Eizenkot Rejects Netanyahu’s Unity Call, Says He Will Be Replaced in the Next Election

Former IDF chief and National Unity party chairman Gadi Eizenkot responded sharply to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal for a national emergency government, which Netanyahu presented at an evening press conference. Eizenkot said, “Netanyahu, boycotts are a campaign from a former life,” and dismissed the unity push as political messaging rather than a real shift.

He attacked Netanyahu over the Lebanon deal and the broader conduct of the war, saying, “A prime minister who led blindly to a historic low, who works day and night on division and incitement, who puts all his energy into encouraging draft evasion, is unworthy of this people and certainly not of preaching unity.” He added that Netanyahu “continued to lie tonight about Gaza and Lebanon,” issues, he said, that could have been examined in depth by a state commission of inquiry, which Netanyahu supposedly fears.

Eizenkot also challenged Netanyahu to release official records to the public. “The protocols are with you, publish them and the people of Israel will discover who pushed and who was afraid,” he said. He was referring to Netanyahu’s comments that he would work to form a broad national government and end boycotts.

The article notes that shortly after the October 7 attack, Eizenkot and Benny Gantz joined Netanyahu’s emergency government, serving for about half a year before leaving. Eizenkot mocked the latest call for unity, saying Israelis would replace “the one who was prime minister on the morning of the October 7 massacre and has been running from responsibility ever since.” He said a future government would be built on a Zionist and national majority, would protect Israel’s interests, and would reunite the country, because “Israel must win.”