Gadi Eisenkot faces coalition dilemmas after Israeli election

Five days after the 27 October 2026 election, Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot confronts difficult coalition options, including a unity government with Likud or new elections. Sources differ on his preferences and the political path forward.

Yossi Achimeir writes an opinion column in which he speculates that Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of the Yashar party, might have preferred to settle for a ministerial post in Netanyahu's government rather than go to additional elections. Achimeir compares the current political situation to the 1988 unity government headed by Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres, noting that Likud then received 40 seats and the Alignment 39. He claims that Netanyahu won the recent elections with 27 seats, while Yashar received six seats fewer, and that Eisenkot hastily declared victory without due consideration. The author calls for unity between Likud, Yashar, Together, Shas, and Otzma Yehudit, excluding Yisrael Beiteinu and the Democrats. He criticizes Eisenkot's speech on election night and describes him as "a puppet in the hands of the real string-pullers in his party." The column concludes with the hope that Eisenkot will understand the public's yearning for a unity government.