Gadi Eisenkot challenges Netanyahu in Israeli politics
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The gist
Former Israeli military chief Gadi Eisenkot is running against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the October 27 election, with polls showing his bloc slightly ahead.
The vote is Israel's first since the October 7, 2023 attacks, and no side is assured a governing majority.
Background
Gadi Eisenkot, 66, is a former Israeli military chief of staff (2015–2019) and founder of the centrist Yashar party; his son and two nephews were killed fighting in Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel's prime minister and Likud leader, on trial for corruption and widely blamed in opinion polls for security failures around October 7. Eisenkot joined the war cabinet after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack, then quit in June 2024 alongside Benny Gantz, accusing Netanyahu of lacking a strategy to end the war. Public disillusionment with Netanyahu was among the factors behind the formation of Yashar, and this is Israel's first election since the 2023 attacks.
How it unfolded
- Oct 7, 2023A Hamas-led attack on Israel killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages; Eisenkot joined the war cabinet afterward.
- Jun 2024Eisenkot quit the war cabinet alongside Gantz, accusing Netanyahu of lacking a strategy to end the war.
- 2025Eisenkot founded the centrist Yashar (Straight/Honest) party.
- Sep 7, 2026Eisenkot delivered a speech in Rosh HaAyin presenting Yashar's full candidate list.
- Sep 26, 2026Five opposition leaders — Lapid, Bennett, Eisenkot, Golan and Liberman — signed a non-aggression pact at Lapid's Tel Aviv home to oust Netanyahu in the October 27 election.
- Oct 18, 2026Polls diverged: Channel 13 projected Eisenkot's bloc at 51 Knesset seats to 50 for Netanyahu's bloc, Channel 12 showed 55 to 51, and Kan showed 52 to 51; in the Channel 13 poll Yashar and Likud held at 20 and 18 seats.
- Oct 20, 2026Billboards of Netanyahu and Eisenkot appeared at the entrance to Kiryat Malachi.
- Oct 23, 2026Reuters reported Eisenkot aims to defeat Netanyahu in the election the following week, with polls showing Yashar leading Likud.
- Oct 27, 2026Election day; Israelis vote for the 120 members of the twenty-sixth Knesset.
Who’s saying what
- Challenger
- Eisenkot says he is running to "save Israel," arguing Netanyahu has embroiled Israel in forever wars, damaged its international standing and US support, pushed the country toward authoritarianism and turned segments of society against one another.
- Challenger
- Eisenkot says the destruction of Hamas's military and governmental power was meant to be achieved within a year, but "over three years have passed, and it hasn't happened," and that freeing the hostages was the only war goal achieved.
- Party
- Opposition leaders' joint statement of principles says that "despite ideological differences among us, the formation of a Zionist, statesmanlike government dedicated to repair and reconstruction is our shared overarching goal."
- Party
- Mansour Abbas, leader of the United Arab List, says "we can ensure the formation of a new government of change" and wants to replace the right-wing government "to end the wars and these policies, to stop the expansion of settlements."
- Analysts
- Eitan Shamir of the Begin-Sadat Center says Eisenkot is "very likable, not a politician, an everyday person... People feel they can relate to him."
- Analysts
- Ahron Bregman of King's College London says the dominant opposition figures such as Bennett, Liberman and Eisenkot represent right-wing politics and are "not willing to touch the real, fundamental issue... the Palestinian issue."
Still unverified
Whether the opposition offers meaningful change in substance as well as style, and which of its leaders might head a future coalition, remains open to question, according to Al Jazeera's reporting; whether either bloc can assemble the sixty-one-seat majority may depend on a reshuffled party map and a handful of small parties, per the Council on Foreign Relations.