Israel's caretaker prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Saturday cautioned his opponent Gadi Eisenkot against forming a "shaky" government.
Netanyahu reiterated his call for a national unity government, urging the two major blocs to talk "without preconditions" and "set aside all disagreements and boycotts."
"Gadi, instead of trying to form a shaky and dangerous government... let us do what is called for," he advocated in a speech.
Netanyahu based his counsel on Iran, which he maintained "seeks to destroy Israel" and is working to revive its nuclear program.
The caretaker PM warned Iran will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons against Israel, since it "did not hesitate to murder many thousands of its own people."
A unity government, Netanyahu argued, will permanently remove the Iranian threat, saying "a narrow government" or one that "relies on supporters of terrorism" will not be able to achieve that goal.
Responding to the remarks, Eisenkot stated that Netanyahu knows he lost the elections, but "continues to sow division and stokes tensions as if there were no tomorrow."
The Yashar party leader wondered why his rival was calling for negotiations while they were already underway, declaring "these tricks don't work on me."
Eisenkot said Netanyahu was aware of the "absolute majority against him among Israeli citizens and in the Knesset," assuring a new and better government would be formed.
President Isaac Herzog selected Eisenkot on November 7 to assemble a 61-seat majority coalition in the 120-member Knesset. There's an initial 28-day window to form a government, with a possible 14-day extension.
Netanyahu's bloc won 53 seats, while Eisenkot's bloc won 48 seats, each below the 61-seat threshold required for a governing majority. The Arab-led parties had secured the remaining 19 seats.
Netanyahu, Eisenkot trade words over new Israeli government formation