# Israel's new Knesset is sworn in as Eisenkot's bloc files to oust Speaker Ohana for Matan Kahana

The change bloc's 48 seats need the Arab-led parties' 19 to win the chair. Smotrich calls that illegitimate; UTJ says wait for a government.

By 567 Politics staff · 567politics
Published: 2026-11-10T14:21:46.141981Z
Updated: 2026-11-10T14:22:04.418503Z
Canonical: https://567politics.com/news/israel-26th-knesset-sworn-in-kahana-speaker-nomination-signatures-smotrich-utj-conditions-november-2026

Cite citation_url. Preserve source links, dates and qualifications. date_modified is an edit date, not proof that every claim was rechecked. Third-party images and quoted material retain their own rights. Resolve relative links against https://567politics.com/news/israel-26th-knesset-sworn-in-kahana-speaker-nomination-signatures-smotrich-utj-conditions-november-2026.

Israel's 26th Knesset was sworn in on Tuesday, November 10, and the first fight of the new term began before the oath was finished. The five Jewish-led parties of Gadi Eisenkot's "change bloc" named Yashar MK Matan Kahana as their candidate to replace Speaker Amir Ohana of Likud, and Yashar filed the signatures needed to force a vote. The bloc's 48 seats are not enough on their own, so the speakership turns on the 19 seats of the Arab-led parties, which said replacing Ohana is a priority. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called a speaker elected with those votes illegitimate, while United Torah Judaism, the Haredi party the bloc has courted, said a speaker should change only when a new government is formed.

The result matters beyond the chair itself. The speaker controls the Knesset's agenda, its committee chairs and the timing of votes, including the vote to swear in a new government. Eisenkot holds the mandate to form a coalition, but he does not yet have 61 seats, so control of the Knesset is the first lever his side can pull while [Benjamin Netanyahu](/politicians/benjamin-netanyahu) stays in office as head of a caretaker government.

## The change bloc names its slate

The leaders of the bloc, Eisenkot, Democrats chief Yair Golan, Yisrael Beytenu leader [Avigdor Liberman](/politicians/avigdor-liberman), B'Yachad chief Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, announced their choices in a joint statement on Tuesday, according to [The Times of Israel](https://www.timesofisrael.com/eisenkot-led-bloc-agrees-to-nominate-yashars-matan-kahan-for-knesset-speaker/). Kahana, No. 5 on Yashar's list, is a former religious affairs minister who entered the Knesset in 2019 on a right-wing ticket led by Bennett. He later joined Benny Gantz's Blue and White and left with Eisenkot in 2025 to form Yashar.

The same statement assigned the Knesset's most powerful committees. Liberman is to chair the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which [The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/nov/10/new-knesset-speaker-ousting-netanyahu-israel-pm) noted will play a central role in drafting legislation on military service for ultra-Orthodox men. Incoming B'Yachad MK Liran Avisar Ben Horin, a former director general of the Communications Ministry, is to chair the Finance Committee; the Times of Israel reported she would be its first female chair. Incoming Yashar MK Roy Folkman is to head the Arrangements Committee, according to the [Jerusalem Post](https://www.jpost.com/israel-election-2026/article-914409).

According to the Times of Israel, Bennett and Liberman had first backed Lapid for speaker, but Eisenkot insisted the post go to a member of his own party. The finalized committee makeup was to be submitted for Knesset approval on Wednesday.

Yashar then submitted the signatures of more than 61 lawmakers demanding a vote to replace Ohana, the Times of Israel and the [Jerusalem Post's live coverage](https://www.jpost.com/israel-election-2026/2026-11-10/live-updates-914399) reported. Ohana has said he will schedule a session within a week of a formal majority request. A vote was not expected on swearing-in day itself.

## The numbers behind the speaker fight

The final count gave Netanyahu's camp 53 seats and the parties backing Eisenkot 48, with the Joint List and Ra'am holding 19, according to the Jerusalem Post's [election summary](https://www.jpost.com/israel-election-2026/2026-11-10/live-updates-914399). Likud is the largest party with 27 seats, ahead of Yashar with 21 and B'Yachad with 12. Turnout was 77.7%, which the paper said was up 7.1% from 2022. Our earlier report covered [how that final count was certified](/news/israel-final-count-53-48-19-allegations-october-2026).

```chart
type: column
title: Seats in Israel's 26th Knesset by bloc
note: 120 seats in total. A speaker or a government needs 61 votes. Bloc labels follow the Jerusalem Post's grouping.
source: [The Jerusalem Post](https://www.jpost.com/israel-election-2026/2026-11-10/live-updates-914399)
---
Bloc | Seats
Netanyahu's bloc | 53
Eisenkot's change bloc | 48
Arab-led parties | 19
```

Together the change bloc and the Arab-led parties hold 67 seats, which The Guardian said is enough to install a consensus speaker. The Guardian reported that the two Palestinian-led opposition parties had said replacing Ohana was a priority and were expected to vote for Kahana. The Times of Israel's live coverage carried a headline quoting Joint List leader Ahmad Tibi as saying the list "wants to be part of the change," and the Jerusalem Post's live blog carried Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas saying his party aspires to be part of the next government. We were not able to open a full statement from either party, so their positions are reported here only as those outlets summarized them.

That arithmetic is the core of the dispute. All the Jewish-led parties in Eisenkot's bloc except Golan's Democrats have rejected the Arab-led parties as partners in government, according to the Times of Israel. A speaker vote is different, because it requires only a majority on one question. Our earlier reporting explains [why the opposition leaders split over the Arab parties' role](/news/israel-opposition-leaders-recommend-eisenkot-herzog-consultations-arab-parties-november-2026) and [what Ra'am's eight seats could mean for a minority government](/news/israel-netanyahu-confidant-eshel-raam-abbas-contacts-n12-unity-video-november-2026).

## Netanyahu's allies object to how the votes would be counted

Smotrich, who leads the Religious Zionist Party, issued a statement on Tuesday morning addressed directly to Kahana. According to [JDN](https://www.jdn.co.il/news/2762889/), a Haredi news site, Smotrich called the move "moral bankruptcy" and said that being appointed speaker "with the votes of the enemies of Israel" is not legitimate, and he urged Kahana to refuse the post. The Jerusalem Post's live coverage reported the same remarks. We found no response from Kahana in the reports we read. Smotrich's wider positions are summarized on his [profile page](/politicians/bezalel-smotrich).

Smotrich's objection, as reported, is about where the votes would come from rather than about Kahana himself. The change bloc's joint statement did not address the Arab-led parties' votes, and we found no response from the bloc's leaders to Smotrich's remarks in the reports we read.

The dispute spilled onto the street. The [Jerusalem Post](https://www.jpost.com/israel-election-2026/article-914409) reported that several right-wing organizations planned to demonstrate outside the Knesset during the ceremony, under the slogan "We do not replace a Knesset speaker with the votes of Hamas supporters." Before the ceremony, more than 160 former senior security officials, including former heads of the military, intelligence services and police, warned in a letter to serving security chiefs that activists intended to block lawmakers and their families from entering the building, The Guardian reported, citing Maariv. The Jerusalem Post reported that the Knesset Guard was on heightened alert but that authorities were not aware of any plans to block lawmakers from entering.

## UTJ sets its price, and Shas stays with Netanyahu

The Haredi parties, which hold 13 seats according to the Times of Israel, are the bloc's other possible route to 61. United Torah Judaism chairman Yaakov Asher sent a letter to Folkman on Monday saying his party would not join an effort to replace the speaker before a government is formed. "United Torah Judaism's principled position is that the replacement of the Knesset speaker should take place simultaneously with the formation of a new government, rather than upon the convening of the Knesset," Asher said, according to the [Jerusalem Post](https://www.jpost.com/israel-election-2026/article-914332). He said the aim was "to prevent an absurd situation" in which a speaker would oppose the government that is eventually formed. The Yeshiva World, which also published the letter, reported that Asher said this had been the practice in the past with one exception.

On Tuesday Asher went further and set out what UTJ would want from any coalition. In an interview reported by [Channel 14](https://www.c14.co.il/article/1782258), he listed three conditions: legislation to settle the status of yeshiva students, funding for Haredi schools without a requirement to teach core subjects such as mathematics and English, and keeping the status quo on religion and state. The Times of Israel's live coverage summarized the same three demands, and a separate headline there said Shas would stick with Netanyahu and would not negotiate with "any other player."

The conditions collide with Eisenkot's own promises. JDN reported Eisenkot saying before the swearing-in that a duty of service for all is a threshold condition for any coalition partnership, and the Times of Israel quoted him as saying "we won't give up on military, national service for all." Liberman, who campaigned for universal conscription, has called for a compromise with the Haredi parties, the Times of Israel reported. Our earlier stories explain [what UTJ says will and won't move](/news/israel-eisenkot-haredi-parties-utj-shas-draft-deal-61-seats-november-2026) and [why UTJ said the speaker should not change yet](/news/israel-knesset-speaker-ohana-replacement-eisenkot-liberman-yashar-utj-november-2026).

## Where the parties sit

The coalition math cuts across the usual left-right lines. Liberman's party is secular and right-wing on security; the Haredi parties are religiously traditional and have usually sat with Netanyahu; the Democrats are on the left; and the Arab-led lists differ sharply from each other. The chart below shows 567politics' dated editorial estimates of where Israel's parties sit on economic and social questions. They are estimates, not measured scores, and the chart can change after publication.

https://567politics.com/embed/political-spectrum?country=israel

For party background, see the [Likud profile](/parties/israel/likud) and the [Gadi Eisenkot profile](/politicians/gadi-eisenkot).

## What the speaker could do for Eisenkot

[The Guardian's analysis](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/nov/10/new-knesset-speaker-ousting-netanyahu-israel-pm) set out why the chair matters. A new speaker would give the opposition control of the legislative agenda while coalition talks go on. It could also shorten the window in which an outgoing speaker might delay swearing in a new government; The Guardian said Ohana could hold up that step for as long as a week. It suggested Eisenkot might wait to announce any coalition deal until the speaker had been replaced, to give Netanyahu less time to work on wavering partners.

Gideon Rahat, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told The Guardian that once an alternative government is in place, even a minority one, "it would be hard to oust them." If Eisenkot fails, the mandate can pass to another lawmaker, and if no one succeeds, Israel would face another election, with Netanyahu's government staying on as caretaker. Under the law, Eisenkot has 28 days from November 8, with a possible 14-day extension.

```diagram
type: timeline
title: From mandate to speaker vote
source: [The Times of Israel](https://www.timesofisrael.com/eisenkot-led-bloc-agrees-to-nominate-yashars-matan-kahan-for-knesset-speaker/) and [The Jerusalem Post](https://www.jpost.com/israel-election-2026/2026-11-10/live-updates-914399)
---
2026-11-08: President Herzog gives Eisenkot the mandate to form a government
2026-11-09: UTJ tells Yashar it will not back replacing the speaker before a government forms
2026-11-10: The 26th Knesset is sworn in; the change bloc names Kahana and files signatures
2026-11-11: Committee makeup due to be submitted for Knesset approval
2026-11-17: About one week after the request, the latest a speaker vote would be expected under Ohana's pledge
2026-12-06: End of Eisenkot's first 28 days, before any extension
```

## Other moves on day one

Netanyahu's side also moved. Likud said Netanyahu would ask the cabinet to approve Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar as interior minister as well, a post vacant since Shas's Moshe Arbel resigned in July 2025, according to the Times of Israel. The party said Likud faction chairman Ofir Katz had turned the job down to coordinate "the right-wing bloc's maneuvers in the Knesset." Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben-Gvir named MK Yitzhak Kreuzer as his faction's chairman, the Jerusalem Post reported.

## How we reported this

This story draws on the change bloc's joint statement as reported by the Times of Israel, UTJ chairman Asher's letter as published by the Jerusalem Post and The Yeshiva World, Smotrich's statement as reported by JDN, and The Guardian's analysis, which relies in part on a letter quoted by Maariv. Several live-coverage items, including the Tibi and Abbas remarks, are attributed to the outlet that reported them because we could not open the underlying statements. Seat totals come from the Central Elections Committee's final count as reported by the Jerusalem Post. The November 17 date in the timeline is our calculation from Ohana's one-week pledge, not an announced date.