Eisenkot Rejects Netanyahu as Minister, Answers Bennett

Gadi Eisenkot, the former IDF Chief of Staff, rejected Naftali Bennett's position that Benjamin Netanyahu could take a ministerial post in the next government. He said no one who held office on October 7 should hold a leadership role. Eisenkot made the remarks at the Alon HaDor conference.

"I do not accept that. Anyone who held office on October 7 is unfit to serve in positions of command or leadership, including as finance minister," Eisenkot said.

Bennett, a former prime minister who chairs the Beyachad party, told Hador newspaper's election conference in Jerusalem on Sunday that he had "no problem" with Netanyahu serving as a minister in a government he leads. His condition was that Netanyahu accept Beyachad's core principles: an immediate state commission of inquiry, universal draft and a constitution for Israel.

Israelis vote on October 27, and the next coalition will be formed after that election.

Bennett praised Netanyahu's record as finance minister in 2003, calling him one of the best Israel has had. He added that he did not know whether "a Jew approaching 80" still had the energy for the job.

A Channel 16 poll by the Maagar Mochot research institute, released at the end of September, gave the coalition bloc 53 seats and the opposition bloc led by Eisenkot 51.

On Saturday, United Torah Judaism MK Yitzhak Pindrus said his party is not part of Netanyahu's bloc and has not decided how it would vote on a government headed by Eisenkot.