Netanyahu Calls for a National Unity Government; Eisenkot Dismisses It as a Political Trick
Israel's caretaker prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, renewed his call on the evening of November 14 for a national unity government with Gadi Eisenkot, the politician tasked with forming a government, proposing talks "without preconditions." About an hour later, Eisenkot rejected the appeal in writing as a political trick, saying: "These tricks don't work on me, and they don't work on the citizens of Israel either."
In a video statement released by his Likud party, Netanyahu said a security conversation he held with Eisenkot on November 12 had only strengthened his conviction that a national unity government of all Zionist parties was essential. He said Iran "will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons against us," argued that a narrow government, or one relying on "supporters of terrorism," could not meet the threat, and said the military conscription dispute could be resolved together with representatives of the ultra-Orthodox public.
Eisenkot replied that negotiating teams from his Yashar party and Likud were already due to meet on November 15, and that Netanyahu knew it, making the public appeal another piece of spin. He said Netanyahu knows he lost the election, and that Likud could join only a government led by Eisenkot, on the principles Eisenkot has set out and with a break from extremist partners. He pointed to the November 17 vote on the Knesset speaker, when lawmakers are due to decide whether to replace Amir Ohana with Matan Kahana of Eisenkot's list, as Likud's chance to show how serious it is; otherwise, he said, it would once again be nothing more than an empty political trick.
In the October 27 election, Netanyahu's bloc won 53 of the Knesset's 120 seats, Eisenkot's four-party alliance won 48, and Arab-led parties took 19. President Isaac Herzog has given Eisenkot the first mandate to form a government; he has 28 days, with a possible 14-day extension, and is working to assemble a minority national emergency government.
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(Source: Al Jazeera)
Source: Al Jazeera
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：以色列组阁人选、前国防军总参谋长艾森科特（资料图）。照片：Yahav Trudler 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Gadi Eisenkot, former Israeli military chief tasked with forming a government (file photo). Photo by Yahav Trudler, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
