Gadi Eisenkot’s Rise Puts Israel’s Political Divide in Sharp Focus
Qwenews.com – As Israel approaches its October 27 election, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot has become the most prominent figure seeking to end Benjamin Netanyahu’s long hold on power. His appeal begins with a basic political contrast: for voters looking for a change in leadership, Eisenkot offers an alternative to the prime minister. Yet his candidacy also carries wider social and personal significance in a country shaped by enduring divisions over identity, security and power.
Eisenkot, 66, is the son of Moroccan immigrants and would become Israel’s first Mizrahi prime minister if he succeeds. Mizrahi Jews, whose families came from the Middle East and North Africa, have often been an important electoral base for Netanyahu’s Likud party. Eisenkot’s background, combined with his long military career, has given his campaign a distinctive place in an unusually consequential contest.
From the Periphery to the Military’s Highest Rank
The second of nine children, Eisenkot grew up in Tiberias and Eilat, communities outside Israel’s central political establishment. He is the father of five and spent most of his adult life in the Israel Defense Forces before entering public office.
He joined the Golani Brigade in 1978 and rose through the IDF over four decades. From 2015 until 2019, he served as chief of staff, the military’s senior uniformed post, during Netanyahu’s time as prime minister. His personal trajectory differs sharply from Netanyahu’s upbringing in Jerusalem’s elite political circles, a contrast that has become part of the election’s broader narrative.
Although Eisenkot seldom foregrounds his ethnic heritage, it has become a subject of intense public discussion. That scrutiny increased after Yinon Magal, a high-profile television host widely seen as close to Netanyahu, made remarks about Eisenkot that triggered widespread condemnation. Magal described him using a racial slur and portrayed him as a “Mizrahi-Moroccan” figure supposedly controlled by “Ashkenazi elites.”
The episode revived attention to longstanding disparities and tensions between Jews of European background and communities whose roots are in the Middle East and North Africa. Magal later said he had not intended to ridicule Eisenkot’s origins, arguing that his language referred to a criminal-world expression for a public front controlled by others. Netanyahu also denounced the comments.
A General Shaped by Questions of Military Discipline
Eisenkot’s military record includes one of the most divisive incidents in recent Israeli army history. In 2016, Sgt. Elor Azaria shot and killed a wounded Palestinian attacker in Hebron. Right-wing political figures, including Netanyahu, exerted pressure around the case, but Eisenkot supported the army’s investigation and prosecution.
His position reflected his insistence that military discipline and ethical standards had to be protected, even amid political pressure. That episode helped define his public image as a security figure willing to take positions that may not satisfy every part of Israel’s right wing.
His shift into electoral politics came in 2022, when he joined forces with another former IDF chief of staff, Benny Gantz. After the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, Eisenkot and Gantz entered Netanyahu’s emergency wartime cabinet. They departed in June 2024, saying the government lacked a clear strategy for the period after the war.
Personal Loss and a Political Mission
The Gaza war brought severe loss to Eisenkot’s own family. His youngest son, Gal, was killed in combat in Gaza in December 2023 at the age of 25, roughly two months after the war began. Two of Eisenkot’s nephews also died while fighting.
In an April 2026 article for Yedioth Ahronoth, Eisenkot described a commitment he made following his son’s death:
“Over Gal’s grave, I swore that the price he paid, he and his friends, those he knew and those he didn’t, would not be in vain,”
He has presented that pledge as central to his reason for remaining in politics. For Eisenkot, the election debate is therefore connected not only to questions of leadership, but also to the future direction of the country after a war that has reached deeply into Israeli society.
Strong Polling Does Not Guarantee Power
A year ago, Eisenkot was registering only single-digit support in polls. He now leads the opposition field, with recent surveys putting his Yashar party between 20 and 23 seats in the 120-member Knesset. Those projections place Yashar ahead of Likud, while Eisenkot also performs better than Netanyahu in polls asking voters who is better suited to serve as prime minister.
Still, Israel’s parliamentary system means finishing first does not automatically deliver the premiership. After an election, the president gives a lawmaker the chance to form a government based on who appears most capable of building a majority coalition. The decisive threshold is 61 seats.
Current polling indicates that neither Netanyahu’s bloc, including far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, nor the opposing camp is clearly headed for that majority. The outcome could therefore produce another period of political paralysis.
Eisenkot’s potential coalition would need support from parties across the ideological spectrum: centrist, left-wing and right-wing groups. In some possible scenarios, Arab parties could become essential. Netanyahu has long sought to portray cooperation with Arab parties as illegitimate, while several opposition leaders have already said they would not work with them.
Eisenkot has said he would attempt to establish a government even without a 61-seat majority, leaving open the prospect of a minority administration supported externally by Arab parties. Whether the right-wing partners needed for such an arrangement would accept that path remains one of the election’s central unanswered questions.
For now, Eisenkot’s candidacy represents more than a contest between two political personalities. It tests whether a former general with roots outside Israel’s traditional centers of power can assemble a coalition broad enough to reshape the country’s leadership at a moment of profound national uncertainty.
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