Haaretz PodcastGadi Eisenkot's bid to form an "emergency" minority government and swiftly oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be a "daring move if it succeeds," according to veteran journalist and author Anshel Pfeffer.
Pfeffer, Israel correspondent for The Economist and a contributing columnist for Haaretz, said Eisenkot, who was tasked on Sunday with forming a government, appears to be breaking with the "old, tired ways of Israeli coalition building."
Eisenkot is instead pursuing an unprecedented strategy for Israel: establish a minority government quickly, then persuade other parties to join it, which Pfeffer called an “interesting innovation.”
Speaking with host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Pfeffer analyzed Eisenkot’s options to form a government, including whether Arab and ultra-Orthodox parties would be willing to support his mission to unseat Netanyahu.
Netanyahu, who has not appeared in public since election night, faces another challenge in Washington. The Democratic "blue tsunami" in the U.S. midterms has made him a "liability in Washington" for both Democrats and Republicans, Pfeffer said.
“If Netanyahu ever had a claim to being Israel's super expert and super statesman with anything to do with the relationship with America, that has now been blown out of the water,” said Pfeffer, who wrote a biography of the prime minister.
He said the midterm results hammered home the fact that “the most dramatic deterioration of the Israeli-American relationship on both sides of the aisle” has taken place under his watch.
Read more on haaretz.com:
Netanyahu Has Never Been More Desperate. His Unity Plea Says It All
Eisenkot's Path to Power Demands Compromise. Will Lieberman Block It?
