On Wednesday, on radio 103 FM, Gadi Eisenkot said he would not serve under Benjamin Netanyahu. Categorically. Not even in a rotation. The election is on 27 October. A statement, not a withdrawal from the race. Dump The Straits Times.

The Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post quoted the same broadcast: if it happened, he would resign within an hour. ST writes that he did not rule out a unity government altogether. TOI: he does not rule out a government with Likud, but refuses to sit beside Netanyahu. Two shades. Stay with the refusal to serve under him. That is not an exit from the election.

The polls, according to ST: Netanyahu’s bloc and the camp around Eisenkot, each around 50 to 52 seats. Short of 61, in a Knesset of 120. The Jerusalem Post put Yashar, Eisenkot’s party, around 23. Party and bloc. Do not mix them. A poll on 16 October: 55% would prefer a unity government to new elections if the vote produced no clear winner.

Eisenkot has campaigned on Netanyahu’s fitness to serve, especially over 7 October 2023. Naftali Bennett, third in the polls, said a government that included the current prime minister would not be a problem for him. Israeli law bars a person facing charges from serving as a minister; the bar does not apply to the prime minister. Netanyahu is on trial, on corruption charges he denies. Charges, not a conviction.

In 2020 Netanyahu and Benny Gantz struck a rotation. That government lasted 13 months. A precedent, not Wednesday’s deal.

Dump The Straits Times. The rewrite rests on the Straits Times and the Times of Israel.

Image: the Knesset building, Jerusalem, 25 November 2018, Fallaner, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. Parliament, not the 103 FM studio.

Sources consulted: Eisenkot vows not to serve in a Netanyahu government, even under rotation deal — Times of Israel.