Eisenkot vows to challenge Netanyahu for power after election, even without Knesset majority

With less than three weeks until Israel's election, anxiety is growing among opposition parties as polls suggest neither political bloc is headed for a decisive victory. But Gadi Eisenkot, the former IDF chief of staff and leader of the Yashar party, remains confident that he will be Israel's next prime minister. Some in his own camp even describe that confidence as excessive. Eisenkot sees the same political deadlock as everyone else, but insists the opposition still has a path to power. "I'm working to reach 61 Knesset members from the basic bloc of four parties: Yashar, Yisrael Beytenu, the Democrats and Beyachad," he says in an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth. "I look at what's happening on the ground and feel tremendous momentum." He claims to encounter dozens of Likud supporters every day, including party central committee members, and says his goal in the remaining campaign period is to attract moderate right-wing voters and members of the religious Zionist community. The numbers, however, present a challenge. The opposition bloc had previously appeared to be approaching the 61-seat majority needed to control the Knesset, but Netanyahu's camp has narrowed the gap in recent surveys. Eisenkot rejects the suggestion that his strategy has failed. "On the contrary. I've been very successful in recent months," he says. "The four parties in our bloc have organized themselves with surplus-vote agreements, and we're completely coordinated." He argues that the opposition is no longer threatened by small parties failing to cross the electoral threshold, as happened with Meretz in the 2022 election. Instead, he predicts that Ofer Winter's Amcha Yisrael party and Yaron Zelekha's party will fail to enter the Knesset, leaving Netanyahu in the more difficult position. "When you take them out, that brings us to around 61," he says. For Eisenkot, the election is about more than changing the prime minister. He wants to dismantle the traditional political division between left and right and build what he calls a broad, Zionist, national alliance. "My life's purpose in entering politics is to break the left-right divide and establish a national camp," he says. "That was the idea behind Blue and White, but it didn't succeed. I'm advancing it through Yashar. We need to throw away the curse of left versus right, which has gotten us nowhere." He describes his preferred political coalition as an "alliance of those who serve," arguing that a broad national movement should lead Israel rather than parties representing ideological extremes. In his view, the current government is dominated by far-right politicians and ultra-Orthodox parties, with a liberal national minority caught between them. ‘I won't let Netanyahu win by not losing’ Eisenkot believes Netanyahu has a political interest in an inconclusive election. He argues that the prime minister understands that a large majority of Israelis support military or national service and the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 massacre, making a clear electoral victory difficult. "He understands politics extremely well," Eisenkot says. "He knows he can't win, so he's following the pattern he's used in recent years, which is winning by not losing." He accuses Netanyahu of delegitimizing Arab political parties and seeking to remain in office through political deadlock rather than a decisive victory. Eisenkot says his goal is to defeat Netanyahu's bloc by 63 seats to 45. But even if the opposition falls short of 61, he insists he will not allow Netanyahu to remain prime minister indefinitely at the head of a caretaker government. "If you think you're going to do to me what you did to others in the past, meaning that you'll remain in a caretaker government, that won't happen," he says. "If the worst-case scenario occurs and we don't reach 61, I'll put it to a vote on the strength of the Zionist majority." Under that scenario, Eisenkot says he would call on all 120 Knesset members to vote according to their conscience. He would not seek support from ultra-Orthodox or Arab lawmakers, but believes he could still win a decisive majority. He acknowledges that such a move would involve political risk, but maintains that Netanyahu's long-standing election strategy is vulnerable. According to Eisenkot, the prime minister repeatedly relies on three central arguments: that only the right can provide security, that his opponents would establish a Palestinian state, and that Arab political parties are disloyal to Israel. Eisenkot points to the security failure of October 7 as a challenge to the first argument and accuses Netanyahu of repeatedly portraying Arab citizens as a threat. "This is the only prime minister in the world who attacks 21% of his own citizens," he says. Yet Eisenkot himself rules out a governing partnership with Arab parties under their current positions. He says any coalition partner must accept four principles: Israel as a Jewish, democratic and liberal state the values of the Declaration of Independence compulsory IDF or national service and recognition of Hamas as a terrorist organization that must be destroyed. "I don't know of any Arab party that accepts that," he says. Nor does Eisenkot envision serving under Netanyahu again, even if the alternative is another election. "I don't see him continuing," he says. "It cannot be that after the failure of October 7 we continue seeing him in Israeli political life. I don't hate him, but I think that if we allow him to be appointed to another leadership position, we're crossing out the word 'accountability.'" Fears of a government ‘surrounded by criminals’ Eisenkot stresses that his opposition to Netanyahu is not driven by personal animosity but by what he describes as deep concerns about the country's future. He warns that another term for the current coalition could lead to social, economic and diplomatic deterioration and leave Israel increasingly isolated internationally. "It's not just Netanyahu, but his team and everyone who would surround him," he says, describing a hypothetical cabinet in which Itamar Ben-Gvir becomes defense minister, Bezalel Smotrich foreign minister, Tally Gotliv justice minister and Yaakov Bardugo communications minister. "I see this as a very serious threat to the State of Israel. That's why I'm sounding the alarm and saying this group will drag the country into an abyss that's difficult to imagine." Asked about concerns raised by Avigdor Liberman and Yair Golan that Netanyahu might disrupt the election, potentially citing security circumstances, Eisenkot says he cannot rule out improper or illegal actions. "My concern stems from the fact that Netanyahu is surrounded by a criminal environment, so I don't rule out criminal acts," he says, citing Yonatan Urich, who is facing trial in the Bild affair, and Tzachi Braverman, who has been summoned to a hearing in connection with the so-called late-night meeting affair. Eisenkot goes further, accusing Netanyahu of allowing political considerations to determine national security decisions. "Political motives guide him as prime minister, rather than considerations of national security," he says. Unlike many of Netanyahu's other critics, Eisenkot was a member of the emergency government and the small war cabinet from October 2023 until his resignation on June 13, 2024, giving him firsthand knowledge of the internal deliberations during the war. He recalls a letter he sent Netanyahu and the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee less than two months before the October 7 massacre. In it, he urged the government to suspend its judicial overhaul legislation, warning that the internal crisis was damaging the IDF and endangering national security. "I wrote to them, listen carefully, the situation is extremely dangerous. The threats in the strategic environment have worsened. We could face an event like the Yom Kippur War." ‘Political considerations completely took over Netanyahu’ One of Eisenkot's most serious accusations concerns Netanyahu's handling of negotiations to release Israeli hostages from Gaza. He claims that the prime minister repeatedly put his coalition's survival ahead of opportunities to secure their release, leaving some hostages in Hamas captivity who might otherwise have returned alive. He describes a cabinet meeting during the first hostage release deal in November 2023, when ministers discussed expanding the categories of hostages eligible for release. The initial agreement focused on women and children, but the proposed expansion would have included elderly and wounded captives, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin. According to Eisenkot, Netanyahu retreated from the proposal because he feared National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who had issued an ultimatum shortly beforehand. Ben-Gvir threatened to bring down the government unless the military campaign resumed within 10 days. Eisenkot argues that Netanyahu chose political survival over the possibility of saving more hostages. "I'm saying this unequivocally," he says. "Just this morning I heard Yoav Gallant being interviewed and saying that Nitzan Alon was right, that hostages did not return because of political considerations. Ultimately, that's why I left the government. I saw how political considerations completely took over Netanyahu. I lost trust in him." Eisenkot recounts another episode from May 27, 2024, when Netanyahu unexpectedly presented the small war cabinet with a document titled "General Principles for an Agreement Between the Israeli Side and the Palestinian Side in Gaza Regarding the Exchange of Hostages and Prisoners and the Restoration of Sustainable Calm." Netanyahu told the ministers that he wanted to approve a decision on releasing hostages. Eisenkot says he examined the proposal, which included a 42-day suspension of fighting and Israeli troop withdrawals from designated areas, before telling the prime minister that despite the difficult terms, he supported it. "I read the paper, looked at Netanyahu and said to him, 'This is a very difficult document, but I support it and recommend that you accept it,'" Eisenkot recalls. According to his account, the proposal was put to a vote and approved by all the cabinet members present, including Eisenkot, Gallant, Benny Gantz, Ron Dermer, Aryeh Deri and Netanyahu himself. Two days later, Eisenkot says, commentators associated with Netanyahu, including Bardugo, began criticizing the proposal. He initially dismissed the attacks. But after then-US President Joe Biden publicly outlined the Israeli ceasefire and hostage-release proposal on May 31, 2024, Netanyahu distanced himself from the initiative. Eisenkot attributes the change to threats from Ben-Gvir and Smotrich to collapse the coalition if the agreement moved forward. "He passed a cabinet decision and then went back on it," Eisenkot says. "It's insane. It shows the state of vertigo he's in. Political considerations are present at every stage." Eisenkot also rejects Netanyahu's assertion that he opposed an IDF operation in Rafah and wanted to end the war without dismantling Hamas rule. "Netanyahu is a pathological liar," he says, while pointing to Government Secretary Yossi Fuchs as someone whose account he trusts. Fuchs served under Eisenkot in the military, and the former chief of staff says the minutes of the May 2024 cabinet vote would establish that every minister, including himself, supported the Rafah operation. He also cites a letter he sent Netanyahu on February 15, 2024, urging further military action. "Prime Minister, wake up," the letter said, according to Eisenkot. "The right thing to do is complete the operation in Khan Younis, intensify the operation in Rafah and maneuver." For Eisenkot, the document directly contradicts Netanyahu's account of his wartime position. "Credibility is not Netanyahu's strong suit," he says. ‘There is no total victory’ When the discussion turns to Netanyahu's repeated promises of "total victory," Eisenkot produces an old newspaper article that gives the phrase a deeply personal meaning. The article, written by Yedioth Ahronoth military correspondent Alex Fishman and published on April 11, 2004, featured a young Brig. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, then commanding IDF forces in the West Bank. Asked about the campaign against Palestinian terrorism, he offered a bleak assessment. "Terrorism will continue for many years," Eisenkot said at the time. "The bitter truth is that there is no total victory in this struggle. Our job is to minimize Palestinian achievements. I expect that even my youngest son, who is now 5, will fight in the territories." His youngest son was Gal Eisenkot, who was killed fighting in Gaza in December 2023. For Eisenkot, the passage underscores both the limitations of