General view of the Knesset chamber as 120 newly elected parliamentarians take the oath of office during an opening plenary session in Jerusalem. (EPA Images pic)JERUSALEM: Israel's new parliament convened Tuesday with plans to take aim immediately at caretaker prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as his rival Gadi Eisenkot vowed to quickly cobble together a new government.

Eisenkot, leading a broad left-to-right bloc, will control the agenda from the outset in the new parliament with the help of Israeli-Arab parties, although neither he nor the right-wing Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, holds a majority on their own.

"I am committed in this complex situation to form a national-emergency government as quickly as possible," Eisenkot, a 66-year-old former military chief who only recently entered politics, said before his swearing-in.