Eisenkot bloc selects Kahana for Knesset speaker role
Opposition leaders finalized committee chairs and a speaker nominee on Tuesday, two weeks after the election that ended the governing coalition's majority.
By Julian Schulz ·
The Zionist opposition bloc named former religious affairs minister Matan Kahana as its candidate for Knesset speaker on Tuesday. The decision followed days of negotiations among the five parties seeking to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Leaders of the coalition, including Gadi Eisenkot of Yashar, Yair Lapid of B'Yachad, Naftali Bennett of B'Yachad, Yair Golan of the Democrats, and Avigdor Liberman of Yisrael Beytenu, issued a joint statement confirming the lineup. They will submit the finalized committee makeup for Knesset approval on Wednesday.
Kahana, ranked fifth on the Yashar party list, will challenge the incumbent speaker, Amir Ohana of Likud. Ohana stated he will schedule a session to select his successor within a week if a majority of lawmakers formally requests it. The opposition currently holds 48 of the 120 seats in the incoming Knesset.
The bloc’s agreement resolved a dispute over the speaker position. Bennett and Liberman initially supported Lapid, but Eisenkot insisted the role go to a Yashar member. Eisenkot and Liberman reached an accord in a meeting on Monday, according to Hebrew media reports.
In a separate arrangement, the group assigned Liberman to lead the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Liran Avisar Ben Horin, a former director general of the Communications Ministry and No. 5 on the B'Yachad list, will chair the Finance Committee. Her appointment marks the first time a woman has headed that specific committee.
Kahana first entered the Knesset in 2019 on a right-wing ticket led by Bennett. He served as religious affairs minister in the government that removed Netanyahu from power in 2021 and 2022. After that government fell, Kahana joined Benny Gantz's Blue and White party but left in 2025 with Eisenkot to form Yashar.
The opposition faces a numerical challenge in forming a governing majority. Netanyahu's coalition controls 53 seats, while the opposition holds 48. The remaining 19 seats belong to Arab parties, whom most opposition leaders have rejected as government partners, with the exception of Golan.
To bridge the gap, Liberman called for a compromise with the Haredi parties on exempting ultra-Orthodox men from military service. This move reverses a central campaign promise of the opposition bloc. The Haredi parties hold 13 seats, which would give the opposition a majority if they joined.
Meanwhile, the governing coalition moved to fill a vacant cabinet position. Likud announced that Netanyahu will bring a motion to cabinet approval on Monday to assign the interior minister role to Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar. Sa'ar previously held the post in the 2013 and 2014 governments.
The interior ministry has lacked a permanent head since July 2025, when Moshe Arbel of Shas resigned over the Haredi draft issue. Netanyahu assumed some of those duties before agreeing in August to appoint a new minister under pressure from the High Court of Justice.
