Israeli Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot says he will not serve in any government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even at the personal request of US President Donald Trump, Israel's Public Broadcaster (KAN) reported Monday.
"I will not sit in a government led by Netanyahu," Eisenkot reportedly said during a recent closed-door meeting, according to sources familiar with the discussion.
Eisenkot said he would accept an invitation to meet Trump, but stressed he would not tolerate US interference in the formation of Israel’s next coalition.
“If Trump calls me, I will respect the president and come, but I will insist that this is an internal Israeli matter and will avoid interference,” he said.
The comment follows reports of US discussions with Israeli officials on forming a unity government joining Netanyahu and Eisenkot, with Trump reportedly eager to see a stable government in place.
The Washington Post reported that Netanyahu had told US officials he would choose Eisenkot as his coalition partner should the war on Iran restart, believing the arrangement would help him put together a supposedly “moderate” government.
Netanyahu’s Likud-led bloc won 53 of the Knesset’s 120 seats in the election, while Eisenkot’s opposition bloc took 48, leaving both short of the 61 required for a majority, with Likud finishing as the largest single party on 27 seats and Yashar second on 21.
Palestinian-led parties won a record 19 seats, nearly double their previous 10, as turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel surged to around 80 percent from 53 percent in the last election, lifting overall turnout to roughly 77 percent, the highest since 1999.
The record turnout came despite a campaign of settler harassment and sabotage at the polls, as settlers were deployed to undermine the vote in Palestinian communities across the 1948 territories, where residents nonetheless formed massive lines at polling stations to cast their ballots.
Opposition leaders Naftali Bennett, Yair Golan, and Avigdor Liberman have pledged to put Eisenkot forward to President Isaac Herzog as their nominee to form the next government.
Eisenkot could command 67 seats with the backing of Palestinian-led parties, but Liberman has ruled out joining a government reliant on Palestinian support or one shared with Netanyahu.
Liberman argued that a government propped up by Palestinian-led parties would “survive less than a year,” even as those parties have signaled their readiness to cooperate with the opposition to ensure the removal of Netanyahu from power.