America’s Election Has Prompted Some Surprising Moves in Israel That Might Oust Netanyahu

War Stories Israel Is Forming a Government That Ousts Netanyahu How long will it last? By Enter your email to receive alerts for this author. Sign in or create an account to better manage your email preferences. Unsubscribe from email alerts Are you sure you want to unsubscribe from email alerts for Fred Kaplan? Nov 05, 20265:32 PM A protester holds a placard during a demonstration near the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem. Ahmad Gharabli/Getty Images Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Fast on the heels of Tuesday’s mind-blowing American midterm elections, Israelis are forming a new government that seems hardly less astonishing—a ruling body for the Jewish state that includes Israeli Arabs. Israel held its own national election last week, but it resulted in a stalemate. Neither of the two main coalitions—one helmed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the other by opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot—won a majority of seats in the parliament. Thus, neither could form a government. But there was one intriguing outcome in the vote count: Two Arab parties together won 19 seats—almost twice as many as the 10 seats they won in the previous election. If either Netanyahu or Eisenkot invited the Arabs to join his coalition, he would have enough seats to win. Netanyahu was not about to go in with Arabs; if he did, at least an equal number of his far-right partners would probably resign, still leaving him short of a majority. Eisenkot, a former chief of Israel’s military, considered inviting the Arabs but seemed to have decided against it as well. Then, on Thursday, Eisenkot and the two Arab leaders—Mansour Abbas of United Arab List and Yousef Jabareen of Joint List—announced they were joining forces after all. If they don’t change their minds in the coming days, this will give the opposition coalition enough seats to oust Netanyahu and his far-right partners from power. To form a government in Israel, a party or coalition needs to win 61 of the parliament’s 120 seats. Netanyahu’s and Eisenkot’s coalitions won 53 and 48, respectively. Now, with the Arabs’ support, Eisenkot has won 67—a comfortable majority, letting them hang on to power even if a handful of Arab members at some point drop out. The Arab leaders want to avoid the appearance of being co-opted by the government of the Jewish state: Jabareen has said he won’t demand a post in the government, preferring to support it from within the parliament, while Abbas hasn’t said whether he wants a post. However, they are united in their desire to unseat Netanyahu. The Arabs are even more eager to boot two of Netanyahu’s ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who have been actively encouraging violence by Jewish settlers in the West Bank. The new government probably won’t last long. Many issues divide not only Eisenkot from the two Arabs, but also the two Arabs from each other. Though Jabareen has endorsed the disarming of Hamas as a condition of peace in Gaza, he has declined, for political reasons, to declare Hamas to be a “terrorist group.” This has alarmed many of Israel’s Jewish leaders and citizens and has bolstered fears about letting Arabs join a government, even though they number 2 million—about 20 percent of Israel’s population—and, at least formally, have equal rights. (These numbers do not include the 5 million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, who do not have a right to vote in Israeli elections.) Eisenkot shares this fear of letting Arabs into government, but he fears another Netanyahu term in power even more. This latter fear is bolstered by the results of this week’s midterm elections in the United States. To the extent Netanyahu still has appeal in Israel, despite the many controversies he’s provoked, it stems from his friendship with President Donald Trump, whose support for Israel is considered vital to the Jewish state’s security. After Tuesday, this friendship suddenly seems both dubious and irrelevant. Dubious because, the day before the election, Trump announced he would stop sending Israeli $4 billion in military aid. Irrelevant because the Democrats’ overwhelming victory has discredited Netanyahu’s strategy of sucking up only to Republicans. America’s election also highlights, in bright neon lights, the growing isolation of Israel even within the U.S., its most important ally. Israel’s excessive violence in Gaza, the West Bank, southern Lebanon, and Iran has roused prominent international organizations to charge the state with war crimes and genocide. Public opinion polls show that a majority of Americans sympathize more with Palestinians than with Israelis, even despite Hamas’ murderous invasion of Oct. 7, 2023. The current Congress nearly barred arms aid to Israel, and the next Congress, with electees including Sen. Abdul El-Sayed, may well do so. The fact that Trump now endorses the move gives conservatives cover for taking the same position without being accused of antisemitism. It’s also noteworthy that, on Wednesday, Vice President J.D. Vance said the Republicans lost because of the war in Iran and “our relationship to Israel.” In this context, a security politician like retired Gen. Eisenkot considers it vital to oust Netanyahu, who is seen by many Americans as the face of Israel’s dark side. The problem is, on the issues that concern Americans and other foreigners, there isn’t a lot of difference between Netanyahu and Eisenkot. Both oppose withdrawing from Gaza. Both favor the continued occupation of the West Bank. There are some differences, though: Eisenkot doesn’t favor the annexation of the West Bank, nor the toleration of murderous violence by Jewish settlers. He also sees “regime change” in Iran as a pipe dream and would rather settle the conflict with the Islamic State through diplomacy. For those reasons, Eisenkot hopes that displacing Netanyahu might soften the growing hostility toward Israel in the United States and other Western countries. He also clearly hopes that taking the truly remarkable step of forming a coalition government with Israeli Arabs might soften the view of Israel as an apartheid state. Refusing to form such a coalition, even if it meant giving up a sure route to the prime ministry, would have stiffened this view. It wouldn’t be the first time Arabs have entered an Israeli government. Deborah Amos, a former Middle East reporter for NPR and ABC, recalled in a recent Substack that a similar coalition took power once before. In 2021, opposition leader Naftali Bennett won a majority of seats, thanks to the inclusion of an Israeli Arab party called Ra’am. As is the case now, the Arabs’ motive in joining the government, and Bennett’s motive in recruiting them, was to displace the long-standing prime minister, whose name was … Benjamin Netanyahu. The resulting government, with Bennett as prime minister, lasted barely a year, owing mainly to internal tensions, before Netanyahu won the next election, his third victory since 1996. That win created the far-right coalition still in power today—which now Eisenkot hopes to displace. This government may not last long either, but it will last long enough to throw out Netanyahu. For Israel, that’s the important thing now, especially in the wake of Trump’s party getting the heave-ho too. International Israel Palestine 2026 Midterms