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Former Israeli military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot has emerged as a major political challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the country’s national election. Having suffered deep personal loss during the Gaza war, Eisenkot is attempting to build a broad opposition coalition to end Netanyahu’s decade-plus hold on power.
Wartime Service and Break with Netanyahu
On Oct. 7, 2023, Eisenkot woke to news of the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel. He immediately alerted his 25-year-old son Gal, a military combat medic reservist who was staying at the family home for Simchat Torah. Eisenkot asked his son, “Gal, come to see the TV,” adding, “There are trucks of Hamas inside Sderot. This means war. Where is your military equipment?” He then drove Gal to his unit’s base as thousands of reservists mobilized.
Four days later, Netanyahu invited Eisenkot to join a small emergency war cabinet. Eisenkot, who had previously served as chief of the general staff under Netanyahu from 2015 to 2019, agreed to enter the government despite existing political differences. During his tenure in the war cabinet, Eisenkot successfully advocated against launching an immediate secondary offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, arguing that military resources needed to focus on Gaza.
However, Eisenkot clashed with Netanyahu over war priorities. Eisenkot pushed to prioritize a hostage deal to free the 251 captives abducted on Oct. 7 before launching a full ground campaign. “My idea was to do the hostage deal, and after that, defeat Hamas,” Eisenkot told TIME. Netanyahu ultimately chose to proceed directly with an extensive aerial bombardment and ground invasion. The ongoing military operations in Gaza have killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Two months into the war, Eisenkot suffered a personal tragedy. While at a military headquarters, an officer informed him that his son Gal had been critically injured in combat in Gaza alongside his friend Eyal Berkowitz. Eisenkot recounted that when he was told to return home rather than to a hospital, “I understood he was dead.”
At Gal’s nationally televised funeral, Eisenkot delivered a eulogy, stating, “I promise you that we will continue to be a united and happy family, so that your sacrifice and that of the other fallen will not be in vain and that we will be worthy of it.” He concluded, “I salute you, beloved son.” Following three days of shiva mourning, Eisenkot returned to the war cabinet. “I decided to go forward,” he said.
Eisenkot eventually resigned from the war cabinet on June 9, 2024, alongside opposition figure Benny Gantz, effectively ending the emergency unity government. His resignation followed a late June 2024 meeting in which Eisenkot asked Netanyahu for his long-term exit plan. When Netanyahu insisted on fighting until “total victory,” Eisenkot presented him with Martin Indyk’s book on Middle East diplomacy, Master of the Game. Netanyahu stated he had not read it and replied, “Gadi, I have a different view about the meaning of the word strategy.” Eisenkot subsequently accused Netanyahu of prioritizing political survival over securing the remaining hostages, stating, “He neglected them.” A spokesperson for Netanyahu did not respond to requests for comment from TIME.
Eisenkot’s family suffered further losses as the conflict widened. One nephew was killed in Gaza on the day of Gal’s funeral, and another nephew was killed 11 months later. Over the subsequent two years, Israeli forces eliminated top militant leaders, including Hamas figures Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, as well as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, while U.S. forces joined a 12-day air war against Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025. A ceasefire and hostage deal was eventually reached in October 2025. “Netanyahu dragged it” out, Eisenkot stated to TIME, noting that “President Trump pushed him to do it.”
Campaign Platform and Coalition Strategy
Eisenkot is now campaigning as the leader of a political party named Yashar. Born in Tiberias to Moroccan Jewish immigrants and raised in Eilat, Eisenkot would become Israel’s first Mizrahi prime minister if elected. “I feel like it’s a historic mission—to save the state of Israel,” Eisenkot told TIME, adding, “We owe it to them to be worthy of the sacrifice they made.”
Rather than running on a joint ticket with former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Eisenkot chose to run independently to maximize the opposition bloc’s electoral reach, while Bennett aligned with Yair Lapid. Eisenkot envisions a broad coalition incorporating Bennett, Avigdor Liberman, Lapid, and Yair Golan of the Democrats party. “I thought I had the ability to unite Israel, unite this divided country,” Eisenkot stated, explaining that his platform stems “from deep commitment to bring change and defeat Netanyahu.”
Eisenkot’s platform includes establishing a state commission of inquiry into the Oct. 7 intelligence and military failures within his first 14 days in office. He has also pledged to dismantle illegal West Bank outposts, crack down on extremist settler violence, expand mandatory national service, and repair international alliances.
On regional security and the Palestinian issue, Eisenkot opposes a fully independent Palestinian state but rejects the permanent single-state vision promoted by far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. “Smotrich’s vision for one state will be the end of our country,” Eisenkot said. Instead, Eisenkot advocates for a separation model in the West Bank where a reformed Palestinian Authority manages civil governance while Israel maintains military control. For Gaza, he supports the framework of Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan, noting, “We have two options: the 20 points of President Trump, or to use force.” He added, “I prefer the diplomatic option—and I believe I can do it. But if not, I know how to dismantle Hamas with force.”
Eisenkot also proposed gradually reducing Israel’s reliance on U.S. military aid over a five to 10-year period to strengthen national independence and lessen political friction in Washington. “Maybe it will take five to 10 years,” he remarked, “and it is our interest to do it.” Commenting on growing public disapproval of Israel in the U.S., where a 2026 Pew survey indicated around 60% of adults hold an unfavorable view of the country, Eisenkot stated, “Nobody speaks about values right now. Everything is about interest, power, more power, and more power.”
Election Outlook and Opposition Resistance
The upcoming vote requires any governing coalition to secure a 61-seat majority in the 120-member Knesset. Recent polling shows Yashar competing closely with Netanyahu’s Likud party, though neither major bloc is currently guaranteed a clear majority. Ohad Tal, a Knesset member with Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, expressed openness to Eisenkot joining a right-wing government, telling TIME, “I think the chances for a unity government are high because we will be more than happy to have Eisenkot joining our coalition,” while warning against an opposition reliance on Arab parties.
Eisenkot has ruled out serving in any government led by Netanyahu. To potentially include Arab political parties, Eisenkot laid out four non-negotiable coalition requirements: recognizing Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, adhering to its Declaration of Independence, accepting national service for all citizens, and recognizing Hamas as a terrorist organization.
The campaign has grown increasingly contentious. Netanyahu’s supporters have circulated AI-generated attack videos online targeting Eisenkot’s military record and personal losses. Furthermore, Channel 14 commentator Yinon Magal directed personal insults at Eisenkot on air, which Netanyahu later described as “highly inappropriate.” Responding to the campaign tactics, Eisenkot said, “I felt contempt,” calling it “the lowest he could go.”
Yossi Klein Halevi, a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, noted that Eisenkot’s campaign focuses on repairing the country’s core identity. “What holds the country together is the Jewish and democratic ethos of the majority of Israelis,” Klein Halevi told TIME. “That’s what we’re going to have to try to repair. That is really what Eisenkot is offering the country.”
Public anxiety regarding the political landscape remains high, with a July Channel 12 poll indicating that 23% of respondents said they or their family members would consider leaving Israel if Netanyahu is re-elected.
