JERUSALEM: Israeli ex-army chief Gadi Eisenkot and his allies launched a legislative onslaught against caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's legacy on Tuesday, as a new parliament convened in a heated first session.
Though questions still linger as to who can form a government, Eisenkot's broad left-to-right bloc wasted no time in setting the agenda of the new Knesset with a green light from Israeli-Arab lawmakers, whose role has stirred up heated opposition from Netanyahu's base and even right-wing supporters of Eisenkot.
Eisenkot's Yashar party said it submitted a slew of proposals before the new parliament, including establishing an independent commission to investigate security failures that allowed the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, the deadliest day in Israel's history.
Netanyahu has long opposed such a probe, denying any wrongdoing and calling instead for a politically appointed commission.
Eisenkot's party also moved for a sweeping repeal of a judicial overhaul implemented by Netanyahu's government, which had triggered some of Israel's largest-ever protests before being overshadowed by three years of war.
Setting the stage for legislative action, Eisenkot's bloc announced it had secured the votes to install a new parliament speaker, Matan Kahana, also a former senior military figure.
But neither Eisenkot nor Netanyahu -- Israel's longest-serving prime minister with nearly two decades in power -- have the 61 votes needed to form a government.
"I am committed in this complex situation to form a national-emergency government as quickly as possible," Eisenkot, a low-key 66-year-old who only recently entered politics, said before his swearing-in.
Netanyahu, speaking after the inaugural session, made a new push for a national-unity government, saying Israel needed to confront a threat from Iran's clerical government, which has survived two major Israeli bombing campaigns the premier ordered with support from US President Donald Trump.
With his political survival on the line -- and facing potential jail time if convicted on corruption charges after he is out of power -- Netanyahu appeared to acknowledge a shifting diplomatic reality after US Democrats soundly defeated Trump in midterm elections last week on the back of anger over the war.
"In the very near future, we're going to be confronted by international pressure to accept a nuclear-armed Iran and the preservation of this terror regime that seeks to annihilate us," Netanyahu said.
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and both Netanyahu and Trump have previously boasted that its nuclear programme was devastated.
Eisenkot dismissed the remarks as a "shameful" exploitation of the occasion, casting them as evidence that Netanyahu was "unfit to remain in office for even one more minute".
President Isaac Herzog on Sunday tasked Eisenkot with forming a government, giving him an initial 28 days, which can be extended by 14 more.
Opening the session, Herzog, who otherwise holds a largely ceremonial role, urged lawmakers to "do everything to avoid a repeat election".
"Reach out a hand for compromise, even between rivals," Herzog said.
But the tone in the new parliament was immediately tense, with shouting breaking out between lawmakers.
Eisenkot's choice for speaker is expected to sail through thanks to support from Arab-Israeli lawmakers, whose ranks grew to historic highs due to anger over Netanyahu's far-right government.
But Avigdor Liberman -- a member of Eisenkot's bloc who has become a staunch critic of his former mentor Netanyahu despite sharing his hawkish views -- has refused to serve in a government that relies on the Israeli-Arabs.
A number of Israeli-Arab lawmakers, descendants of Palestinians who stayed after Israel's creation in 1948, left the opening session Tuesday as children sang the national anthem so as to avoid standing for it.
Liberman posted news of the walkout on social media, writing: "You want to form a government with them?"
Far-right caretaker national security minister and Netanyahu ally Itamar Ben Gvir loudly heckled Yousef Jabareen, leader of the largest Arab-majority grouping, the Joint List, during the session.
"Who is he pledging allegiance to, Hamas?" Ben Gvir shouted before order was restored.
Mansour Abbas, leader of the Israeli-Arab party Raam, generally seen as more moderate, promised to work to replace the Netanyahu government, saying: "We aspire to be part of the solution."
Shunning Arab-Israelis, Liberman has instead proposed an alliance with ultra-Orthodox Jews, despite his years of bitter denunciations of the community for its singular priority on maintaining an exemption from mandatory military service.
Eisenkot's core bloc has 48 seats, but would achieve a majority if the 19 Arab-Israeli lawmakers either enter the government or, more likely, vote for it without joining.
The two ultra-Orthodox parties hold 13 seats. United Torah Judaism, which has seven, has stopped short of recommitting to Netanyahu, leaving him with 46 seats.
Netanyahu publicly pleaded with the ultra-Orthodox to stay with him.
"They're going to promise you the moon and the stars but one minute after, God forbid, they form a government run by the left, all of those promises will vanish," he said.