Likud says Netanyahu stands by his words after Eisenkot's party cancels meeting

Likud, the party led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a statement in the evening responding to the cancellation of a planned meeting with Yashar!, the party associated with Gadi Eisenkot. Ynet reported in a news alert that the Likud reaction to the called-off meeting was that Netanyahu "stands by his words". The broadcaster N12, through its political correspondent Dafna Liel, described the statement as Likud's answer to Eisenkot.

In the statement, Likud said it was prepared to meet representatives of any parliamentary faction that wants national unity, and that Netanyahu continues to work toward forming a national unity government. At the same time, the party said Netanyahu holds to his position that there can be no cooperation with what it called supporters of terror, or with those who, earlier that same evening, left the plenary hall of the Knesset while the national anthem was being sung. According to the text published by political commentator Amit Segal, Likud also said it found it "puzzling" that a meeting with Likud was being cancelled while contacts with those same people were being advanced.

Who the parties are

Likud is Israel's main right-wing party and Netanyahu's political home. Gadi Eisenkot is a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who entered politics after leaving the military. The Ynet alert names the party whose meeting was cancelled as Yashar! (the Hebrew word means "straight" or "honest"), while N12 frames the Likud statement as a response to Eisenkot personally. Taken together, the reports indicate that the meeting was to have been between Likud and Eisenkot's side, and that the cancellation came from that side rather than from Likud, though none of the four reports spells out who made the decision or why.

What a national unity government means

In Israeli politics, a "national unity government" usually refers to a coalition that brings together parties from opposing camps, rather than a government built only from one political bloc. No party has ever won an outright majority in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, so every government is a coalition negotiated between factions. A "faction" in this context is a party's group of members in the Knesset. Likud's statement presents Netanyahu as the one seeking broad cooperation, and casts the cancellation of the meeting as a step away from that effort.

The Hatikvah walkout

Hatikvah ("The Hope") is Israel's national anthem, and it is sung in the Knesset plenary, the full chamber where all members sit, on formal occasions. Likud's statement refers to members who left the hall during the anthem that evening. Some lawmakers who do not identify with the anthem's Jewish national content have in the past declined to stand for it or have left the chamber; walking out is a recognised form of political protest. The reports do not name the members involved in this walkout or say which parties they belong to.

Likud's argument rests on linking the two events: it says Eisenkot's side cancelled talks with Likud while continuing to pursue contacts with the people it accuses of supporting terror and of leaving during the anthem. That characterisation is Likud's own, and it is attributed to the party in every report.

How the statement was reported

All four reports carry the same core message from Likud, though in slightly different forms. The version posted by Amit Segal opens with a line saying Netanyahu will leave no stone unturned for national unity, then repeats the commitment to keep working toward a unity government at the end. News.co.il's version condenses the opening into a single sentence saying Netanyahu will work to set up such a government and meet any faction interested in it, and it includes the remark about the cancelled meeting being puzzling. The N12 version quotes only the parts about meeting any faction and about Netanyahu standing by his words. The differences are in length and phrasing rather than substance; none of the reports contradicts another on what Likud said.

What the reports do not say

• None of the reports gives a reason for the cancellation of the meeting or quotes Eisenkot or Yashar! explaining it.
• No response from Eisenkot's side to the Likud statement has been reported.
• Likud does not name the people it describes as supporters of terror, nor identify which members left the plenary during Hatikvah, and it offers no evidence for the claim that contacts with them are being advanced.
• The reports do not say whether the meeting will be rescheduled.