Eisenkot and Liberman Reportedly Agree on Candidate for Knesset Speaker

Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot and Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman reportedly agreed on a candidate for speaker of the 26th Knesset during their November 9 meeting. The two have not publicly revealed the candidate’s identity, according to the report. The reported next step is consultation with Together chairman Naftali Bennett, The Democrats chairman Yair Golan and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid. The leaders reportedly intend to submit at least 61 signatures on November 10 seeking to replace current Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana. Lapid’s name has also been mentioned as a possible candidate for the post. Liberman had set out his preferred parliamentary sequence in a November 8 statement. He called for the incoming Knesset to replace its speaker immediately, appoint a state comptroller and enact a limit of two terms for a prime minister. He placed repeal of the judicial overhaul laws after those steps. Eisenkot, in his own statement on November 8 when he received the presidential mandate to form a government, called for an emergency government with a large Knesset majority. “I am convinced that an Israeli emergency government can and should be formed quickly…,” Eisenkot said.