Rabbi Yitzhak Shilat Urges Netanyahu and Eisenkot to Form Unity Government

Rabbi Yitzhak Shilat, head of the Maale Adumim yeshiva, called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot to form a broad Zionist unity government. In written remarks published on November 15, he backed the unity appeal of Elisha Medan and Itamar Eitam and urged the two political leaders to reach an agreement. Shilat described Medan and Eitam's initiative as expressing the solidarity and self-sacrifice of the generation of fighters shaped by Simchat Torah. He contrasted that spirit with election campaigns marked by personal attacks and said the public was exhausted by division. “The political reality created by the elections is an opportunity for the internal peace we have hoped for,” he wrote. He argued that an exclusively right-wing government could not heal those divisions and was no longer possible. He also opposed a change-bloc government involving Ra’am. Shilat said he had considered including Mansour Abbas in a coalition about five years earlier, after remarks by Abbas about recognizing Israel as the Jewish people's state, but now believed his judgment had been mistaken. Shilat said mutual concessions could also open a path to resolving the Haredi draft dispute while respecting Torah and the Haredi community and encouraging national responsibility. He urged the leaders to make that effort for the Israeli public, particularly the younger generation that had carried the burden of war.