How Israel’s new parliament can make Netanyahu’s life difficult

JERUSALEM: Benjamin Netanyahu remains Israel’s prime minister when the new parliament takes office on Tuesday (Nov 10) but its new, less friendly composition could make his life much more difficult.

Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief seeking to move Israel to the centre, was given the mandate on Sunday by President Isaac Herzog to form a new government, a complicated task as neither he nor Netanyahu command a majority.

Until then Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, remains caretaker prime minister – but the new 120-member parliament can still go to battle against him.

The lack of a new government “does not infringe upon the Knesset’s prerogatives”, said Assaf Shapira, a political expert at the Israel Democracy Institute.

Eisenkot has also warned military chiefs that Netanyahu does not have a mandate to resume war against Iran – although the statement was more about politics than the law, with Netanyahu still in charge of national security.

Netanyahu’s bloc slipped to 53 seats in the new parliament, down from the decisive 68 it commanded previously.

Eisenkot’s core opposition bloc has fewer seats than Netanyahu at 48 but the new parliament also has a record 19 lawmakers from Arab-majority parties that are vehemently opposed to Netanyahu and his hard-right government – although it remains unclear if Eisenkot will seek to work with Israeli-Arabs directly.

Here are ways in which the new parliament could turn on Netanyahu:

COMMISSION ON OCT 7 ATTACKS

One of the opposition’s main campaign promises has been to set up a commission of inquiry to probe failures in the famously high-security country that allowed Hamas’s Oct 7, 2023, attack, the deadliest ever day for Israel.

While Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing on his part, his government has consistently opposed the creation of a national, independent commission of inquiry that would have broad investigative authority, with Netanyahu instead supporting a review by political appointees.