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JERUSALEM — As Israel heads into a fiercely contested general election on Oct. 27, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot has emerged as the principal challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Eisenkot’s rise comes at a pivotal moment in Israeli politics, with the election widely viewed as a referendum on the long-serving premier’s leadership in the violent aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
A recent Channel 12 poll put Eisenkot’s new party, Yashar (Hebrew for “Straight” or “Upright”), ahead of Netanyahu’s Likud, projecting 23 seats to Likud’s 22 in the 120-member Knesset.
The same survey found that 43 percent of respondents considered Eisenkot, 66, the most suitable candidate for prime minister, compared with 34 percent for Netanyahu.
Eisenkot — who has dismissed calls for a future Palestinian state as irrelevant after the Oct. 7 attacks and pioneered Israel’s strategy of disproportionate military responses in Lebanon — has built his campaign around a 10-point platform that he says will restore Israel’s security, unity and democratic institutions.
Advanced on the premise that Hezbollah conceals fighters and weapons among civilian homes and infrastructure, the doctrine calls for a devastating Israeli response against enemy population centers when Israeli communities come under long-range attack.
Eisenkot also promises a “new long-term national security doctrine” aimed at strengthening the military and reinforcing Israel’s borders.
A central plank of this is a “universal national service law” that would extend compulsory service to ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arab citizens.
He has also pledged to “protect judicial independence, the rule of law, minority rights and a free press.”
“Through these steps, we will ensure that Israel is a Jewish, democratic, powerful, advanced and secure state,” Eisenkot’s campaign says.
His overall position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, however, remains less clearly defined.
Relatively new to politics, Eisenkot has attracted widespread public sympathy after his son, Gal, and two nephews were killed fighting in Gaza.
Eisenkot’s call for universal military service has become a defining issue of his campaign, putting him at the forefront of opposition to Netanyahu’s alliance with ultra-Orthodox parties.
Eisenkot has repeatedly attacked Netanyahu’s agreement with his coalition partners to advance legislation exempting many Haredi men from military service.
‘Different generation’
Unlike Netanyahu, who comes from one of Israel’s elite families, Eisenkot is the son of Moroccan immigrants and grew up on the country’s geographic periphery.
“In a political universe full of Netanyahu wannabes … Eisenkot reads as a man of a different generation, far more connected to the traditional security narratives of Zionism,” columnist Nadav Eyal wrote in a recent blog.
Eisenkot’s understated style could prove to be one of his strongest political assets, said Elovits.
“The middle class and upper middle class … look for someone that will look responsible, boring, and I think that Eisenkot has that appeal,” he said.
Although opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett remain in contention, current polling suggests neither is as well positioned as Eisenkot to defeat Netanyahu.
Source: Manilatimes
