in their lands after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and today they constitute about 20 percent of the population.

Joint Arab List head Youssef Jabareen told AFP on Monday that the opposition must accept the "political truth" and cooperate with his list to be able to oust Netanyahu.

This alliance is supported by none other than the leader of the leftist "Democrats" party, Yair Golan, who explicitly announced his support for the alliance with the Arab parties, considering that excluding members of this minority is racist.

Golan met with the leaders of the Arab parties under the Joint List and pledged that his party would work to address the high crime rates in Arab towns, which are among the most prominent issues troubling Arab society, in addition to working to achieve “prosperity and equality” for this minority.

On the other hand, Avigdor Lieberman, who belongs to the right and is a member of the Eisenkot bloc, strongly opposes the inclusion of Arab parties in the government, although he also confirmed his desire to avoid holding new elections.

During his election campaign and even after the election results were announced, Netanyahu continued to target Arab parties, accusing them of fraud and stealing the elections, and presenting them as a threat to Israel's survival.

In this context, the Israeli government's judicial advisor, Gali Beharav-Meara, on Tuesday called on the Internal Security Agency (Shin Bet) to inform her of the results of the investigation into suspicions of electoral fraud in which Arab parties were involved, stressing that no evidence of this had been provided.

This came after Shin Bet head David Zinni requested that Arab party leaders be interrogated as part of an investigation into suspicions of fraud during the elections, according to what Israeli media reported.

Baharav-Meara said, "Everyone who needs to be questioned will be interrogated, but no one will be subjected to investigation without grounds and evidence justifying it," while the Likud Party responded, accusing her of "obstructing the investigation."

For his part, Eisenkot accused Netanyahu of carrying out a "massacre against democracy."

Netanyahu said in a message via his social media accounts on Monday that he is “open to dialogue,” calling for the formation of a broad government coalition under his leadership, noting that he rejects the participation of Arab parties in the government coalition.

The opposition bloc did not issue any public response to what Netanyahu put forward on Monday.

The elections, the first in Israel since the Hamas attack on the south of the Hebrew state on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip, constituted a referendum on Netanyahu and his future as prime minister.

Merav Svirsky, whose parents were killed by Hamas fighters during the attack, and whose brother was kidnapped and then killed, submitted a petition to opposition leaders demanding that Eisenkot not form a coalition with Netanyahu.

She told reporters, "Any cooperation with members of the massacre government will legitimize the state of abandonment to which we were subjected."

© 2026 AFP

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