Eisenkot says Zionist opposition could form 58-seat government; Gantz: ‘We’ve already been in this movie’

Yashar party chair Gadi Eisenkot insists that Zionist opposition parties would be able to form a government if it wins 58 seats at the next election, the number of mandates the bloc is currently polling at.

“If it ends there, we can find a political solution,” he tells Channel 12’s Meet the Press.

Eisenkot is evasive when pushed by the interviewer, if this means relying on Arab-majority parties to abstain from a vote on a new government. This would mean a government would be formed with more Knesset members voting in favor of swearing in a new government than against, but not necessarily a majority of the total 120 Knesset members voting in favor.

“I don’t know” if they will support such a move, Eisenkot says, adding, “I won’t ask anything of them,” emphasizing he will not make any deals with Arab-majority parties in exchange for their support for a government.

Eisenkot says he believes there will nevertheless be a majority to replace the government after the next election.

The comments spark criticism from Blue and White chair Benny Gantz. Eisenkot left Gantz’s faction earlier this year to form his own party.

“My friend, we’ve already been in this movie or trying to satisfy a minority government,” Gantz writes on X, referring to the Bennett-Lapid government from 2021-2022, which partnered with the Islamic Ra’am party.

“It wasn’t realistic then, and it’s even more unrealistic after October 7,” Gantz writes.

“What Israel needs, as I say, is a wide Zionist government of 70 Knesset members, and not an interim government that relies on Arab parties, which would bring us [Itamar] Ben Gvir with 20 seats,” he writes.