“A paralyzed government”: Ben-Gvir rejects unity with Eisenkot after the elections

He had hoped to win a double-digit number of Knesset seats, but exit polls suggested he had failed to do so. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party is expected to win six seats in exit polls released by Channels 12 and 13, while Kan 11 awarded seven. At the same time, Netanyahu’s entire political bloc is expected to fall from 64 to 50 seats. Ben-Gvir did not immediately respond to the exit poll results, arriving at his party headquarters in Modi’in shortly before midnight, where he warned against forming a unity government with Gadi Eisenkot.

Addressing party activists, Ben-Gvir said: “Tonight we open a new chapter in the development of Otzma Yehudit. I remember two terms in the Knesset, this party barely existed on the political map.

“The night is still young. We believe and hope that we are on the verge of forming a right-wing government, with the help of God,” he added.

Ben-Gvir then praised the policies he had put forward during his term. “In any case, we are proud of our path, of the reforms that we promised to the public and that we implemented. I am proud that I promised last time to pass a law imposing the death penalty on terrorists, and we kept it,” he said.

“I heard some people say that Arabs don’t like the demolition of houses in the Negev. I am proud that we demolished 10,000 illegal houses in the Negev,” he continued.

Turning to Palestinian security prisoners, Ben-Gvir said: “I already hear the hopes of terrorists in prison, hoping that their summer camps will return. We will continue to fight to ensure that these hopes are not realized. We did not enter politics to apologize for our principles.

Later in his speech, Ben-Gvir attacked the possibility of forming a unity government with Yashar! the party president, Gadi Eisenkot.

“Unfortunately, tonight I hear that some people are talking about a unity government with Eisenkot,” he said. “This is exactly the scenario I warned about, the one our Likud friends insisted on denying and saying wasn’t true. And now, just two minutes after the exit poll results came out, we’re hearing people talking about a unity government with Eizenkot. It would be a government of paralysis.”

As a teenager, Ben-Gvir was active in the Kach movement founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane. He was first elected to the Knesset in 2021 after a series of unsuccessful attempts, running on a joint electoral list with Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party. The two parties also ran together in previous elections.

Following this election, Ben-Gvir was appointed Minister of National Security. During his tenure, the number of murders in Israel’s Arab communities reached unprecedented levels. Upon taking office, he decided to increase the number of civilians allowed to carry firearms and repeatedly intervened in police affairs. Among other things, he sought to promote the arrest of protesters blocking roads, blocked the promotion of police officers, and attempted to remove Tel Aviv District Police Commander Ami Eshed from office.

In this election, Ben-Gvir ran independently, without associating with other parties.