Liberman tells Eisenkot camp a minority government would hand Netanyahu a win

A public dispute has opened between the political bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot, who currently holds the mandate to try to form Israel's next government, and Avigdor Liberman, chairman of the Yisrael Beytenu party, whose support the bloc appears to need. Ynet reported that senior figures in Eisenkot's camp suspect Liberman of preparing for what they called "the day after": a scenario in which coalition talks fail and the mandate passes to the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

Liberman answered the criticism by accusing the Eisenkot camp of giving Benjamin Netanyahu a prize. In a separate comment to Ynet, carried on the outlet's Telegram news alerts channel, he said that a minority government would amount to crowning Netanyahu within half a year. The full Ynet report quotes him with a slightly different timeline, saying such a government would hold on for less than a year.

Who the two sides are

Eisenkot heads a party called Yashar!, and Ynet describes him as leading a wider bloc of parties. As the holder of the mandate, he is the politician formally tasked with assembling a coalition. Liberman leads Yisrael Beytenu, a party that has positioned itself in opposition to Netanyahu. Ynet summed up the situation in a single line: the mandate sits with Eisenkot, but the key sits with the Yisrael Beytenu chairman. In other words, the reports present Liberman's decision as the factor that could make or break any government Eisenkot tries to build.

How the mandate works

In Israel, no party has ever won a majority alone, so governments are built from coalitions. After an election, the president asks one member of the Knesset to attempt to form a government. If that attempt fails, the process can move to the Knesset itself, where lawmakers may back a candidate of their own. That is the stage the Eisenkot camp suspects Liberman is planning for, according to Ynet. The report does not say what Liberman would seek to achieve at that stage, and he has not said so publicly in the material available.

The argument over a minority government

A minority government is one whose coalition does not control a majority of seats in the Knesset and depends on parties outside it, which may abstain or vote with it on particular measures, to survive. According to Ynet, a figure in Eisenkot's bloc framed the option as a government whose purpose is to replace Netanyahu, one that would later expand and gain a clear majority. The source was not named.

Liberman rejects that reasoning. His argument, as reported by Ynet, is that such a government would be short-lived and that its collapse would bring Netanyahu back. The two versions of his warning differ only on timing: the alert quotes him as saying half a year, while the article quotes him as saying it would last less than a year. Both point to the same conclusion, that in his view the arrangement would ultimately benefit Netanyahu rather than unseat him.

Competing labels for the same idea

Amit Segal, a prominent Israeli political commentator, wrote on his Telegram channel that Eisenkot wants what he calls a "national emergency government", while Liberman regards it as a binational government. Segal's post was a single sentence and did not explain what either label would mean in practice, which parties would sit in such a government, or which would support it from outside. It does indicate that the disagreement is being framed by both sides in sharply different terms.

Why this matters for readers abroad

For anyone following whether Netanyahu's long hold on Israeli politics will end, the exchange shows where the pressure point lies. A bloc opposed to Netanyahu holds the mandate, but one of the parties it would need is openly arguing that the route under discussion would strengthen Netanyahu instead. Until that gap is closed, the reports suggest, Eisenkot's path to a government remains uncertain.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports say whether Liberman has ruled out joining or supporting an Eisenkot-led government outright, or what conditions he has set. The Eisenkot bloc's claim about Liberman's plans for "the day after" comes from unnamed senior figures and is not backed by any evidence in the reports. There is no reported response from Eisenkot himself, and no indication of how much time remains on his mandate or which parties would make up the minority government under discussion.