Bereaved by war, determined to heal, protect and revive Israel: Gadi Eisenkot’s prime ministerial mission

Three years after the October 7 massacre, Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot has been speaking in cemeteries and conference halls. An afternoon of media interviews on Sunday was followed by a memorial ceremony for Capt. Omer Neutra, a 77th Battalion tank commander who fell three years ago and whose body was abducted to Gaza. That evening, Eisenkot headlined an election rally before 1,200 people in Ramat Gan. How does one go in a single day from charting a political future to remembering a national disaster, and from delivering a eulogy to reciting campaign talking points? For Eisenkot, who is bidding to become Israel’s next prime minister, these jarring transitions are not merely a matter of scheduling. Eisenkot, who entered politics just four years ago — and who became a bereaved father two months after the outbreak of the October 7 war — carries in his body and soul a particular iteration of the profound tension currently gripping Israeli society as a whole: the pull between a grief that refuses to let go and the urgent necessity to move forward and wage a principled political struggle. Many observers outside of Israel are unfamiliar with Eisenkot’s tragic personal story. They do not know that on December 7, 2023, his fifth child, Gal — a 25-year-old soldier in the elite Maglan commando unit — was killed in combat in the northern Gaza Strip. At the time, Eisenkot was serving as a ministerial “observer” in the narrow, five-member war cabinet that handled all of Israel’s most consequential security decisions. It is hard to imagine a more painful personal and political drama: Eisenkot was one of a tiny group of leaders directing the very military campaign in which his son was killed. On the third day of the traditional Jewish mourning period (shiva), he told The Times of Israel in our interview on Sunday, a government minister came to his home to pay respects and casually mentioned that the cabinet was about to hold a critical operational discussion. Eisenkot decided to leave his house, get into his car, and head out to take his seat at the table. That was the moment, he says, when he resolved, days after the terrible loss, to continue his political career. “I can’t turn back the clock,” he says quietly. “I will do everything I can to be worthy of the heavy price Gal paid.” Gadi Eisenkot, Family and friends attend the funeral of Master Sgt. (res.) Gal Meir Eisenkot in Herzliya on December 8, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90) Eisenkot entered politics in August 2022, joining the National Unity party led by Benny Gantz, whom Eisenkot had succeeded as IDF chief of staff. Born to Moroccan immigrant parents in Tiberias, Eisenkot was a baby when his family moved to Eilat, Israel’s southernmost city. He grew up in the geographic periphery, enlisted in the Golani Brigade at 18, and forged a 41-year military career, while eventually relocating to the central city of Herzliya. I can’t turn back the clock. I will do everything I can to be worthy of the heavy price Gal paid If elected, he would become Israel’s first prime minister of Mizrahi (Middle Eastern or North African Jewish) descent. Interestingly, he made little use of his Mizrahi background during his lengthy military career or his political life. Until recently, that is. The ruling Likud party’s voter base is famously far more Mizrahi than Ashkenazi (European Jewish), and for the first time, Eisenkot has realized that he must actively play the demographic card to attract voters. The task remains delicate, and Eisenkot’s campaign team debates daily how to strike the right chord regarding the ethnic divide without coming across as patronizing. For months now, Eisenkot has led Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in polls asking voters who is better suited to run the country. A Kan public broadcaster poll early this week showed Eisenkot leading 41% to 38%, while a Maariv poll days earlier showed him ahead 44% to 38%. His campaign emphasizes this sustained advantage, noting that in none of the election cycles of the past decade has a challenger consistently beaten Netanyahu on the core “suitability” question. But the public trust he seeks to convert into an electoral victory has yet to translate into a solid, 61-seat parliamentary majority. The bloc he nominally leads, ranging from political right to left with his Yashar roughly in the center, currently lacks a definitive path to forming a government, and the possibility of another political deadlock hangs heavily over the election now just three weeks away. Eisenkot is not seeking the support of the two Arab-majority parties, but he is also entirely unwilling to accept a scenario in which Netanyahu remains in power as a caretaker prime minister if his anti-Netanyahu bloc wins more seats. In his wide-ranging interview with The Times of Israel, conducted in Hebrew, Eisenkot levels a blistering political indictment against Netanyahu, labeling him an “anti-leader” and describing the specific moments inside the war cabinet when he completely lost faith in the prime minister. At the same time, he lays out what he would do differently: crack down on Jewish terrorism and redefine relations with the Palestinian Authority, repeal controversial legislation, expand mandatory national service, and attempt to advance sweeping regional agreements under American auspices. The Times of Israel’s David Horovitz (L) and Tal Schneider interview Yashar! leader Gadi Eisenkot at the party headquarters in central Israel on October 4, 2026. (Courtesy) Asked how the country can finally begin to heal from the trauma of October 7, he repeatedly returns to two terms that anchor the conversation: responsibility and personal example. “This election,” he declares, “is a choice between responsibility and running away from responsibility.” Below is a lightly edited transcript of the interview. The Times of Israel: If you are elected prime minister, you will come to the job as a father who lost his son in combat. Former prime minister Ariel Sharon lost a young son in an accidental shooting at home, but your specific case is unprecedented: Your son fell in war while you were in the government. How would that trauma affect your judgment as a national leader? Gadi Eisenkot: That issue was present at the very beginning of the war. The supposed dilemma existed in those early cabinet discussions [after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion and massacre], because I knew my son was taking part in the fighting. But because I had spent 41 years sending soldiers on highly dangerous missions, it never crossed my mind that this could influence my decisions. After October 7, I thought such catastrophic damage had been done to the State of Israel that if we did not strike Hamas a decisive blow, we would have no future in the Middle East. And during the shiva, you actually left home to take part in an important security discussion. How did your family react to that? They accepted it. I explained to them exactly why I was going. When I look ahead, this loss instills in me an even greater commitment, far beyond the commitment I had throughout my military life. If, God forbid, the current right-wing coalition wins again, it will lead Israel in dark directions that we can already see unfolding My family also asks me, “Why do you need this [politics]? You’ve been there, done that, served the country, paid a terrible price. You can just get on with your life.” But I believe the State of Israel — and I am not exaggerating — is at a historic crossroads. If the change I believe in comes about, the country will turn toward the place it needs to go: a Jewish, democratic, liberal, and strong state that actively wants to belong to the international community of nations. If, God forbid, the current right-wing coalition wins again, it will lead Israel in dark directions that we can already see unfolding before us: a less democratic, less liberal country, and in my view, also a less Jewish one. Anyone who wants to impose full sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] and bring another 2.8 million Palestinians into Israel is endangering the Zionist enterprise and the Jewish demographic majority. Anyone who wants to weaken the Supreme Court and crush the judiciary is endangering democracy. So this election is fundamentally about the future of the State of Israel. That is what drives me from morning to night to do everything I can to win, and to not allow Netanyahu and his coalition to build a state based on the concept of “a people that dwells alone.” Your campaign often appears highly cautious. In Jerusalem, for example, you are barely visible. It seems you are afraid of making mistakes and of how the other side will exploit every statement. And the challenge is extremely difficult in any case because you are facing a man who, for almost an entire generation, is the only prime minister [Israelis] have ever known. It’s difficult, because Israeli society is engaged in a profound, fundamental debate over the very identity of the State of Israel. That environment inevitably brings the discussion back to the place where Netanyahu feels most comfortable: frightening the public, stirring up hatred between different sectors, and reducing everything to toxic questions of internal identity. It’s important to remember that I founded a political party just 12 months ago, with six people. It has come a long way and today it actually leads in the polls. But that doesn’t make me complacent. I am very worried, and out of deep concern for the country’s future, I am working to win. Candidates for Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party at the presentation of the party’s Knesset slate ahead of the upcoming election, in Rosh Haayin, September 7, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90) I am acutely aware that an entire generation has grown up here knowing only Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister for three decades. From the time he was opposition leader against Yitzhak Rabin to this day, now running against me, three themes keep recurring in his messaging. The first is that only he knows how to deliver security — and we all saw how he catastrophically failed on October 7. The second is his claim that I will bring about a Palestinian state — whereas he was the one who regarded Yasser Arafat as a true partner, gave up 11% of the territory in the Wye River Memorandum, returned part of Hebron, and publicly committed four times to a Palestinian state. The third is his claim that I will ally with [Islamist Ra’am party leader] Mansour Abbas, when I know how hard he tried to woo Mansour Abbas [into a coalition in 2020]. He exploits the basic fears of Israel’s Jewish population, which were greatly intensified on October 7. We must not allow him to perpetuate the culture of fear and lies that he has instilled. That is why I feel both fierce determination and an enormous sense of responsibility. They tell me he is strong among young people. Well, in current polls of young people, I am actually in first place. For the past two months, I have been ahead of him in polls on the core question of preference for prime minister. I checked 30 years back: there has never been a candidate who managed to be ahead of him like this just a month before an election. At the same time, one cannot underestimate his experience, his political ability, and his extensive track record of manipulating the Israeli public. By virtue of his position, he is also at the center of every national event. There is a near-disaster on a flydubai flight, and he immediately invites the heroes to meet him on the tarmac. How do you contend with the power of incumbency? I’m giving interviews around the clock to explain to the Israeli public that this is exactly the culture of lies that has dragged the State of Israel down. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Yaniv Hayun,