{"version":"1.9","identifier":"a7366bb3-672c-4a14-a32c-4a419742d764","language":"en-US","title":"Eisenkot's bloc files first bills: an Oct. 7 state inquiry, PM term limits and repeal of the judicial overhaul","layout":{"columns":7,"width":1024,"margin":32,"gutter":20},"componentLayouts":{"text":{"columnStart":0,"columnSpan":7,"maximumContentWidth":720,"margin":{"top":12,"bottom":12}},"photo":{"columnStart":0,"columnSpan":7,"margin":{"top":20,"bottom":20}}},"componentTextStyles":{"default":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":18,"lineHeight":29,"textColor":"#171717"},"headline":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue-Bold","fontSize":36,"lineHeight":42,"conditional":[{"conditions":{"maxViewportWidth":480},"fontSize":28,"lineHeight":34}]},"intro":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":20,"lineHeight":28,"textColor":"#555555"},"caption":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":13,"lineHeight":19,"textColor":"#666666"},"byline":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":13,"lineHeight":20,"textColor":"#666666"},"body":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":18,"lineHeight":29,"paragraphSpacingAfter":14,"linkStyle":{"textColor":"#00704a"}}},"metadata":{"canonicalURL":"https://567politics.com/news/israel-eisenkot-bloc-bills-october-7-state-inquiry-pm-term-limits-judicial-overhaul-repeal-lapid-november-2026","datePublished":"2026-11-10T20:13:38.189865Z","dateModified":"2026-11-10T20:15:24.800667Z","authors":["567 Politics staff"],"excerpt":"Likud says the package would give the attorney general immense power, while UTJ's terms on religion and state collide with Lapid's and the Democrats' bills.","thumbnailURL":"https://pub-fac99da959e344fe99d810d309cef7df.r2.dev/photos/article/a7366bb3-672c-4a14-a32c-4a419742d764/ff8d8fa823a0fb5a442c57730e9c7093.jpg","keywords":["il"],"generatorName":"Frog News","generatorVersion":"1.0"},"components":[{"role":"title","text":"Eisenkot's bloc files first bills: an Oct. 7 state inquiry, PM term limits and repeal of the judicial overhaul","textStyle":"headline","layout":"text"},{"role":"intro","text":"Likud says the package would give the attorney general immense power, while UTJ's terms on religion and state collide with Lapid's and the Democrats' bills.","textStyle":"intro","layout":"text"},{"role":"byline","text":"By 567 Politics staff · Published November 10, 2026","textStyle":"byline","layout":"text"},{"role":"photo","URL":"https://pub-fac99da959e344fe99d810d309cef7df.r2.dev/photos/article/a7366bb3-672c-4a14-a32c-4a419742d764/ff8d8fa823a0fb5a442c57730e9c7093.jpg","caption":"The Knesset plenum hall in Jerusalem, photographed in 2009 · he.wikipedia user בית השלום, attribution license, via Wikimedia Commons","accessibilityCaption":"The Knesset plenum hall in Jerusalem, photographed in 2009","layout":"photo"},{"role":"caption","text":"The Knesset plenum hall in Jerusalem, photographed in 2009 · he.wikipedia user בית השלום, attribution license, via Wikimedia Commons","textStyle":"caption","layout":"text"},{"role":"body","format":"markdown","text":"On the day Israel's 26th Knesset was sworn in, the parties backing [Gadi Eisenkot](https://567politics.com/politicians/gadi-eisenkot) filed a package of bills that sets out what their new majority wants to do first. The bills would create a state commission of inquiry into the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack. They would cap how long a prime minister can serve. And they would repeal several laws passed by [Benjamin Netanyahu](https://567politics.com/politicians/benjamin-netanyahu)'s outgoing government as part of its judicial overhaul.\n\nThe package is the clearest statement so far of the bloc's legislative agenda. It also shows the bloc's tensions. Some of the bills filed by its liberal partners touch religion and state, which a possible Haredi coalition partner says is a red line. Likud says the agenda would hand too much power to the attorney general.\n\nNone of the bills is close to becoming law. They were filed as private members' bills, which must pass several votes in the Knesset plenum and committee. Eisenkot has not yet formed a government.\n\n## What was filed on Tuesday\n\nEisenkot's Yashar! party filed the bills \"together with other factions,\" according to Ynet. The Hebrew news site Walla reported that the core package has eight bills. Two would set up the October 7 inquiry and limit the prime minister's term. Six would repeal laws passed by the outgoing government.\n\nThe Times of Israel reported that Yashar! and Yair Golan's Democrats said they had submitted proposals to repeal what the paper described as \"controversial laws\" passed by Netanyahu's government. These include the law on the attorney general's powers, the judicial selection committee law and Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi's media overhaul.\n\n[Yair Lapid](https://567politics.com/politicians/yair-lapid), the outgoing opposition leader and No. 2 in [Naftali Bennett](https://567politics.com/politicians/naftali-bennett)'s Beyachad party, filed three bills of his own. The Democrats filed a separate set.\n\nThe main bills, as described by Ynet, i24NEWS, Walla and The Times of Israel:","textStyle":"body","layout":"text"},{"role":"htmltable","html":"<table><tr><th>Bill</th><th>Filed by</th><th>What it would do</th></tr><tr><td>State commission of inquiry</td><td>Yashar! and partners</td><td>Set up an inquiry into Oct. 7 in law</td></tr><tr><td>PM term limit</td><td>Yashar!; Lapid</td><td>Cap a PM's tenure; Lapid's bill sets 8 years</td></tr><tr><td>Attorney general law repeal</td><td>Yashar!, Democrats</td><td>Restore the AG's prior powers</td></tr><tr><td>Judiciary repeals</td><td>Yashar!, Democrats</td><td>Undo judicial selection and courts changes</td></tr><tr><td>Incapacity law repeal</td><td>Yashar!</td><td>Revisit when a PM can be declared unfit</td></tr><tr><td>Broadcasting law repeal</td><td>Yashar!, Democrats</td><td>Undo the media regulator overhaul</td></tr><tr><td>Police Ordinance repeal</td><td>Yashar!</td><td>Undo Amendment 45 on police investigations</td></tr><tr><td>Declaration of Independence</td><td>Lapid</td><td>Make it a Basic Law</td></tr><tr><td>Civil partnership</td><td>Lapid</td><td>Civil registration for all couples</td></tr><tr><td>Bar indicted officials</td><td>Democrats</td><td>Bar people under indictment from office</td></tr></table>","layout":"text"},{"role":"body","format":"markdown","text":"The Democrats also filed bills to allow public transportation on Shabbat and to allow civil marriage, according to The Times of Israel. Others would regulate the status of Haredi schools, anchor equality in a Basic Law and expand LGBTQ rights.\n\n## The October 7 inquiry\n\nThe inquiry bill is the centerpiece. Yashar! has made a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 failures one of its central priorities, Ynet reported.\n\nUnder Israeli law, a state commission of inquiry is a formal investigative body. Its chair and members are appointed by the president of the Supreme Court, i24NEWS reported. Today it can be created by the government. It can also be created by the Knesset's State Control Committee in limited cases tied to a state comptroller's report.\n\nThe anti-Netanyahu bloc is weighing legislation that would let the Knesset itself set up such a commission without a government decision, Ynet reported. One option under discussion would require the support of at least 61 lawmakers. Ynet said the bloc is also considering six to eight special Knesset committees to speed up legislation while coalition talks continue.\n\nAt the opening ceremony, President Isaac Herzog called for an October 7 inquiry, The Times of Israel reported.\n\nNetanyahu has long rejected a state commission appointed under the existing system. He has called for what he describes as a balanced or national commission instead. In a November 2025 Knesset debate he said: \"The question is not only what is investigated. The decisive question is who investigates the truth,\" Ynet reported. He has proposed a panel with 50% of members named by the coalition and 50% by the opposition. He has also said: \"I will be the first to appear and answer every question.\"\n\nIn July 2026, a bill for a \"state-national\" commission of inquiry passed its first reading with 59 votes, while the opposition boycotted the vote. It was not completed before the Knesset was dissolved, Ynet reported.\n\n## Term limits\n\nYashar!'s term-limit bill would amend Basic Law: The Government to set a maximum tenure for the prime minister. i24NEWS reported that the party's announcement did not say how many years or terms would be allowed. It also did not say whether past time in office would count.\n\nLapid's version sets a cap of eight years, according to Ynet and Walla. A similar eight-year limit passed its first reading during the Bennett-Lapid government but was never completed, Ynet reported.\n\nNetanyahu is now caretaker prime minister while Eisenkot tries to form a government, The Times of Israel reported.\n\n## Rolling back the judicial overhaul\n\nSix of the bills target laws passed by the outgoing coalition, according to Walla.\n\nThe first would repeal the law on the attorney general. i24NEWS reported that the law lets the government reject the attorney general's legal position in certain cases. It also widens the government's ability to hire separate lawyers in court.\n\nTwo more would repeal an amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary and Amendment 105 to the Courts Law. These cover judicial selection. i24NEWS reported that changes approved in 2025 replaced the Israel Bar Association's representatives on the selection committee with members chosen by the coalition and opposition.\n\nAnother would revisit the 2023 \"incapacity law.\" That amendment limited the grounds for declaring a prime minister unable to serve to physical or mental inability. It also gave the decision to the prime minister, government and Knesset under set procedures, i24NEWS reported.\n\nThe broadcasting bill would undo a 2026 law that created a new regulator to replace existing oversight bodies. The final bill would repeal Amendment 45 to the Police Ordinance. That amendment made the unit that investigates police officers an independent body within the Justice Ministry, i24NEWS reported.\n\nThe judicial overhaul drew mass protests in 2023 over concerns about judicial independence and checks on government power, i24NEWS reported.\n\n## Likud's response\n\nLikud did not issue a detailed response to the bills on Tuesday. But outgoing Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, a Likud member, addressed the bloc's agenda when he scheduled a vote on his successor.\n\nThe bloc had submitted 67 signatures asking for a vote to replace him with Yashar!'s Matan Kahana. Ohana set the vote for Tuesday, Nov. 17. The Times of Israel quoted him as saying the request \"is intended to advance legislation that would grant immense power to the attorney general, further deepening the imbalance between the elected leadership and the bureaucratic echelon.\" He said that despite his \"strong opposition\" to the bloc's agenda, \"I will act as promised: I will respect the will of the majority of Knesset members.\"\n\nThe speakership matters for the bills, because the speaker schedules plenum debates, as Ohana's announcement showed. The dispute over the speaker, and Eisenkot's cancellation of coalition talks with Likud after Netanyahu's opening speech, are covered in [567 Politics' earlier report](https://567politics.com/news/israel-eisenkot-cancels-likud-talks-netanyahu-speech-ohana-speaker-vote-november-17-november-2026).\n\n## Religion and state\n\nLapid's civil partnership bill would create a new civil framework. Couples could register their relationship regardless of sexual orientation, outside the existing religious marriage system, Ynet reported.\n\n\"We will continue to be the voice of Israel's liberal public in the Knesset and work to repair the State of Israel,\" Lapid said.\n\nThose bills, and the Democrats' bills on Shabbat transport and civil marriage, run into a demand from United Torah Judaism (UTJ). Eisenkot's camp has held early contacts with the Haredi party about joining a coalition.\n\nUTJ head [Yaakov Asher](https://567politics.com/politicians/yaakov-asher) told the Haredi news site Kikar Hashabbat that his party will not join any coalition that does not meet three demands, The Times of Israel reported. The first is draft exemptions for yeshiva students. The second is funding for Haredi schools without core curriculum conditions. The third is keeping \"the status quo between religion and state,\" such as rules that bar commerce on Shabbat.\n\n\"It's our responsibility to preserve the image of the entire state, not just Bnei Brak or the Haredi neighborhoods of Jerusalem, but… everything,\" Asher said. UTJ lawmaker Yitzhak Goldknopf told Channel 12 that \"there is room for negotiations\" with Eisenkot.\n\nEisenkot has said he will not give up on his pledge of national service for all, The Times of Israel reported.\n\n## How a private member's bill becomes law\n\nFiling a bill is only the first step. Ynet reported that private members' bills must pass a preliminary reading. They then need three more readings and committee debates. Opponents can use procedures to slow them down.\n\n**The steps a private member's bill must clear in the Knesset**\n\n1. **Filing**: a lawmaker or faction submits the bill\n2. **Preliminary reading**: the plenum votes on whether to advance it\n3. **First reading**: the plenum votes on the bill after committee work\n4. **Committee debates**: a Knesset committee reviews and may amend it\n5. **Second and third readings**: final plenum votes make it law\n\nSource: [Ynet](https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hjaovnxafe)\n\nSome of the outgoing government's measures have already taken effect, while others are due to take effect later, Ynet reported. That means the bloc is racing the calendar on some of them.\n\n## The next steps\n\nThe first test is next Tuesday's speaker vote. If Kahana is elected, the bloc would control the Knesset presidium while coalition talks go on. Eisenkot has 28 days from Sunday to form a government, with a possible extension of up to 14 days.\n\nSixty-seven lawmakers signed the speaker petition. But the bloc does not yet have a governing coalition. Its partners range from Lapid's liberal camp and Golan's Democrats to Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu, with possible talks with UTJ and the Arab parties still unresolved.","textStyle":"body","layout":"text"}]}