Eisenkot says Netanyahu is a danger after Trump announces end to military aid

Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of the Yashar party and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's main rival in Israel's general election campaign, accused Netanyahu of endangering the country after US President Donald Trump said Washington would stop providing military aid to Israel. The Times of Israel reported that Trump said the aid would end by the end of the year, and that Eisenkot responded in a written statement demanding that Netanyahu give Israelis answers that night.

In the statement, Eisenkot argued that the security establishment had found out about a shift in the strategic relationship with the United States from the media, at the same moment as ordinary citizens. He said this showed that Netanyahu's conduct was "a real danger", that the prime minister "can no longer be trusted" and that he "must be replaced". N12, the news arm of Israel's Channel 12, carried the statement in its breaking news feed, including the closing demand for answers before the evening was out.

What Trump said

According to The Times of Israel, Trump made the remarks in a phone interview with Fox News earlier in the day, saying that he and Netanyahu had agreed months ago to bring the aid to an end. The same report began to set out the terms of the current memorandum of understanding between the two countries, the framework agreement that governs American military assistance to Israel, but the text available to us is cut off before it explains how that agreement relates to Trump's announcement.

The Times of Israel also reported that the Prime Minister's Office was expected to respond to Trump's statement shortly. None of the reports in front of us include that response.

Who Eisenkot is in this campaign

Eisenkot leads Yashar, a party running in Israel's general election. The Times of Israel described him as Netanyahu's main rival and opposition candidate, and illustrated its report with a photograph from an Eisenkot campaign rally in Tel Aviv on October 25, 2026, where a screen showed images of both men. His attack on Netanyahu therefore comes from the leading challenger for the premiership, in the middle of an election contest, and frames a foreign policy development as a question of whether the sitting prime minister is fit to stay in office.

The "security establishment" and why it matters to his argument

The Hebrew phrase Eisenkot used, maarechet habitachon, is usually rendered in English as the defense or security establishment. In Israeli usage it refers collectively to the military, the Defense Ministry and the wider security bodies that plan national defense. Eisenkot's central charge is not about the aid decision itself but about process: that these institutions, which would be directly affected by any change in American military support, appear to have heard about it through news coverage rather than through government channels. That claim is his own; none of the reports cite anyone in the defense establishment confirming or denying it.

A longer version of the statement, posted by political commentator Amit Segal on his Telegram channel, opens with an additional line in which Eisenkot calls the special relationship with the United States a central component of Israel's national security. That sentence does not appear in every outlet's version.

How the outlets reported it

Several Hebrew-language outlets published the statement within minutes of each other. Ynet's alerts channel led with Eisenkot's line describing Netanyahu's conduct as a real danger. News.co.il summarised the attack as a claim that Netanyahu's handling of relations with Washington endangers national security, and quoted the call to replace him. A second N12 item, from its desk editor, gave a shorter paraphrase, describing Netanyahu's conduct as dangerous and repeating the demand for answers that evening. The versions differ in length and wording, but they agree on the substance of what Eisenkot said.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports include a response from Netanyahu or the Prime Minister's Office, although one was said to be expected. Netanyahu has not, in this material, confirmed or disputed Trump's account that the two leaders agreed months ago to end the aid. The reports do not explain what Trump's announcement means for the existing memorandum of understanding, and no American official beyond Trump is quoted. Eisenkot's assertion that the defense establishment learned of the change from the media has not been addressed by any defense official in the reports.