TEL AVIV, NOV 6 (AFP): Israel’s opposition said Friday it was making headway in its bid to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as one of its leaders lifted his veto on demands that ultra-Orthodox Jews serve in the military, opening the door to a once improbable alliance with the community.
Neither Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, nor opposition chief Gadi Eisenkot reached a majority in the October 27 election, with Israeli society highly polarised over Netanyahu and worn down by three years of war.
Eisenkot said he expected President Isaac Herzog, who met party leaders this week, to present him with the mandate to form a government when he makes his announcement Sunday.
“We have made significant progress and achieved breakthroughs, quietly and modestly, with much still happening behind the scenes,” Eisenkot wrote in an X post moments before much of Israel shut down for the weekly Sabbath.
Yair Golan, Israel’s main left-wing leader and part of the opposition bloc, also pointed to progress, saying: “I’m more optimistic than I was on the Wednesday morning after the election results.”
Eisenkot, a former military commander whose campaign sought to appeal to secular and liberal Israelis, could form a government with Israeli-Arabs, whose seat count soared on anger towards Netanyahu’s far-right government.
But an alliance with Israeli-Arabs faces strong disagreement from opposition partner Avigdor Liberman, a onetime aide to Netanyahu who now sharply criticises the prime minister but shares his hawkish views on the Palestinians.
Liberman said Friday he would not back down on refusing to work with Israeli-Arabs but called for talks with ultra-Orthodox Jews, even though he ran on promises to end their exemption from Israel’s mandatory military service.
Liberman said it was time to “understand that trying to have everything risks getting nothing”.