JERUSALEM (The Thursday Times) — Israel’s caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave Gadi Eisenkot, the man tasked with forming the country’s next government, a two-hour security briefing on Thursday, as a dispute over whether Israel should strike Iran again broke into the open.
In a joint statement after the meeting at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, the two said Eisenkot “was briefed on the security and diplomatic challenges facing the State of Israel at this time” and agreed to keep each other updated as needed. Netanyahu’s military secretary, Maj. Gen. Guy Markizano, also attended.
The briefing came a day after Eisenkot wrote to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara asking her to make sure he received regular security briefings. He said Netanyahu’s staff had turned down his requests, and he warned against military moves that were not driven by an immediate threat while power changes hands. Netanyahu’s office called the letter “an irresponsible move to discuss sensitive security issues in public”.
A row over Iran
Israel’s security cabinet has already ordered the military to prepare for possible action against Iran, including an Israeli strike or a surprise Iranian attack. Leaders of the bloc backing Eisenkot accuse Netanyahu of pushing for a strike without US backing, and Israeli media have reported that the army chief, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, and other senior defence officials opposed some of his proposals.
Defence Minister Israel Katz rejected that picture after a security assessment with Zamir and senior commanders on Thursday. “The prime minister, the chief of staff and I see eye to eye on the Iranian issue in all its aspects,” he said, adding that “Israel’s security is the central consideration”. Katz also said the caretaker government did not need the opposition’s approval to send the military into action.
Accounts of what Eisenkot was told differed. Israeli television reported that the military’s view, as presented to him, was that there was no immediate need to strike Iran, but that Israel should join in if the United States resumed its attacks. Before the meeting, a source quoted by another channel had said that “once Eisenkot is exposed to the full intelligence picture, he will understand everything”.
Avigdor Liberman, whose Yisrael Beytenu party won seven seats, said a caretaker government had no authority to take decisions that could drag Israel into war without parliamentary oversight. The security cabinet is expected to meet on Sunday, more than six weeks after its last session.
A government in waiting
Netanyahu’s bloc lost its majority in the October 27 election. President Isaac Herzog gave Eisenkot the mandate to form a government on Sunday after parties with 67 lawmakers recommended him, against 46 for Netanyahu. Eisenkot, the leader of the Yashar party, has 28 days to build a coalition, with a possible 14-day extension, and Netanyahu remains caretaker prime minister until a new government is sworn in.
Relations between the two have been tense. On Tuesday, Eisenkot called Netanyahu unfit to serve “one more minute” after his speech at the opening of the new Knesset.
The briefing came on the day US President Donald Trump said in a post that Washington did not need a deal with Iran, and as Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian told the COP31 summit that his country wants compensation for damage from US and Israeli strikes. Iran has said the Strait of Hormuz will stay shut until the United States meets its conditions.
