Mother of MK in Eisenkot’s party says he’ll resign if coalition is formed with Arab parties

Israel Prize-winning educator Miriam Peretz said Thursday that her son Elyasaf Peretz, a new first-time lawmaker for the Yashar party, would resign from the Knesset if party leader Gadi Eisenkot were to move to include the Arab-led Ra’am or Joint List parties in his government.

Speaking to the ultra-Orthodox Radio Kol Berama, she said that “if his party sits with an Arab party, he has said he will resign from the Knesset.”

She said that her son has faced pressure from unspecified sources since joining Yashar, and that the pressure had intensified in recent days to ensure he does not vote for a government that relies on the support of the parliament’s Arab-led parties.

Peretz stressed that she was expressing her own opinions and was not speaking on behalf of her son. She said she did not object to Eisenkot cooperating with Arab parties, but opposed their inclusion in a governing coalition.

Her comments come as Eisenkot seeks to form a government amid divisions over whether to rely on Arab parties for support.

“I am talking about sitting in government alongside an Arab party that will decide for me whether to defend our home, whether to go to battle and whether to give IDF soldiers what they deserve,” she said. “It will not happen.”

Right-wing figures linked to the current government have been pressuring Elyasaf Peretz to oppose the formation of a minority government supported by Arab parties and uphold his pledge to support a Zionist government and a meaningful military draft law, according to several reports this week.

Asked about the pressure, Peretz told the Israel National News outlet: “I trust Gadi Eisenkot to make the best decisions for the people and the State of Israel.”

In an August interview with Israel Hayom, before the election, Elyasaf Peretz ruled out sitting in a government with non-Zionist parties, including Ra’am.

“We do not sit with non-Zionist parties,” he said, adding that such an arrangement would not happen even “if the world turns upside down a hundred times.”

Asked whether he would allow a government to take office if Ra’am abstained from a confidence vote rather than joining the coalition, Peretz replied: “No, no, I won’t let that happen.”

Eisenkot reportedly told members of his slate before the election that they would be expected to follow party discipline or resign from the Knesset if they could not support a minority government backed by Arab parties. He cited his own decision to resign from the Knesset after disagreeing with decisions made by his former party, Benny Gantz’s Blue and White.

Otzma Yehudit MK Tally Gotliv urged Elyasaf Peretz to remain a lawmaker, leave Yashar and join another faction rather than resign from the Knesset, arguing that stepping down would not prevent Eisenkot from relying on Arab parties because another Yashar candidate would take his seat.

“If Eisenkot relies on the support of terror-supporting parties, it won’t help if your wonderful son, who loves the people and the country, resigns from the Knesset, because someone else on Eisenkot’s list will take his place,” Gotliv wrote on X, addressing Miriam Peretz.

Gotliv said Elyasaf Peretz should instead leave Yashar and defect to another faction to prevent a government from relying on parties that, she claimed, seek to abolish Israel’s Jewish character.

Elyasaf Peretz, the fifth of Miriam Peretz’s six children, is a first-time lawmaker who was elected to the Knesset in the 20th spot on Yashar’s slate. The party received 21 seats in last month’s election, and Eisenkot has been tasked with forming a government after 67 lawmakers in the 120-member Knesset recommended him as their prime ministerial candidate.

Miriam Peretz became a household name after her eldest son, Uriel, was killed fighting in Lebanon in 1998, followed by the death of his younger brother, Eliraz, in 2010. Both served in the elite Sayeret Golani unit.