Eisenkot urges Netanyahu to step down, calls on security chiefs to ‘serve the state and interests of Israeli citizens alone’

Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot says Israelis voted for change and against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s continued rule, as exit polls from the main TV networks project Likud to be the largest party, but put the pro- and anti-Netanyahu blocs neck-and-neck, with the two Arab parties holding the balance. Neither bloc is projected to win a 61-seat Knesset majority.

“These are still exit poll results, and we must wait for the final count,” Eisenkot says at his party’s headquarters after polling stations close. “But it is already clear that tonight Netanyahu faces a larger and stronger Zionist, responsible majority.”

“The public voted for change. The coalition of failure has lost the people’s trust. The Israeli public voted against Netanyahu continuing as prime minister,” he says.

Eisenkot calls on Netanyahu to “accept the people’s vote of no confidence” and leave political life, adding that “with turnout this high, holding another election would be a mistake.”

“I will do everything in my power to form a Zionist government that serves all,” he says. He describes the envisioned coalition as committed to “universal military service” and “dismantling Hamas,” and says it must “respect and see all parts of society.”

Addressing officials in the security establishment and public service, Eisenkot urges them to “serve the state and the interests of Israeli citizens alone.”

“The era of evasion, failure and lies is over,” he says. “We have shown that this is not one side’s victory over another, but a victory for the entire people of Israel.”