Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot canceled a meeting between his party’s negotiating team and that of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party following Netanyahu’s “divisive speech” addressing the newly sworn in 26th Knesset, Yashar said in a statement on Tuesday.
“This evening, the outgoing prime minister lashed out at Israel’s citizens in what became yet another sad reminder, for anyone who needed further proof: Netanyahu does not want unity,” the statement read. “As always, when faced with a choice between the gravity of the moment and the strength of Israeli society, on the one hand, and his own political survival, on the other, Netanyahu will always choose himself. At any cost.”
בעקבות פניית ישר! לכלל סיעות הבית, לנהל מו״מ כן ואמיתי על בסיס ארבעת העקרונות שהציבה ישר! להקמת הממשלה, נקבעה למחר (ד׳) פגישת משא ומתן בין צוות ישר! עם איזנקוט, לצוות הליכוד.
— ישר! עם איזנקוט. (@yashar_eisenkot) November 10, 2026
על רקע נאום הפילוג של ראש הממשלה היוצא וביזוי טקס השבעת הכנסת ואיתה מה שעוד נותר מהממלכתיות תחת שלטון…
In response to the canceled meeting, the Likud said that Netanyahu “stands by his statement that it is impossible to cooperate with supporters of terrorism.”
“It is puzzling that a meeting with the Likud was canceled, while talks with those very individuals continue to move forward,” the statement read. “Prime Minister Netanyahu continues to work toward the formation of a national unity government.”
Netanyahu accused Ra’am and the Joint List parties of being “supporters of terrorism who hate Israel,” during his Knesset address.
“Are you prepared to depend on people whose goal is the destruction of the Jewish state?” he said. “Do you prefer them over Zionist parties that represent an enormous Zionist public?”
He added that “the only difference” between the two parties “is that they disagree over what kind of state will arise here on the ruins of the Jewish state.”
In a social media post, Eisenkot called Netanyahu’s speech “delusional, divisive, hateful and disgraceful,” adding that Netanyahu is “unfit to remain in office for even one more minute.”
“He abused a state occasion,” Eisenkot wrote on X in Hebrew. “We must act urgently to establish a national emergency government. His continued rule is dividing Israel and endangering its security.”
Eisenkot was not the only lawmaker to take issue with Netanyahu’s speech.
After Netanyahu called for a thorough investigation into suspicions that foreign actors had used large sums of money to influence the election results, Naftali Bennett, former prime minister and chairman of the B’Yachad party, fired back in Hebrew, “What about the Qatari advisers in your office? What about a state commission of inquiry?”
Netanyahu’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, also confronted Bennett during the speech, Israeli media reported. MK Gilad Kariv, of The Democrats, was removed from the hall after accusing Netanyahu of incitement. “Since the balcony in Zion Square, you haven’t stopped inciting,” Kariv shouted.
Earlier, during the swearing-in ceremony, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir interrupted Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen’s oath, shouting, “Who is he pledging allegiance to—Hamas?”
