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Yossi Beilin, a former Israeli justice minister, predicted that Gadi Eisenkot will become Israel’s next prime minister, saying exit polls suggest Benjamin Netanyahu will lose power. “The main thing is that Netanyahu will not continue and be the Israeli prime minister,” Beilin told Al Jazeera from Tel Aviv.
Likud was projected to remain the largest party, but Beilin said that is not the deciding factor. “The issue in our system is the coalition,” he said. He argued that the parties opposed to Netanyahu collectively hold substantially more projected seats. Those parties have yet to agree to govern together, and exit polls are not final results.
Israel’s parliament has 120 seats, and a government needs the backing of a majority of lawmakers. That usually means a coalition of several parties, so the largest party does not always lead the government.
Beilin said the Palestinian question remains central to Israeli politics, whether politicians acknowledge it publicly or not. He argued that Eisenkot’s commitment to US President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan could bring change. He accused Netanyahu of “only paying lip service” to the plan.
According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Likud asked its members to stop giving media interviews while Netanyahu called coalition party leaders after the first projections.
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the opposition’s celebrations were “premature.” “Likud is the largest party in Israel. It is always good to learn something from the past,” he said in a social media post. He also criticized what he called “pronouncements of biased commentators.”
Sports and Culture Minister Miki Zohar, also of Likud, warned opposition leaders against relying on Arab parties to form a government. “If Eisenkot, Lieberman, and Bennett try to form a government with the Arab parties, it will be the end of their political careers within a very short period of time,” he wrote on X. “The public will not forgive and will not forget,” he added.
The far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party was projected to win six or seven seats. Ben-Gvir’s assistant, Ushar Gabai, told reporters at the party’s headquarters: “Obviously I’m disappointed, the people of Israel are stupid.”
Avigdor Lieberman, the Yisrael Beiteinu leader and a former finance minister and deputy prime minister, called on Netanyahu to step down. He also urged Likud members to remove him, according to Israel’s Channel 12. “If he leaves, it will be possible to rebuild the national camp,” Lieberman said. He added that he was “not sure the polls reflect the true results.”
Public broadcaster Kan’s exit poll projected 11 seats for the Joint List and seven for Ra’am. Joint List leader Yousef Jabareen said the party could win 10 seats or more and stressed that it cannot be ignored.
Osama Saadi, a lawyer and former Arab member of the Knesset, hailed the projected gains in Nazareth and dedicated them to Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. “We have brought down this fascist government, this government of genocide, this government of ethnic cleansing,” he said.
Saadi said Palestinians everywhere and supporters around the world have been waiting for “this historic moment and this good news from the city of Nazareth.” He praised Palestinian voters in the Galilee, the Triangle and the Negev, and sent greetings to Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Another Joint List member voiced a similar message. “We have overthrown this fascist government, this government of genocide and ethnic cleansing,” the member said. “We dedicate this victory to the people of our nation in Gaza and the West Bank.”
Eisenkot, 66, is a former general who served as Israeli military chief from 2015 to 2019. He is credited with publicly outlining the Dahiyeh Doctrine in 2008. The doctrine involves “disproportionate force” and large-scale destruction of civilian infrastructure against groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.
He entered politics in 2022 with former Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s National Unity alliance. He later joined the war cabinet Netanyahu assembled after the October 7 attacks. His son Gal, 25, and a nephew were killed in Gaza in December 2023, and another nephew was killed in November 2024. Commentators say these losses have helped him connect with an electorate that sees itself as scarred by war.
In June 2024, Eisenkot quit the war cabinet alongside Gantz, accusing Netanyahu of lacking a strategy to end the war. A year later he founded Yashar. The party advocates professional government, military service for all, including ultra-Orthodox Jews, and a state commission of inquiry into the failings before October 7.
Final results are pending, and the makeup of the next government has yet to be determined.
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