Likud and Yashar! open coalition talks as a protest sign greets negotiators

Negotiators from Likud and Yashar! began a coalition meeting at a hotel on Sunday, according to a news alert from Ynet. Outside the venue, Ynet reported, a sign had been put up addressing the Yashar! leader by his first name: "Gadi, you don't do business with scorpions."

The talks come as Yashar! head Gadi Eisenkot enters his second week holding the mandate to try to form a government, The Jerusalem Post reported. Israel Hayom named the negotiators: attorney Michael Rabello and Ofir Katz, a Member of Knesset (MK), for Likud, and Yoav Horowitz and MK Chili Tropper for Yashar!.

Who is at the table

Likud is the party led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Yashar! is the party headed by Gadi Eisenkot; the exclamation mark is part of its name, and some reports drop it. The Knesset is Israel's parliament, and an MK is one of its elected members. Ofir Katz sits in the Knesset for Likud and Chili Tropper for Yashar!, according to Israel Hayom's account of the delegations. The other two negotiators, Michael Rabello on the Likud side and Yoav Horowitz on the Yashar! side, are not identified as lawmakers in the reports, and Israel Hayom describes Rabello as an attorney.

A photograph published by The Jerusalem Post, taken in the Knesset on November 10, 2026, showed Eisenkot standing behind Netanyahu as party leaders posed together for a group picture, a reminder that the two men now lead the parties trying to find out whether they can share a government.

What the mandate means

After an Israeli election, the president asks a member of the Knesset to try to assemble a governing coalition, a process usually described in Israel as receiving the mandate. Because no single party typically wins a majority on its own, the person holding the mandate has to negotiate with other parties over policy commitments and cabinet posts. The Jerusalem Post framed Sunday's meeting as falling at the start of Eisenkot's second week with that task, which places Likud, the prime minister's own party, among the factions he is now talking to.

Low expectations before the first session

Israel Hayom was openly sceptical about the session. In its report, the paper said the sides were coming to the table with no proposals and no plans, and judged the chances of success to be slim. It described the meeting as more of a declaration of intent than a realistic route to an agreement, and headlined its piece on distrust between the parties being at a high point.

The sign reported by Ynet points to the same mistrust from outside the room. The scorpion is a familiar image for a partner whose nature makes betrayal likely, and the message was aimed directly at Eisenkot. Ynet did not report who put up the sign or how many people, if any, were present with it.

A third party in one report

The reports do not fully agree on who was involved. Ynet, The Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom all describe the talks as being between Likud and Yashar!. News.co.il, in a short alert, said the negotiation meeting that had just started was between Likud, Yashar and a party called Beyachad (Hebrew for "Together"). None of the other reports mention Beyachad, and News.co.il gave no further detail about its role or who represented it. The delegation lists published by Israel Hayom include only Likud and Yashar! negotiators.

Timing

Ynet and News.co.il both issued alerts on Sunday afternoon saying the meeting had begun shortly before. The Jerusalem Post report, published earlier in the day, described the two parties as holding negotiations that day. Israel Hayom referred to it as Sunday's meeting and said light refreshments were planned, though its published summary was cut off at that point.

What the reports do not say

• None of the reports describe what was discussed once the meeting started or how long it lasted.
• No statement from Likud, Yashar!, Eisenkot or Netanyahu about the session has been reported.
• Whether Beyachad took part, as News.co.il reported, is not confirmed by any other outlet.
• The name and location of the hotel, and who was responsible for the sign outside it, were not reported.
• No date for a follow-up meeting has been announced in the material.