Netanyahu’s racist Knesset rant further united his opponents against him

Ravit Hecht writes in Haaretz on 11 November 2026:

In celebration of the new Knesset’s swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the usual: a nauseating speech meant to exploit the national stage he’d been given for a display of incitement, racism and division in service of his own political survival. It only increased the determination of the “bloc of change,” and especially its leader, Gadi Eisenkot, to form a government without him, the sooner the better.

Eisenkot responded well to that hysterical, blood libel-tinged horror show, immediately issuing a short, focused press statement saying that Netanyahu is not fit to continue as prime minister. Together head Naftali Bennett also did well, when he clashed with Netanyahu on live TV. But best of all was Democrats leader Yair Golan, who simply walked out when the prime minister profaned the ceremony with his vile remarks (targeting especially the Arab community and its elected representatives, but providing generous helpings of vitriol to all).

It’s exhausting to have to repeat this over and over, but it’s clearly necessary: Had Netanyahu truly wanted unity, he would have used a different tone in that speech. Had Netanyahu wanted unity, he would have offered even a minor concession, or even expressed willingness to do so. But he doesn’t want unity. He wants to remain in power, despite the results of the election.

Netanyahu isn’t willing to dispense with a single criminal or terrorism supporter inside his bloc. And he certainly isn’t willing to join any government led by Eisenkot, even though more MKs have recommended Eisenkot for the job than Netanyahu.

Netanyahu is trying to liquidate the election results and thwart the bloc of change’s Knesset takeover. He understands – just as his opponents do – that the fresh Knesset will likely serve as a mini-government in the near term, regardless of how many ministries Netanyahu piles on Gideon Sa’ar (the foreign minister was just nominated to also be minister of the interior, a move almost as pathetic as Sa’ar himself).

Some bloc of change members have urged consideration of the unity scenario, even if only as a strategic move. An exploratory meeting between representatives of Netanyahu and Eisenkot was indeed scheduled for Wednesday. But the prime minister’s behavior on Tuesday, coupled with his behavior right before and after the election, has only strengthened the change bloc’s resolve. It’s generated a fresh momentum that the bloc lacked in the immediate wake of the election – when its constituents were still digesting the results – a momentum that will likely lead it to forming a government.

Eisenkot canceled Wednesday’s meeting after the speech, sending a brilliant and symbolic message: cooperating with Netanyahu, as long as he’s acting the way he is, is a thousand times more dangerous than talking with the Arab parties.

The bloc of change certainly contains many disagreements, and it’s very hard to get Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman and UAL leader Mansour Abbas to work together, or even Yair Golan and Matan Kahana, a Yashar MK the bloc intends to nominate as Knesset speaker. Nevertheless, that resolve unites them, the thread emerging as critical to Eisenkot’s decision-making: Netanyahu’s continued tenure is a danger to the country, and the need to replace him outweighs every other need.

To start with, Eisenkot will give Lieberman’s talks with the ultra-Orthodox parties a chance. But he will quickly reach a conclusion as to whether the Haredim are coming with clean hands or simply trying to reap some gains and then go back to Netanyahu.  Eisenkot’s relationship with Lieberman has stabilized, and their partnership is being consolidated. After Lieberman backed Eisenkot’s leadership, the latter made him head of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

The prevailing view in the bloc of change is that Lieberman shares the bloc’s assessment that Netanyahu is dangerous, and that he won’t want to risk another election after having burned bridges with the voters seeking to draft the Haredim. That’s why, even though Lieberman is unpredictable, the bloc expects that in the end, he at least won’t prevent it from forming a government, even if its composition or its supporters from the outside don’t appeal to him.

Despite Netanyahu’s speech, whose ugliness and insanity truly overshadow everything else, there are grounds for cautious optimism at the end of the 26th Knesset’s first day. The bloc of change controls the Knesset, its leaders are reasonably well coordinated and they agree that the most important goal, among all their other – sometimes conflicting – goals, is ousting Netanyahu.

And perhaps most importantly, Eisenkot, the bloc’s leader, isn’t afraid of Netanyahu and isn’t blinking first. He is making Netanyahu look like what he is – hysterical, crazy and dangerous.

This article is reproduced in its entirety