Politics
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long been a dominant figure in the country’s politics, is now facing a major challenge from former military chief Gadi Eisenkot.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long been a dominant figure in the country’s politics, is now facing a major challenge from former military chief Gadi Eisenkot. Eisenkot is contesting the October 27 elections with his party, Yashar, and opinion polls suggest that his party is ahead of Netanyahu’s Likud party. Eisenkot’s political style is markedly different from Netanyahu’s. He is reserved, keeps a low profile in the media and has centred his election campaign on his 41 years of military service, including his tenure as army chief from 2015 to 2019. His popularity has also been influenced by personal tragedy: one of his sons and two of his nephews have been killed during the fighting in Gaza.
According to British news agency Reuters, Eisenkot’s emergence does not necessarily guarantee any major shift towards more moderate Israeli policies. Although he is a strong critic of Netanyahu’s leadership and his far-right allies, including Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, Eisenkot also maintains a hard-line position on the establishment of a Palestinian state and on Hamas. Following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, Eisenkot joined Netanyahu’s war cabinet as an observer. However, he left the cabinet eight months later because of disagreements over the government’s strategy. He has argued that, despite more than three years of conflict, Israel has failed to achieve its objective of completely dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.
On security and foreign policy, Eisenkot’s priorities include eliminating Hamas’s military capabilities and preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. He supports pursuing these objectives through military action or a diplomatic agreement backed by the United States. Despite his opposition to Netanyahu, Eisenkot does not support the establishment of a Palestinian state. He maintains that Israel should retain ultimate authority over all security matters in the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Eisenkot comes from a Jewish family that emigrated from Morocco. If elected prime minister, he would become Israel’s first prime minister from the Mizrahi Jewish community. However, even if he wins the election, forming a coalition government and securing a parliamentary majority could prove difficult, as he opposes forming an alliance with Arab Israeli parties.
