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<\/p>\nIn interviews and public statements, Gadi Eisenkot, a retired general and bookworm, weighs his words carefully.<\/p>\n
His mind for military strategy and his quiet but intense drive propelled him \u2013 a son of working-class Moroccan Jewish immigrants who grew up in the most remote corner of Israel \u2013 from foot soldier to army chief of staff.<\/p>\n
Now he\u2019s fighting to become Israel\u2019s next leader while mourning his youngest son, Gal, who was killed during a mission in Gaza to retrieve the remains of Israeli hostages slain in the early weeks of the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Why We Wrote This<\/p>\n
As Israelis prepare for fall elections, Gadi Eisenkot is surging in polls to edge out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The retired general\u2019s security credentials and perceived integrity appear to resonate with voters exhausted by war and division.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see a cloud of grief around him, but he\u2019s not a man who seems broken; instead he seems even more determined,\u201d says Amos Harel, a military reporter who has been covering Mr. Eisenkot since 1998.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe sees it [his campaign] as a debt to his fallen son and the generation of Oct. 7 fighters who died,\u201d says Mr. Harel, military analyst for the daily newspaper Haaretz. Hamas\u2019 October 2023 attack on Israel \u2013 the deadliest security failure in the country\u2019s history \u2013 sparked the war in Gaza and a multifront conflagration that still smolders almost three years later.<\/p>\n
Mr. Eisenkot\u2019s party is surging in polls ahead of Israel\u2019s autumn election as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s cultivated image as \u201cMr. Security\u201d continues to crumble, most recently because of the U.S.-Iran agreement to end the Iran war.<\/p>\n
Most Israelis see the deal, which seeks to constrain Israeli military operations against Iranian proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon and doesn\u2019t secure any of Israel\u2019s overall war aims, as a national security disaster that leaves them more vulnerable and isolated.<\/p>\n
Yet Mr. Eisenkot\u2019s appeal predates the Iran war. His security credentials and perceived integrity have been resonating with voters exhausted by war and division, experts say.<\/p>\n
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Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot (at center), then the Israeli army’s chief of staff, attends the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Jan. 13, 2019. <\/p>\n
In many ways, the uncharismatic Mr. Eisenkot is seen as the opposite of the silver-tongued, political showman Benjamin\u00a0Netanyahu \u2013 a contrast that may turn out to be his greatest asset following the national trauma of Oct. 7.<\/p>\n
Having lost Gal and two nephews, one of them the day after his son was killed, the retired general reflects the ultimate level of personal sacrifice, experts say. This resonates with those Israelis seeking a different kind of leader in an election being described as the most consequential in the nation\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
Mr. Eisenkot named his new political party Yashar, Hebrew for \u201cstraight,\u201d signaling a path that is neither left nor right.<\/p>\n
Recent polls show him edging past Mr. Netanyahu as the politician most suited to lead. His party also has been on an upward trajectory as numbers continue to drop both for Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s party, Likud, and its current main competition in the opposition.<\/p>\n
From humble origins<\/p>\n
Mr. Eisenkot came of age far from Israel\u2019s economic and political center. Born in the Galilee in the north, he was raised in Eilat, the Red Sea port city at the country\u2019s southern tip, on the edge of the desert. He is married to his high school sweetheart and raised five children.<\/p>\n
He rose through the ranks of the Israel Defense Forces in the Golani Brigade, a proud, tight-knit infantry unit known for its tough combat assignments.<\/p>\n
When he became chief of staff in 2015, his mother\u2019s reaction was she would have preferred he was a rabbi. During his tenure, he focused on strengthening Israel\u2019s ground forces, implementing a multiyear military modernization plan, and conceptualized a \u201cwar between wars\u201d strategy calling for Israel to carry out covert low-intensity operations to stymie enemies instead of all-out war.<\/p>\n
When an Israeli soldier named Elor Azaria shot and killed a disarmed Palestinian assailant in 2016 in the West Bank, Mr. Eisenkot\u00a0led the charge to punish him to the full extent of the law. Right-wing pushback followed, and the charges were reduced from murder to manslaughter; a far-right mob even shouted death threats against him.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\tClodagh Kilcoyne\/Reuters\/File\n<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu consoles Cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot at the funeral of his son Gal Meir Eisenkot, an Israeli soldier killed in the northern Gaza Strip in the Israeli military’s ground operation in Gaza, in Herzliya, Israel, Dec. 8, 2023.<\/p>\n
Mr. Eisenkot entered politics in 2022, joining a party led by Benny Gantz, who preceded him as the army\u2019s top commander. After Oct. 7, they joined the war Cabinet under Mr. Netanyahu and the first thing they did was prevent a surprise attack against Hezbollah. Mr. Eisenkot argued the army wasn\u2019t prepared to open a second front.<\/p>\n
He was considered the strongest advocate within the war Cabinet for a deal with Hamas to secure the release of 251 hostages taken captive into Gaza during the Oct. 7 attack, which killed 1,200 people. By June 2024 he and Mr. Gantz resigned. According to Mr. Harel, Mr. Eisenkot felt Mr. Netanyahu was unnecessarily prolonging the war.<\/p>\n
A healing figure?<\/p>\n
The Israeli public is \u201clooking for a healer … someone who will calm things down, put on a bandage, put on ointment. Someone who will lower the tones of hatred, of rift, of division,\u201d says Ronen Tzur, a media strategist.<\/p>\n
Because he comes from Israel\u2019s geographic and social periphery, and is a bereaved father, a former chief of staff, and of Mizrahi (North African\/Middle Eastern) heritage, Mr. Eisenkot \u201ckind of fits the whole typecast of what people are looking for at this time,\u201d Mr. Tzur says.<\/p>\n
If his party is able to form a coalition, he\u2019d become the first Mizrahi Israeli leader.<\/p>\n
Mr. Eisenkot often comes across as thoughtful and deliberate, speaking softly and at length rather than relying on media-savvy sound bites. His public image is that of someone \u201cunpolished and down to earth,\u201d says Tal Schneider, political correspondent for The Times of Israel.<\/p>\n
Despite knowing that his son Gal\u2019s unit would likely be among the first forces to enter Gaza, the retired general supported a ground offensive after the war began.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was in my head all the time, the fear that Gal could be killed,\u201d he said in an interview with Israel\u2019s state television channel. But, he said, decades in the army helped him separate his personal plight from what appeared necessary for Israel\u2019s security.<\/p>\n
Analysts say he models himself on past leaders like David Ben-Gurion, the nation\u2019s first prime minister, and Yitzhak Rabin, the former chief of staff and prime minister who signed the Oslo Accords, and is willing to discuss diplomatic solutions while making it clear that Israel must stand its ground against dangerous opponents.<\/p>\n
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A banner and a stand to attract voters to Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party in the north Tel Aviv neighborhood of Ramat Aviv Gimmel, June 19, 2026. The banner reads: “Leading Israel straight! with Eisenkot.”<\/p>\n
Yet like most Israeli politicians in the aftermath of Oct. 7, he does not think it\u2019s time to create a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n