✡️ Herzog officially tasks Eisenkot with forming the government — Netanyahu erupts in panic President Isaac Herzog has formally handed the mandate to form Israel's next government to Gadi Eisenkot. The former IDF chief now has 28 days to build a coalition, backed by 67 Knesset members — including Arab parties — compared to Netanyahu's 46. With the math firmly against him, Netanyahu is now in full desperation mode, recording frantic messages to his base to block Eisenkot's coalition. He is demanding a "national unity government" made up exclusively of Zionist parties (explicitly excluding Israel's Arab citizens), warning that the alternative is national suicide: 💬 "A government dependent on Hamas supporters will not fight Hamas... A government dependent on radical Islam will not fight radical Islam. The fires and flames we see on the streets of Paris and Brussels are negligible compared to those that will engulf the streets of Jerusalem." Netanyahu is framing a democratically elected coalition as an existential apocalypse. Why? Because the Israeli establishment is eager to oust him, not just to end the deadlock, but to find a scapegoat for the October 7 failures and reset relations with the US. He claims he is the only one who can save Israel from the "radical Islam" he describes. But with 67 MKs lining up behind his rival, his warnings sound less like security strategy and more like a desperate bid to avoid the courtroom. 👍 Substack | Chat | @geopolitics_prime