Eisenkot tries quiet appeal to oust Netanyahu
Gadi Eisenkot, the man who could unseat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, almost always dresses in plain black, speaks halting English and, reflecting the military culture that shaped him, answers interview questions in bullet-point lists.
For some voters, the 66-year-old Eisenkot’s lack of charisma may be one of his greatest assets.
Serious and unassuming, Eisenkot is in many ways the opposite of Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, who speaks flawless English with an American accent and is always ready with headline-grabbing soundbites on US television or social media.
Eisenkot, who served as military chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, has pledged to unite Israelis after Netanyahu’s divisive tenure, during which the country has shifted sharply to the right.
“There is a large camp in Israel whose main goal in the coming election is just for things to be calmer,” said Tal Elovits, a researcher at the Molad think tank.
“The middle class,” he said, “is looking for someone who will look responsible, boring. I think Eisenkot has that appeal.”
Eisenkot, who is neck and neck with Netanyahu in opinion polls, has promised to restore Israel’s international standing, which has been badly damaged by three years of war in Gaza and violence in the occupied West Bank.
He has vowed to crack down on West Bank settlers who attack Palestinians with impunity and recently assaulted an American journalist and a French mayor. Eisenkot condemned such incidents as “Jewish terror” enabled by Netanyahu’s government.
But Eisenkot is no peacenik. He has even sought to position himself to the right of Netanyahu by ruling out a Palestinian state, while replaying clips from an earlier political era when the long-serving prime minister reluctantly expressed openness to the idea under US pressure.
As a military commander during the 2006 war with Hezbollah, Eisenkot developed the so-called “Dahiya doctrine”, named after a Beirut suburb. The doctrine called for the use of overwhelming force against civilian infrastructure in areas populated by the Lebanese militant group.
Israel has applied the doctrine again in Gaza, causing widespread destruction that critics say amounts to war crimes, an allegation Israel disputes.
Working-class roots
Eisenkot has won widespread public sympathy after his son Gal and two nephews were killed fighting in Gaza.
His working-class background is another source of appeal. If elected, he would be Israel’s first prime minister of Sephardic descent — Jews whose recent ancestors came from the Middle East and North Africa.
Unlike Netanyahu, who comes from an elite family and whose father was a prominent professor in the United States, Eisenkot is the son of Moroccan Jews and grew up on Israel’s geographic periphery.
His background came under scrutiny when a senior commentator on the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 television station described Eisenkot as “a monkey” controlled by “Ashkenazi elitists”. The term referred to Jews of European descent, who have historically dominated Israel’s political and economic institutions.
Although the term does not necessarily constitute a racial slur in Hebrew and can mean a “fall guy” who takes the blame on behalf of others, the remark drew widespread condemnation from opposition politicians and Netanyahu himself.
Eisenkot quickly sought to turn the controversy to his advantage.
His campaign put up billboards denouncing discrimination against Sephardic Jews, while his party accused Netanyahu of sidelining Sephardic members of Likud by restricting their media appearances during the campaign.
Limited change on security
During two public appearances over the weekend, Eisenkot moved from meeting LGBTQ activists at a trendy cafe, where he promised greater protection for the community, to meeting religious Jews, where he defended Israeli control over the West Bank.
“Israeli settlement (of the West Bank) is a value, on condition that it serves the interests of the state of Israel, and it’s done according to the law,” he told representatives of the Religious Zionist movement on Sunday.
His remarks appeared to reject the establishment of unauthorised settlement outposts, which have fuelled a recent rise in violence against Palestinians.
On Gaza, Eisenkot has pledged to end Hamas rule within 18 months. Last week, he said this could be achieved either by implementing US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan, which envisages the gradual disarmament of Hamas and a transfer of power, or through “creative operations” aimed at destroying the group’s military wing.
Addressing a major source of resentment among Israelis after three years of war, Eisenkot has also promised to curb exemptions from military service for religious students.
He has pledged to introduce a “universal national service law” requiring ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arab citizens to perform either military or civilian service.
Seeking to appeal to centrist and liberal voters, he has also promised to “protect judicial independence, the rule of law, minority rights and a free press”.