Moshe Feiglin Open to Gadi Eisenkot as Prime Minister for Defense Post

Israeli political dynamics shifted slightly following a media report revealing that Moshe Feiglin expressed a pragmatic willingness to consider Gadi Eisenkot as prime minister under specific conditions. According to the broadcast by Kan News, Feiglin made the remarks during exploratory merger talks with Yaron Zellicha back in August. The discussion centered on mapping out political boundaries and understanding which future government configurations different actors would tolerate. When asked about his red lines, Feiglin reportedly stated that he would not automatically reject an arrangement where Eisenkot held the premiership, provided that Feiglin himself was appointed minister of defense.

During these same private discussions, Feiglin also voiced sharp criticism of incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, asserting that Netanyahu no longer represented authentic right-wing values. For Zellicha, who sought to maintain maximum flexibility in potential coalition-building without prematurely locking out future partners, this pragmatic stance was initially well-received. Nevertheless, the negotiations between Feiglin and Zellicha ultimately broke down over entirely separate issues, with the Zehut party later alleging that Zellicha walked away because he deemed Feiglin too right-wing.

Following the collapse of those talks, Feiglin reached a technical agreement with Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism party, securing the second spot on their joint electoral slate alongside the freedom to operate as an independent faction within the Knesset. However, this alliance required Feiglin to sign a clause pledging support for Benjamin Netanyahu to form the next government. Political analysts noted that while this clause is legally non-binding and pertains strictly to recommending a candidate to the president, it introduces an intriguing paradox given Feiglin's private statements to Zellicha.

In response to the public leak, the Zehut party issued an official clarification emphasizing that Feiglin's remarks were part of a theoretical brainstorming session examining broad national unity frameworks. They explained that the hypothetical scenario involved a coalition including Likud, where Feiglin could spearhead his nationalist platform—explicitly mentioning policies regarding territorial control and settlement—while sharing rotational leadership structures comparable to arrangements previously entertained by Netanyahu himself. Zehut officials also accused Zellicha of covertly recording private negotiating sessions and releasing fragmented quotes to deliberately damage Feiglin's political standing. Meanwhile, Zellicha's Economic Party declined to comment on the leaked details, leaving the broader political fallout to resonate across the Israeli right.