JERUSALEM\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A leading Israeli general who quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s war Cabinet after accusing him of lacking a strategy in Gaza has emerged as one of the premier\u2019s most serious challengers in elections scheduled for the fall.<\/p>\n
His name is Gadi Eisenkot. On Tuesday in Israel, his centrist political party Yashar! (\u201cStraight!\u201d) formally launched its election season campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis time it\u2019s on us,\u201d said Eisenkot at the launch event Tuesday. \u201cWill we turn a blind eye to the disaster that has befallen us? Will we accept the continued division and rush to the next disaster? Or will we heal and rebuild?\u201d<\/p>\n
His rise from the highest ranks of the military could sharpen scrutiny of Netanyahu and his stewardship of Israel through multiple wars. Like nearly all of the prime minister\u2019s rivals, Eisenkot has broadly supported Israeli military operations in places such as Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. He did not mention any of those conflicts in his speech Tuesday.<\/p>\n
But he has also accused Netanyahu of strategic failure in the wake of the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and said his vision of a more isolated Israel is a threat to the future of the state. <\/p>\n
In recent days Netanyahu, who leads Israel\u2019s right-wing Likud Party, has fired back, saying if he had listened to Eisenkot, who was opposed to certain operations in Gaza, then \u201call of Hamas\u201d would still be in control in the territory.<\/p>\n
As a political newcomer, however, Eisenkot \u201clooks like a front-runner because he\u2019s everything Netanyahu is not,\u201d said Gideon Rahat, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute think tank in Jerusalem. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not polarizing, he\u2019s not a populist like Netanyahu, and he will try to unify the country,\u201d Rahat said.<\/p>\n
An anti-Netanyahu biography<\/p>\n
As the 66-year-old son of Jewish Moroccan immigrants, Eisenkot stands in stark contrast to Netanyahu, a U.S.-educated elite who is on trial for corruption. Eisenkot comes from a working-class family. His English is unpolished. He spent four decades in Israel\u2019s military. <\/p>\n
He has also never campaigned on having ties to President Trump. And his 25-year-old son, Gal Meir Eisenkot, was killed in combat in Gaza, while Netanyahu\u2019s son, a podcaster, lived part-time in Florida. <\/p>\n
Losing a son \u2014 as well as two nephews \u2014 to the war has raised Eisenkot\u2019s profile among Israelis and given him credibility as someone who, having paid the ultimate price, won\u2019t needlessly sacrifice soldiers.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople trust him to be a real person and a patriot. They expect him to take care of the country and not himself,\u201d said Rahat, who is a professor at Hebrew University. <\/p>\n
Eisenkot\u2019s platform includes a pledge to strengthen Israel\u2019s national security, including through regional cooperation, although he has said that he supports Jewish settlements that are \u201cin line with Israel\u2019s interests\u201d in the occupied West Bank. He said Tuesday that he would focus on establishing a state commission of inquiry to investigate the failures leading to the Oct. 7 attack, rebuild the north and south of the country and invest in education and healthcare.<\/p>\n
He has also adopted the slogan \u201cService for All,\u201d a nod to mandating military service for Israel\u2019s ultra-Orthodox communities. For Israelis who have grown tired of war or sending their loved ones off to fight, such arguments may resonate. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe presents as an everyman, a reflection of the ordinary Israeli,\u201d Joshua Leifer, a columnist for Israel\u2019s Haaretz newspaper, wrote. He is \u201ca kind of antipolitician,\u201d Leifer said.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Eisenkot resigned from Netanyahu\u2019s war Cabinet, citing what he said was the prime minister\u2019s lack of strategy as Israel prosecuted its war in Gaza. He sent a blistering letter to fellow Cabinet members warning that they were mistaking incremental battlefield gains for decisions that could actually neutralize Hamas and make Israel more secure.<\/p>\n
But his qualms weren\u2019t about the level of destruction in Gaza or the high civilian toll, both of which drew global outrage. And while at times he has emphasized diplomacy as a way to address Israel\u2019s security challenges, Eisenkot is also credited with formulating Israel\u2019s so\u2011called Dahiyeh doctrine, named after the area in Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs where the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah has a stronghold. <\/p>\n
He elaborated on the doctrine in a 2008 interview with the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot, after serving as a top military official during Israel\u2019s war with Lebanon in 2006. <\/p>\n