Eisenkot accuses Netanyahu of fueling ‘violent and racist’ campaign against Arabs
Yashar party chief downplays chance of defection in his ranks, vows not let anyone 'reap a political dividend' from Israel's security amid PM's reported bid to strike Iran
Former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot, head of the Yashar party, on Friday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of fueling a “violent and racist” campaign against Arab citizens following the October 27 Knesset election.
Eisenkot, whom President Isaac Herzog on Sunday tasked with forming a government, also expressed confidence in Yashar MK Elyasaf Peretz, after the new lawmaker’s mother, former presidential candidate Miriam Peretz, said her son would quit if Eisenkot were to form a government with an Arab party.
And after his security briefing with Netanyahu on Thursday, Eisenkot called for “strict supervision” of the premier’s interim government to stem any bid to “reap a political dividend” from Israel’s security, amid reports that Netanyahu is seeking operations against Iran despite the security establishment reportedly seeing no developments to justify an immediate operation.
Eisenkot’s statement came after the inauguration Tuesday of the new Knesset, where parties in Netanyahu’s current coalition won just 53 of 120 seats, while parties that endorsed Eisenkot for prime minister hold 67.
Among Eisenkot’s supporters, 48 seats are controlled by Yashar and its allies in the Zionist anti-Netanyahu bloc, while an unprecedented 19 seats are controlled by Ra’am and the Joint List, the two Arab-led parties, which Eisenkot and most of his allies have rejected as coalition partners.
Netanyahu has accused the Arab parties of stealing the election and seeking Israel’s destruction, and has demanded Eisenkot join a Netanyahu-led “unity government” that would include the premier’s far-right allies, most recently in a furious speech at the Knesset on Tuesday.
In a lengthy statement on social media, Eisenkot vowed to “exhaust all options” toward forming an “emergency government.” He also said he would use the parliamentary majority to establish a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, and undo the Netanyahu government’s contentious judicial overhaul laws.
Eisenkot noted Arabs constitute some 21 percent of Israeli citizens and said they are “part of the Israeli story.”
“Since the start of the election campaign, they have been subject to a violent and racist delegitimization campaign fueled for political reasons by the outgoing prime minister and his circle,” Eisenkot said. “The attempt to sling mud at them as a group is a non-statesmanlike act that makes a mockery of the Declaration of Independence and of the values we take pride in as a Jewish democratic state.”
He cited another “toxic and grotesque campaign” against “Yashar members and their families, including bereaved families,” following Miriam Peretz’s comments to the Kol Barama radio station on Thursday about her son Elyasaf.
Eisenkot, whose own son Gal was killed fighting in Gaza in 2023, said he has known Miriam Peretz and her family for nearly 30 years.
Miriam Peretz’s eldest son, Uriel, was killed fighting in Lebanon as a Golani officer in 1998, when Eisenkot commanded the infantry brigade. Her second son, Eliraz, was killed fighting in Gaza in 2010, also as a Golani officer. Elyasaf Peretz is her fifth son.
“I embrace Miriam Peretz and I trust Elyasaf,” Eisenkot said, without addressing the prospect of an alliance with Arab parties. “I know that he trusts me and the choices I’ve made and will continue to make. It doesn’t disturb me.
“What does disturb me is the toxic and grotesque campaign being carried out that includes thousands of explicit messages” sent directly to members of Yashar and their families, some of whom “have paid the heaviest price,” Eisenkot said, adding: “There’s no room for incitement and threats.”
“If anyone has a problem with the course I’m charting, I’m the address for that,” Eisenkot said. “Whoever thinks various messengers and poison will intimidate us probably doesn’t know us well enough.”
Eisenkot also said in the statement that he “won’t get into the contents of the conversation” he had Thursday with Netanyahu and Maj. Gen. Guy Markizeno, the premier’s military secretary.
“The security situation, as well as the domestic situation, requires strict supervision of the government in this sensitive interim period. I made clear I wouldn’t allow any lack of supervision,” Eisenkot said. “For me, Israel’s security is superior to any other consideration, and it should never be used to reap a political dividend. That’s also what I expect from all officials.”
The meeting, in which the IDF reportedly said it sees no urgency in striking Iran, came after Eisenkot on Wednesday accused Netanyahu of failing to brief him regularly on security matters and warned the premier not to take non-urgent military action in the interim government period.