Former general Gadi Eisenkot emerges as leading challenger to Netanyahu

Former Israeli military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot has emerged as a leading challenger to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, as the country heads toward a close election on October 27. Polls suggest a tight contest, with Eisenkot seeking to build a coalition capable of ending Netanyahu's rule, three years after the worst security failure in Israel's history and the start of the war in Gaza.

Eisenkot's office in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat HaSharon is small and sparsely furnished, with none of the medals or official photographs typical of a decorated general. Beside his desk sit three photographs: one of his son Gal, who was killed fighting in Gaza in December 2023, two months after the war began; a family portrait from a visit to Washington, D.C., taken before the war; and a picture of Gal with a close friend from his military unit, who was also killed in combat. Eisenkot described that friend as a settler from a West Bank settlement, a detail that he said reflects the mix of backgrounds within Israel's military and the people who serve and die in it together.

Eisenkot has built a reputation for integrity, competence and personal rectitude, and he has cultivated relationships across Israel's fractured political spectrum. His personal loss is, in many ways, a political asset in a country scarred by the October 7, 2023 attacks led by Hamas and the war that followed. He recalled that after sitting shiva, the Jewish mourning period, for three nights, he left his grieving family to attend a meeting of Netanyahu's war cabinet. « I decided to go forward, » he said. He now frames his campaign as a national mission, saying « we owe it to them to be worthy of the sacrifice they made ».

The election will test more than Netanyahu's standing. Israel is deeply polarized, increasingly criticized by much of the world, and facing a resurgence of antisemitism. Voters will decide not only who governs but what kind of country Israel becomes and whether its next leader can begin to heal divisions that have left the Jewish state confronting one of the gravest crises in its history.

Netanyahu, who has weathered scandals, electoral defeats and corruption charges, cannot be discounted. Many Israelis still see him as the leader best able to protect them in a dangerous region, even as his credibility has suffered. Eisenkot could form a coalition with opposition figures including former prime minister Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid, Avigdor Lieberman and Yair Golan. Netanyahu would depend on far-right parties led by Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, whose ultra-nationalist politics have drawn support among younger right-wing Israelis.

Israel's fragmented parliamentary system offers no guarantee of a decisive result. Negotiations could stretch for weeks or collapse, sending voters back to the polls. Eisenkot has said he will not serve in a unity government with Netanyahu under any circumstances. He has tied his ambitions to the survival of the Zionist project, including confronting the threat from Iran, restoring Israel's standing abroad, preserving its character as a Jewish democracy and finding an accommodation with the Palestinians.

Yossi Klein Halevi, an Israeli author and senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, said « what holds the country together is the Jewish and democratic ethos of the majority of Israelis », adding that this is what Eisenkot is offering to repair.

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Derek Weston

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Derek Weston covers public affairs, politics, business, culture and daily news for Core Memo. The role focuses on verification, context, and clear explanations for readers.

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