Trump Netanyahu News: New Knesset Moves Against PM
The latest trump netanyahu news from Jerusalem arrived within hours of the new parliament taking its seats. Israel's newly elected Knesset was sworn in on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, and the opposition bloc led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot wasted no time in using its first day to take aim at caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Before the new lawmakers had settled in, Eisenkot's allies had filed bills designed to dismantle central parts of Netanyahu's record, moved to replace the parliament's speaker, and made clear that the man who has dominated Israeli politics for nearly two decades would face a legislature determined to hold him to account.
The opening session was heated from the start. Neither side won the election outright: Netanyahu's bloc finished with 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, Eisenkot's bloc with 48, and parties representing Israel's Arab minority with a record 19. With 61 seats needed for a majority, neither camp can govern alone, and the arithmetic leaves both men dependent on parties they have spent years opposing. Yet while the fight over who forms the next government drags on, the new parliament has already shown it can act — and its first acts were aimed squarely at Netanyahu.
Eisenkot, a 66-year-old former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces who only recently entered politics, told lawmakers before his swearing-in that he was committed to forming a national emergency government as quickly as possible. "I am committed in this complex situation to form a national-emergency government as quickly as possible," he said. In the chamber he went further, telling the new parliament that Netanyahu was unfit to remain in office "for even one more minute."
Eisenkot's Bloc Moves Fast: Inquiry, Term Limits and the Courts
The first substantive move came in the form of legislation. Eisenkot's Yashar party said it had submitted a series of proposals to the new parliament before the opening session, and each one targeted a pillar of Netanyahu's time in power. The most prominent would establish an independent state commission of inquiry into the security failures that allowed the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, the deadliest day in Israel's history. Netanyahu has long opposed such a probe, denying any wrongdoing and calling instead for a commission appointed by politicians rather than an independent body.
A second proposal would introduce term limits for the prime minister, a direct response to Netanyahu's longevity in office. He is Israel's longest-serving prime minister, having held the office on and off for nearly two decades, and his critics argue that such long tenures concentrate too much power in one person's hands. A third measure would repeal the judicial overhaul introduced by Netanyahu's government, a package of changes that curbed the powers of the judiciary and triggered some of the largest street protests in Israel's history before the country was plunged into three years of war.
The timing of the filing matters as much as its content. The new parliament can begin passing legislation before a coalition government takes office, and Eisenkot's allies signalled that they intend to use that power. With the support of Israeli-Arab lawmakers, the bloc can control the agenda of the Knesset from the outset, even though it does not hold a majority on its own. But on the first day, at least, the arithmetic worked, and the bills were on the table.
The Speaker Fight: A Vote Set for November 17
Alongside the legislation, Eisenkot's bloc opened a second front: the leadership of the Knesset itself. The opposition moved to remove the current speaker, Amir Ohana, a Netanyahu ally, and to install a replacement of its own choosing. A request signed by 67 lawmakers sought a vote on replacing Ohana, setting the process in motion even before a new governing coalition has been formed. The bloc nominated Matan Kahana, a senior member of Eisenkot's Yashar party and also a former senior military figure, for the position. Ohana scheduled a debate and a vote on his replacement for November 17, while making clear his strong opposition to the move.
The speaker's chair matters because it controls what the Knesset debates and when. Whoever holds it can speed up or slow down the legislative programme, and in a hung parliament that power is considerable. Eisenkot's bloc also announced that Avigdor Liberman, the right-wing member of the alliance who has played a key role in deciding who can enter the government, would be nominated as chair of the foreign affairs and defence committee, another post with real influence over security policy. The vote on November 17 will be the first hard test of whether the opposition's working majority holds when it counts. Sixty-seven signatures on a request is not the same as sixty-seven votes in the chamber, and Netanyahu's allies will spend the intervening days trying to peel support away.
The Coalition Math: 48 Seats, 61 Needed
The deadlock was settled at the ballot box on October 27, 2026, and the final results, published by the Central Elections Committee in the early hours of October 30, left neither side close to a majority. Netanyahu's bloc won 53 seats. His Likud party remained the largest single force in parliament with 27 seats, alongside the ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism and the far-right Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism parties. Eisenkot's bloc won 48 seats: his own Yashar party took 21, the B'Yachad list led by former prime minister Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid took 12, the Democrats led by Yair Golan took eight, and Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu took seven.
The balance was held by the two Arab-led parties, which together won 19 seats, a record high in Israeli election history. The Joint List took 11 seats and Ra'am, led by Mansour Abbas, took eight. Their gains came on the back of anger at Netanyahu's hard-right government, and they nearly doubled their previous representation. Voter turnout was 77.9 percent, the highest figure in decades, with more than 5.7 million votes cast.
The arithmetic is unforgiving. Sixty-one seats are needed to form a government, and neither bloc is close. Eisenkot's 48 seats plus the Arab parties' 19 would reach 67, but that combination exists only on paper. Liberman has made clear that he will refuse to join a government that relies on Arab-Israelis, even if they stay out of the coalition and prop it up from the outside. His refusal closes off the most obvious route to a majority and leaves Eisenkot searching for defectors from Netanyahu's camp or for a minority government arrangement that would be fragile from its first day.
President Isaac Herzog gave Eisenkot the initial mandate to form a government on Sunday, November 8, starting a clock that gives him 28 days, with a possible 14-day extension. That means Eisenkot has until early December, and at most until around December 20, to piece together a coalition. In the meantime, Netanyahu remains in office as caretaker prime minister, and his cabinet continues to govern while the newly elected lawmakers begin their legislative work.
Netanyahu's Counter: A Unity Government and the Iran Threat
Netanyahu did not spend the first day of the new parliament in silence. Speaking after the inaugural session, he made a new push for a national unity government, arguing that Israel needed to confront the threat from Iran. His case rested on the claim that the danger from Tehran required the country's political leaders to set aside their differences and govern together.
The Iran argument also allowed Netanyahu to remind voters of his record on security. Iran's clerical government has survived two major Israeli bombing campaigns that Netanyahu ordered with support from the Trump administration, and the prime minister has presented those operations as evidence that only his leadership can keep the country safe. The two leaders have repeatedly acted in concert on Iran, and Netanyahu presents the relationship with Washington as central to his standing.
Eisenkot's camp rejected the unity pitch outright. His Yashar party cancelled a meeting with Netanyahu's Likud party that had been scheduled for Wednesday, and it accused the prime minister of not wanting unity at all. In the party's account, Netanyahu was prioritising "his own political survival" over the country's interests, using the language of national unity as a way to stay in office rather than as a genuine offer to share power. The cancellation was a public rebuke, and it suggested that the opposition sees little to gain from negotiations that would leave Netanyahu at the centre of the next government.
A Heated First Day in Jerusalem
The tone of the opening session was set before the debates began. President Herzog, ceremonially opening the session, called on all sides to work together and avoid a fresh election in a deeply polarised country weary from three years of war. It was a plea for restraint from a president whose role is largely ceremonial but whose words carry weight in a system built on compromise. The chamber did not heed him for long.
The session was interrupted by shouting and walkouts. Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right caretaker national security minister and a Netanyahu ally, loudly heckled Yousef Jabareen, the leader of the largest Arab-majority grouping, the Joint List, during the proceedings. A number of Israeli-Arab lawmakers left the opening session as children sang the national anthem, refusing to stand for it — a gesture that drew anger from the government's supporters and underscored how raw the divisions inside the new parliament remain. Netanyahu added to the tension by accusing the Arab-Israeli parties of supporting Hamas and accepting foreign funding, allegations the lawmakers deny and call smear tactics. Mansour Abbas, the leader of Ra'am, generally seen as the more moderate of the Arab parties, rejected the accusations and defended his party's place in the democratic process.
What Happens Next
The immediate calendar is clear. On November 17, the Knesset will debate and vote on replacing Speaker Amir Ohana, and the result will show whether the opposition's working majority is real or only a paper alliance. If Matan Kahana is installed, Eisenkot's bloc will control the parliament's agenda outright, and the bills on the October 7 inquiry, term limits and the judicial overhaul will move from proposals to live legislation.
Beyond that vote, the central question is whether Eisenkot can form a government at all. His mandate runs for 28 days from November 8, with a possible extension of 14 more, and the obstacles are formidable. He needs 13 more seats than his bloc holds, and the only large pool of votes available belongs to parties whose support his own allies refuse to accept. He could try to win over individual lawmakers from Netanyahu's camp, or attempt a minority government that survives on outside support. The alternative is a fresh election, the outcome Herzog warned against and the one both sides claim to dread. For now, the Knesset will keep legislating, the coalition talks will continue behind closed doors, and Netanyahu will remain in office while the parliament he once dominated moves against him. The first day showed that the new legislature is willing to act. Whether it can govern is the question the coming weeks will answer.
Source: The Washington Post