Israel will hold a general election on October 27, parliament announced on Sunday, with veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking to stay in power.<\/p>\n
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Here are his main rivals:<\/p>\n
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– Gadi Eisenkot: The general –<\/p>\n
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The son of Moroccan immigrants, Gadi Eisenkot, 66, holds a great deal of public sympathy, particularly following the death in combat of his son Gal and two of his nephews during the Gaza war.<\/p>\n
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But the former military chief of staff lacks political experience.<\/p>\n
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He served as military secretary to prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon, before entering politics in 2022 alongside the centrist Benny Gantz, his predecessor as army chief.<\/p>\n
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Eisenkot has kept his positions on the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict vague.<\/p>\n
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He was a member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet between October 2023 and June 2024, when he resigned.<\/p>\n
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He has been a scathing critic of Netanyahu’s wartime leadership and founded his own party Yashar (meaning “Straight”) in 2025.<\/p>\n
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It groups a diverse set of political figures, including the daughter of two former Gaza hostages, and the former head of Israel’s internal security agency Shin Bet.<\/p>\n
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– Naftali Bennett: The comeback –<\/p>\n
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Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, 54, is placed in many polls as Netanyahu’s main potential rival.<\/p>\n
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The former tech entrepreneur established himself as a leading figure in the nationalist right and settler movement, formerly heading the Yesha Council — the main body representing Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n
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He later entered politics within the national-religious camp, becoming education and then defence minister.<\/p>\n
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Bennett caused a stir in 2021 by forming a diverse coalition spanning the Israeli political spectrum, with the unprecedented support of an Arab party.<\/p>\n
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This brought an end to Netanyahu’s 12 uninterrupted years in power, but Bennett’s government only lasted a year.<\/p>\n
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After a period away from political life, Bennett returned to the forefront following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.<\/p>\n
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Israeli commentators believe he can attract right-wing voters who are disappointed with Netanyahu but do not want to move towards the centre or left.<\/p>\n
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While a hardliner on security issues and opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state, Bennett appears to some voters as a more pragmatic and less divisive alternative to the current premier.<\/p>\n
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He has forged an alliance with his former running mate and current opposition leader Yair Lapid in a bid to secure as many votes as possible.<\/p>\n
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– Yair Lapid: The former TV star –<\/p>\n
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Journalist turned politician Yair Lapid, 62, has been one of the most familiar faces in Israeli politics for over a decade.<\/p>\n
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The former star television presenter founded the centrist Yesh Atid party in 2012 and swiftly established himself as one of Netanyahu’s main opponents.<\/p>\n
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Lapid has served as a minister on several occasions, notably as finance and later foreign minister. He briefly took over as prime minister in 2022 as part of a rotation power-sharing deal with Bennett.<\/p>\n
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Lapid is ever-present on social media, reacting to almost every political or security development as the main voice of the anti-Netanyahu camp.<\/p>\n
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An avowed secularist and advocate of a centrist and liberal line, he was one of the leading figures in the mobilisation against the government’s judicial reform that deeply divided Israel before Hamas’s attack.<\/p>\n
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Despite his fame and political experience, Lapid struggles to win over voters beyond his core base of urban, secular and moderate Israelis.<\/p>\n
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Few observers currently see him winning the top job on his own.<\/p>\n
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But with a handful of seats and an alliance with Bennett, Lapid could once again find himself in the role of kingmaker.<\/p>\n
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– Avigdor Lieberman: The secular nationalist –<\/p>\n
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Born in Soviet Moldova in 1958, Avigdor Lieberman moved to Israel in the late 1970s and is a veteran of the political scene.<\/p>\n
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He first made a name for himself as one of Netanyahu’s closest associates, serving as his chief of staff.<\/p>\n
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Several observers credit Lieberman with playing a key role in Netanyahu’s 1996 election victory.<\/p>\n
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After founding the secular nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, Lieberman initially relied on the Russian-speaking electorate, before gradually broadening his base to include part of the Israeli right.<\/p>\n
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He is one of the few politicians to have headed three of Israel’s key ministries, having served as foreign, defence and finance minister.<\/p>\n
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Lieberman regularly criticises Netanyahu on social media, sometimes in provocative fashion, and advocates a hardline security stance.<\/p>\n
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He is also opposed to the privileges granted to Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews and has for years called for their military conscription.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel will hold a general election on October 27, parliament announced on Sunday, with veteran Prime Minister Benjamin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-538170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}