‘Unfit to remain in office’: Eisenkot attacks Netanyahu after ‘hateful’ Knesset speech

Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party has cancelled a scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party to discuss coalition negotiations, after the Israeli prime minister delivered a speech at the swearing-in of the new Knesset that Eisenkot described as “delusional, divisive, hateful and disgraceful”.The cancellation came a day after Netanyahu called on opposition leaders to join a national unity government, arguing that Israel needed a united front in the face of the Iranian nuclear threat.In his address to parliament on Tuesday, he renewed that appeal but also criticised opposition leaders for considering a government supported by Arab-majority parties.Eisenkot, who has been tasked with forming Israel’s next government, said Netanyahu’s remarks had reinforced his belief that the outgoing prime minister was unfit to remain in office.“I sat and listened to the outgoing prime minister’s delusional, divisive, hateful and disgraceful speech, in which he abused a state occasion at the swearing-in of the 26th Knesset.