Gadi Eisenkot is the man who could bring an end to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s grip on power in Israel. He has been neck and neck with Netanyahu in parliamentary polls that kicked off on Tuesday October 27.
Netanyahu has been Israel's PM for 19 years -- his first tenure (1996–1999) lasted 3 years and 18 days; his second tenure (2009–2021) lasted 12 years and 74 days, while his third tenure began in 2022, and he has been the PM since.
Netanyahu is now facing a tough battle in the October 27 Israeli parliamentary election, fighting for survival against ex-Army chief Gadi Eisenkot.
According to reports, opinion polls showed a close race between Netanyahu's Likud party and its right-wing allies and a rival alliance led by Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff and security hawk with backers on the right and in the centre.
This election in Israel comes in the backdrop of the wars in Gaza and Iran that have put Netanyahu under scrutiny.
Who is Gadi Eisenkot?
Reserved, media-shy, and a relative newcomer to Israeli politics, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot presents a clear contrast to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He is the founder of the centrist Yashar party.
Military career: Eisenkot, the former military chief of staff, has spent most of his life in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
He enlisted in the Golani Brigade in 1978 and rose over a 40-year career to become chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, serving under Netanyahu, according to CNN.
He almost always dresses in black, speaks halting English and tends to respond in interviews with bullet-point lists, a reflection of the military culture that shaped him.
His tenure included one of the most contentious episodes in recent Israeli military history. In 2016, Sgt. Elor Azaria shot and killed a wounded Palestinian attacker in Hebron.
Despite pressure from right-wing politicians – including Netanyahu – Eisenkot backed a military investigation and trial, saying he was defending the army’s discipline and ethics.
Political career: Eisenkot is a relative newcomer to politics. He entered politics in 2022 alongside another former chief of staff, Benny Gantz.
After the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the two joined Netanyahu’s emergency war cabinet. But they left in June 2024, pointing to the absence of a clear post-war strategy, CNN reported.
His image as a straight-talking security hawk from humble roots has resonated in a nation going to the polls on October 27 for the first time since Hamas attacked Israel three years ago.
He would be the first prime minister who is Sephardic, Jews who trace their recent origins to the Middle East and North Africa, AFP reported.
Unlike Netanyahu, who comes from an elite family and whose father was a prominent professor in the United States, Eisenkot is the son of Moroccan Jews, and grew up on Israel's geographic periphery.
Eisenkot is the second of nine children and a father of five.
Rise to popularity
Eisenkot garnered broad public sympathy after his son Gal and two nephews were killed fighting in Gaza. His working-class roots constitute another element of his appeal.
His background came into the spotlight when a senior commentator on the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 television station described Eisenkot as "a monkey" controlled by "Ashkenazi elitists," AFP reported.
He was referring to Jews of European descent who have historically dominated Israel's political and economic institutions.
Gadi Eisenkot's stance on Iran, Gaza:
Eisenkot offers a break with Netanyahu's leadership and far-right allies, but not with the hawkish security views that have hardened since October 7, 2023.
On Gaza war:
On Gaza, Gadi Eisenkot has vowed to end Hamas rule within 18 months, according to AFP.
He recently said this could be achieved either through the implementation of US President Donald Trump's ceasefire plan, which envisages Hamas's gradual disarmament and a transfer of power, or through "creative operations" aimed at destroying the movement's military wing.
Eisenkot lambasted Netanyahu over his handling of the Gaza war, accusing the prime minister of prolonging the conflict and endangering the Israeli hostages for political reasons, a charge which eventually led him to leave the war cabinet.
In practice, Netanyahu’s stated aims are broadly similar, but Eisenkot argues that “as long as Netanyahu is in office, Hamas stays in power.”
On Palestinian statehood
He opposes Palestinian statehood and says Hamas' military wing must be destroyed or dismantled.
CNN reported that before entering politics, Eisenkot warned that continued Israeli control over the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank risked creating a bi-national state, which he called “the end of the Zionist vision.”
Since October 7, however, he has rejected the two-state solution, stating in an interview recently that anyone who still advocates for it is “delusional,” without presenting any alternative vision.
He does oppose formal annexation and illegal outposts and has called the Israeli government’s plan to build in the controversial E1 area of the West Bank a “mistake” because of the international cost.
He also vowed to crack down on extremist West Bank settlers who have attacked Palestinians with impunity and recently beat up an American journalist and a French mayor, decrying the incidents as "Jewish terror" abetted by Netanyahu's government.
Iran, Lebanon conflict:
On Iran, Eisenkot shares Netanyahu’s central goals of preventing it from acquiring a nuclear weapon and of weakening Tehran’s proxy network, CNN reported.
Eisenkot, however, has criticised the lack of strategy in the latest conflict and argues that military gains need to be accompanied by diplomacy.
Besides, the decision to end the war in Iran is largely believed to be in the hands of the United States, rather than Israel.
Meanwhile, commanding the military during the 2006 war with Hezbollah, Eisenkot devised the so-called "Dahiya doctrine", named after a Beirut suburb, in which Israel vowed massive force against civilian infrastructure in areas populated by the Lebanese militants.
According to CNN, like nearly all of Netanyahu’s rivals, Eisenkot broadly supported Israeli military operations in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
His key promises:
1. Addressing a key source of resentment among Israelis following three years of war, Eisenkot has promised to curb exemptions from military service for religious students.
2. He promised a "universal national service law" requiring ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arab citizens to perform either military or civil service.
3. Eisenkot also promised to try to restore the international image of Israel, badly strained after three years of war in Gaza and violence in the occupied West Bank.
4. He has sought to appeal to centrist and liberal voters by pledging to "protect judicial independence, the rule of law, minority rights and a free press".
5. He promised to try to restore the international image of Israel, badly strained after three years of war in Gaza and violence in the occupied West Bank
6. He has vowed to crack down on extremist West Bank settlers who have attacked Palestinians with impunity and recently beat up an American journalist and a French mayor, decrying the incidents as "Jewish terror" abetted by Netanyahu's government.