Former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, who is seeking to defeat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tuesday’s election, is highlighting the “deep bonds” linking Israel and the United States as American backing for Israel faces growing pressure.
Eisenkot, viewed as Netanyahu’s strongest potential challenger, has endured profound personal tragedy during the Gaza war. His 25-year-old son, Gal Meir Eisenkot, was killed in combat in Gaza, followed by the deaths of his nephews, Yogev Pazi and Maor Cohen Eisenkot.
With polls showing Eisenkot in the lead, he is emphasizing Israel’s strategic importance to Washington. Public support for Israel in the United States has dropped to 37%, according to an April Pew poll, down from 55% four years ago.
“My message to the American public is about the importance of the deep bond between Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, and the United States, and the values we share,” Eisenkot told The Post. “As the IDF chief of staff, I also saw firsthand that Israel is a tremendous strategic asset, including through our regional contribution to the fight against ISIS.”
He said the election could determine Israel’s future.
“These are the most critical elections since the founding of the state, when the foundations of Israeli democracy were laid,” Eisenkot said. “These elections are about the identity of the State of Israel and the direction it will take the day after. I am convinced that we will win.”
Israelis vote for political parties rather than directly choosing a prime minister. Once the results are counted, the president assigns the party or bloc considered most capable of forming a coalition in the Knesset. That bloc has 28 days to build a government, so Eisenkot could win the largest number of seats without necessarily becoming Israel’s next prime minister.
Eisenkot also offered praise for President Trump, who has cultivated a close relationship with Netanyahu and endorsed the Israeli leader’s reelection this week. Trump is facing political challenges of his own ahead of November’s midterm elections, as higher gas prices and US-Israeli strikes on Iran add to the pressure.
“President Trump made enormous positive contributions to the Middle East, and the alliance between the US and Israel is very important,” Eisenkot said.
Eisenkot’s life story carries the weight of a Greek tragedy or an Old Testament tale: a national leader forced to make decisions about war and send troops into battle, including his own son, who would ultimately die in the conflict.
People close to Eisenkot say his son’s death became a defining moment, helping drive his decision to seek the premiership after leaving Netanyahu’s government.
Netanyahu appointed Eisenkot as IDF chief of staff after the devastating Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. After later serving as a minister in Netanyahu’s government, Eisenkot has emerged as the prime minister’s most serious political opponent.
He may be the one candidate with a realistic chance of defeating Netanyahu, a politician who has weathered electoral losses, investigations and prolonged political turmoil.
One member of Eisenkot’s inner circle has compared the two men to “bullet brothers.”
Both leaders were struck in the head by bullets while serving their countries. Trump survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024. Eisenkot was seriously wounded as a young soldier when a bullet entered through his mouth, but he recovered and returned to military duty.
“I very much agree with Trump’s approach of ‘peace through strength,’” Eisenkot said. “Trump’s decision to strike Iran together with Israel exceeded anything one could have imagined. That military campaign and the operation were courageous.”
“The question of what comes next is absolutely critical, as the Iranians seek to break through to nuclear weapons capability and want to become another North Korea,” he added.
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Eisenkot cautioned that Hezbollah and Hamas have adopted a strategy he described as “victory through not losing.”
He said there was once room to search for common ground, but suggested that opportunity may have passed. “I fear we may have moved beyond that point. In fact, the economic pressure Trump is applying is helping, giving the Iranians a sense of defeat,” Eisenkot said.
He also endorsed Trump’s 20-point proposal for rebuilding Gaza, while stressing that any policy would need to remain “realistic.”
“What I can tell the American people is that a future Israeli government will know how to act decisively on security, but it will pursue a much more realistic policy than the current government,” he said.
Eisenkot accused Netanyahu of stalling and undermining US-backed frameworks for Gaza for political reasons, after committing to the initial ceasefire and exchange of hostages.
“He committed to sending Gazans to Egypt for training so they could return as a police force in Gaza. He committed to allowing a technocratic government to begin a phased reconstruction process. And, of course, he committed to a withdrawal in exchange for the disarmament of Hamas. I will ensure that Israel fulfills its commitments to the United States,” he said.
The former IDF chief, who repeatedly called for negotiations and a temporary ceasefire to free hostages held by Hamas, cited Trump’s “enormous contribution” to freeing them.
“Without him, it would not have happened. Without Trump’s involvement, that agreement would never have materialized,” he said.
Netanyahu did not want to reach an agreement, he said, rather seeking “to continue his policy of ambiguity.”
He said Netanyahu was “effectively a hostage to his coalition partners” and that “without them, he was certain he would lose power.”
Eisenkot called for further progress on the Abraham Accords and normalization agreements with moderate Sunni states, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
He proposed what he called a “kind of Middle Eastern NATO, under an American umbrella, with Israel maintaining a low profile. From there, we can continue advancing normalization and peace agreements.”
Eisenkot also praised US envoy Steve Witkoff, whose son died in 2011, for supporting families of Israeli hostages.
He said Witkoff offered hostage families “comforting shoulder and a sympathetic ear, and they have nothing but praise for him.”
Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has 120 seats, and parties submit ranked lists of candidates ahead of each election. In the symbolic 120th spot on Eisenkot’s party list is Ohad Ben Ami, a survivor of Hamas captivity who was released in February 2025 in the first Trump hostage deal, after 491 days as a hostage in Gaza.
His daughter, Ella, wrote on Instagram about Eisenkot’s support for her family, in another sign of how tragedy and loss are woven into Israeli politics.
“Eisenkot was like a father to me during that time, and I will be grateful for it forever,” she wrote.
