Former IDF Chief Gadi Eisenkot Becomes Netanyahu’s Top Election Rival

Israel’s high-stakes Oct. 27 election will place its longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, against retired Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, one of the country’s most decorated military commanders. Although Eisenkot is a relative newcomer to politics, his extensive military record has made him a formidable contender to become Israel’s next prime minister.

Several polls show Eisenkot’s centrist Yashar party holding a narrow advantage over Netanyahu’s Likud. Neither party is expected to govern alone, meaning Yashar or Likud would need to assemble a coalition of parties controlling at least 61 seats in the Knesset.

Who is the 66-year-old Eisenkot? 

Eisenkot was born in Tiberias, in northern Israel, to a Jewish-Moroccan family that moved to Eilat, the country’s southernmost city on the Red Sea, when he was a toddler.

He chose a career in the military and served in the infantry, rising through the ranks of the elite Golani Brigade. In 2015, he reached the top of Israel’s military hierarchy when he was appointed chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, a position he held until 2019.

Yossi Melman, one of Israel’s most respected journalists covering intelligence and defense, described Eisenkot to News Outlet as “100% a soldier.” He called him “very brave and humble” and “an officer and gentleman.”

Melman recalled that Eisenkot initially declined the chief of staff appointment because he believed then-General Benny Gantz deserved the post. “How many people would do that?” Melman asked. Eisenkot was ultimately selected after Gantz, a decision Melman said reflected his modesty, honesty and lack of arrogance.

“It is a miracle he is leading in the polls,” Melman said, describing Eisenkot as the opposite of a conventional politician. Compared with Netanyahu, he said, Eisenkot is not a powerful orator—but “he radiates honesty.”

Eisenkot’s Mizrahi heritage—his family traces its roots to North Africa and the Middle East—would carry historic significance if he wins. He would become Israel’s first prime minister of Moroccan origin. Since the Jewish state was reestablished in 1948, the prime minister’s office has been held by Israelis of Eastern European, or Ashkenazi, descent.

Following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel, in which more than 1,200 people—including over 40 Americans—were killed, Eisenkot joined Netanyahu’s war cabinet as a minister without portfolio.

Melman said Eisenkot entered the cabinet without imposing political conditions and that his participation helped preserve Netanyahu’s government. After eight months on the war cabinet, however, Eisenkot resigned, accusing the prime minister of failing to establish and carry out a comprehensive strategy.

The war against Hamas, the Iran-backed terrorist organization, also inflicted a deeply personal loss on the veteran general and his family. Hamas killed Eisenkot’s 25-year-old son, Master Sgt. Gal Eisenkot, in December 2023. Two of Eisenkot’s nephews were also killed. Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, said they were devastated by Gal’s death and described Eisenkot as a “true hero.”

Danny Orbach, a military historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said Eisenkot’s record offers both significant strengths and serious vulnerabilities as he seeks national office. Orbach argued that Eisenkot bears substantial responsibility for shaping the IDF that existed on Oct. 7, 2023. That army, he said, was paradoxically capable of defeating Hezbollah, striking Iran and achieving major gains on Gaza’s complex, tunnel-filled battlefield—yet also failed catastrophically during the Hamas attack.

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Orbach added that, like other IDF chiefs of staff, Eisenkot bears responsibility for decisions that reduced the military’s size and for the “conceptzia,” the Israeli belief that Hamas could be contained. In that regard, Orbach said he considers Eisenkot “just as culpable as Netanyahu.”

Israel’s military, intelligence and political leadership had embraced the idea that Hamas could be restrained through large amounts of economic assistance. Hamas, however, remained committed to its radical Islamist goal of destroying the Jewish state and used those resources to strengthen its preparations for war.

Orbach said he does not believe Eisenkot’s support is primarily driven by energy, enthusiasm or even a clearly defined political platform. Instead, he said, Eisenkot has become the default “non-Bibi” candidate—the figure currently carrying much of the hopes and expectations of the camp opposing Netanyahu.

Orbach also questioned whether Eisenkot would have shown the political resolve to challenge the Biden administration on issues where Israel’s interests diverged.

Netanyahu and former President Biden repeatedly clashed over Biden’s attempts to rope in Israel’s efforts to defeat Iran’s seven-front war against the Jewish state.

The military historian, however, noted that “I believe an Eisenkot government could address several of Israel’s most urgent problems. It would remove Ben Gvir from power, confront the growing problem of Jewish extremist violence and terrorism in the West Bank, and begin repairing Israel’s severely damaged international legitimacy.”

Itamar Ben-Gvir is a controversial right-wing firebrand politician and the current minister of national security since 2022, who has outraged many Western European and foreign leaders with his heated rhetoric against the Palestinians.

Eisenkot’s wife, Hannah, comes from an American Jewish family. U.S. General Joseph Dunford awarded Eisenkot the Commander of the Legion of Merit because of his “exceptionally meritorious service as chief of the General Staff of the IDF” and his “contribution to the strategic cooperation between the United States and Israel [that] will have a lasting effect on both countries,” according to the Washington Institute, where Eisenkot served as a military fellow in 2019.

Nadav Eyal, an Israeli analyst and journalist for the mass circulation Israeli paper Yedioth Aharonoth, told News Outlet, Gadi Eisenkot is widely considered one of the most successful Chiefs of Staff that Israel has had in the last thirty years.”

He continued that “Chiefs of Staff in Israel, unlike in other countries, are really extremely capable, in general, to be prime minister. They are leading the country’s biggest organization, the IDF.”

Eyal, who writes extensively about the IDF, credited Eisenkot’s military planning against the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon and the significant defeats the Lebanese Shiite entity experienced, including the “discovery of tunnels that Hezbollah built” to enter Israel. Hezbollah immediately joined Hamas’s war against Israel in Oct. 2023.

Given the nature of Israel’s electoral system, an outright winner won’t likely be known for several days, since the leading party will need to form a coalition to get to the 61-seat mandate to run the country.