Netanyahu tells new Knesset to form unity government, warns of Iran pressure

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used an address to the Knesset, Israel's parliament, on November 10, 2026, to renew his call for a national unity government, telling lawmakers that Israel faces renewed danger from Iran and growing diplomatic pressure on several fronts. The speech followed the swearing-in of members of the 26th Knesset, The Jerusalem Post reported, under the headline that Israel would soon face pressure to accept a nuclear Iran.

In the same speech Netanyahu turned on the two main Arab parties, Ra'am and the Joint List, arguing there was no meaningful distinction between them. The Times of Israel reported that he accused both of wanting Israel destroyed and cautioned his opponents against leaning on their votes to put together a government.

The political backdrop

According to The Times of Israel, Netanyahu lost his parliamentary majority in elections held last month, and President Isaac Herzog has since given the mandate to form a government to Gadi Eisenkot, who leads the Yashar party. In Israel, the president asks the lawmaker judged most able to assemble a majority to try to build a coalition. The Times of Israel described Netanyahu's remarks as a continuation of a campaign he ran through the election season to cast the Arab parties as backers of terrorism, apparently aimed at weakening Eisenkot's ability to form a government relying on their support.

Iran and the regional fronts

Netanyahu told the chamber that Israel would face international pressure in the near term to come to terms with a nuclear-armed Iran, according to journalist Amit Segal. As quoted by The Times of Israel and by N12 political correspondent Dafna Liel, he said Iran "is working to revive the nuclear threat" and that the only permanent remedy was to bring down "the ayatollahs' regime", the clerical leadership that has ruled Iran since its revolution.

He also said there was pressure on Israel to give up what he called its achievements in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, and in Judea and Samaria, the Hebrew biblical name used in Israel for the West Bank, Segal reported. News.co.il carried the same remarks.

Faced with these threats, Netanyahu said, the Knesset had to set aside every other consideration and establish a national unity government, N12 reported. A unity government in the Israeli sense typically brings rival major parties into a single coalition.

The attack on Ra'am and the Joint List

Ra'am, whose name is a Hebrew acronym for the United Arab List, and the Joint List both draw their support mainly from Arab citizens of Israel. Netanyahu mocked the idea that one was moderate and the other extreme. According to N12, he said the only thing dividing them was a disagreement over which state would be established on the ruins of the Jewish state. Ynet's alert service quoted him saying there was no difference between the two.

He drew a line between Arab citizens and the parties he was criticising. Segal and News.co.il reported him saying a government could not rest on people who hate Israel, adding that he was not referring to Arabs but to those who hate the country.

A message to the ultra-Orthodox parties

Netanyahu also addressed the Haredim, Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, whose parties have been his long-standing coalition partners. Using a Hebrew idiom for lavish promises, he told them they would be promised "mountains and hills", only for the left to break every commitment a minute later because it would have a safety net from the Arab parties, according to Segal and Ynet. A safety net in Israeli politics refers to a party backing a government from outside the coalition, without holding ministries, to keep it from falling.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports carries a response from Eisenkot, from Ra'am or the Joint List, or from the ultra-Orthodox parties Netanyahu addressed. Netanyahu did not, in the material reported, identify which countries he expects to apply pressure over Iran or over Israel's positions in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, or offer evidence for his claim that both Arab parties seek Israel's destruction.