The Muddle East
Gadi Eisenkot is the bereaved general trying to outmaneuver Netanyahu
By Lior Soroka & Steve Hendrix The Washington Post
Published Nov. 2, 2026
Contact The Editor
Articles By This Author
TEL AVIV — As the head of Israel's Northern Command in the late 2000s, Gen. Gadi Eisenkot was a principal architect of what has become the Israel Defense Forces' most fearsome and brutal strategy — the Dahiya Doctrine, which calls for exerting overwhelming, disproportionate force on civilian areas where the enemy operates.
"We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel and cause immense damage and destruction," he told an Israeli newspaper in 2008, describing operations underway against Hezbollah in the Beirut suburbs and south Lebanon. "From our perspective, these are military bases."
Years later, as the military chief of staff, however, Eisenkot built a reputation as an advocate for operational precision and restraint, and for adherence to the IDF's code of ethics and judicial system.
Now, as the leader of the Israeli political opposition bloc and the man best positioned to dislodge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Eisenkot, 66, faces a tactical quandary on an entirely different scale.
To form a government, will he join forces with the Arab parties that won a record number of votes in Tuesday's election, though this is seen as a taboo for much of the Israeli electorate?
In a way this could provide maximum pressure, delivering up to 67 seats in parliament where 61 is needed for a majority. Or would he seek more precision and partner with just one Arab party, Ra'am, which might be enough to build a minority government?
Will he cut a deal with ultra-Orthodox religious parties, even though he fiercely opposes their demands for blanket military exemptions? Or will he retreat from his demand that Netanyahu leave political life, and form a unity government that could infuriate Eisenkot's own base?
In a statement Saturday evening, Eisenkot opened the door to any lawmaker willing to sign on to his conditions for joining his government, including compulsory military or civilian service, and a pledge to destroy Hamas's military and governing power in Gaza, a formula that could draw defectors from Netanyahu's camp but could be hard for the ultra-Orthodox and some Arab lawmakers to accept.
Eisenkot has criticized Netanyahu and his charges of electoral fraud, in which Netanyahu lost his majority but retained the largest bloc in parliament — 53 seats — compared with 48 for the opposition and 19 for the Arab parties.
In his statement Saturday, Eisenkot reiterated his view that the election result showed Israelis demanding change and that it was time for Netanyahu to step aside.
"Netanyahu," he said, "do not dare use Israel's security for your own political ends." Eisenkot started election day visiting communities hit hardest in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, then stopped by the grave of his youngest son, Gal, who was killed at age 25 during a hostage rescue operation in Gaza, before going to vote in Herzliya, his hometown.
Eisenkot is a security hawk, the son of Moroccan immigrants and father of four surviving children. Two of his nephews also were killed in the war.
His party, Yashar, Hebrew for "straight" or "honest," won 21 seats, according to the official election results, compared with 27 for Netanyahu's Likud. Negotiations with the constellation of other parties that won seats could take weeks.
Among the questions facing Israel is whether President Isaac Herzog will give Netanyahu or Eisenkot the official mandate to assemble a majority coalition. Herzog can choose whomever he believes has the best chance of forming a stable parliamentary coalition, based on consultations with party leaders and their recommendations.
Whether Eisenkot gets the nod, it has been a remarkably fast rise for the plain-speaking, low-key former commander and career military officer, and for the party he founded just 13 months ago.
He ran seeking office for only the second time, and the first as the head of his own party.
He has neared the threshold of power, political experts say, by offering Israelis something neither camp could easily dismiss: a soldier's security credentials, a reputation for straight dealing and a loss shared by thousands of Israeli families.
His support had been building for two years, said Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at Hebrew University. And in recent months he has managed to expand it "not only within the liberal bloc but also within the right wing."
As a general, Eisenkot was no dove. He devised the Dahiya Doctrine to answer Hezbollah attacks across Israel's border with Lebanon with overwhelming force against civilian areas that sheltered the militant group's fighters.
On the campaign trail, he vowed to end Hamas rule in Gaza within 18 months. But he also opposes annexing the West Bank and promises to tear down illegal settler outposts. The mix let him court the center without being written off by the right.
Above all, he ran on accountability.
Netanyahu has refused a state inquiry into the failures of Oct. 7. Eisenkot pledged one on his first day in office and said it should examine his own record as army chief.
Tuesday's election was seen by many Israelis as a chance to finally establish what allowed Hamas to attack Israeli towns and kill about 1,200 people, sparking a devastating, ongoing war in Gaza.
Eisenkot joined Netanyahu's emergency war cabinet five days after the attacks, but he and his then parliamentary ally Benny Gantz resigned eight months later, accusing Netanyahu of putting politics ahead of bringing hostages home and refusing to design a postwar plan for Gaza.
His biography has helped, too. The son of Moroccan immigrants, born in Tiberias and raised in Eilat, he would be Israel's first prime minister who is a Mizrahi Jew — with roots in North Africa and the Middle East — rather than a European Ashkenazi. He campaigned hard in working-class towns that have voted Likud for decades.
"Within 18 months of my taking office, the Hamas terrorist organization will no longer rule Gaza," he told the Tel Aviv rally. He has said that could happen through President Donald Trump's plan for Gaza or through military action to destroy the group's armed wing.
(COMMENT, BELOW)
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.