The quiet contender: Can Eisenkot become Israel's leading challenger to Netanyahu?

With such a development on the horizon, the past week has seen the Together Party pushing once again with full force for Eisenkot to join it and receive the second spot on the party’s list, after Bennett.

The offer has been on the table for Eisenkot since the first joint press conference when Bennett and Lapid launched their alliance in April.

While renewing his call for Eisenkot to join, Lapid said on Monday that he had enough experience in politics to know that Eisenkot’s addition would result in an election win for the opposition bloc.

“I am putting all my experience and knowledge behind one conviction: in order to win, we must first unite the camp,” Lapid said.

“I want to call out from here to Gadi Eisenkot. I want to say two words to him: Gadi, come. You are a man of values, a man who loves this country,” Lapid added.

Lapid later doubled down on his call for Eisenkot on Wednesday, going further by confidently saying that it “will only take another two or three weeks, maybe a little more,” before an announcement that Eisenkot has joined the Together Party is made.

“After three-and-a-half years of pain, grief, and disasters, there will be a great wave of hope, optimism, and normalcy. Gadi is coming, the camp is uniting, just as the country needs to unite,” he added.

Yet Eisenkot has rejected all offers to unite the parties until now, saying he refuses to serve as second-in-command, and has instead called for a focus on what would bring the most votes to the opposition bloc.

“I believe in myself, I know the kind of leadership I bring, and I see myself as a very strong candidate,” Eisenkot said in a March Channel 12 interview when explaining why he did not accept Bennett’s offer to serve as second-in-command.

Leading a centrist party aiming to oust Netanyahu, Eisenkot presents himself as a unique candidate in the first election since the October 7 Hamas attacks. He appears to have a more reserved personality, unlike the outgoing, loud personas that politicians tend to have.

As a bereaved father who lost his son and two of his nephews during the Israel-Hamas War, he speaks to Israelis on the ground who have suffered from the devastation of the massacre.

Eisenkot has said that the loss of his youngest son pushed him to take action to better the country, and in September 2025, he launched Yashar. He spoke about the loss of his son and nephews while marking Remembrance Day in April, reflecting on the impact it had on him.

“You need to gather strength, to look for good reasons to continue living a normal life. I understand that you cannot turn the clock back,” he explained.

That approach has been felt in Eisenkot’s campaign. Though his backstory remains at the forefront of the public’s mind, his plans for the next government are said to aim to move the country forward from the October 7 attacks.

He has insisted on equal service by everyone, but also presented a stance that is less forceful than that of other opposition party leaders, and called last week for a “realistic plan” to draft the haredim (ultra-Orthodox) into the IDF.

The plan includes giving exemptions to 3% of each annual haredi cohort to study Torah. Eisenkot has noted that this plan would be similar to exemptions given to outstanding musicians and athletes.

He has also vowed to establish a state commission of inquiry to investigate government failures on October 7.

Eisenkot is of Moroccan descent and, if elected, would be the first Mizrahi prime minister in the country’s history. He was born in Tiberias and grew up in Eilat. He served as IDF chief of staff between 2015 and 2019.

His entrance into politics came during the 2022 elections, when he joined the National Unity Party with Benny Gantz and Gideon Sa’ar.

Eisenkot later served as second-in-command in the Blue and White Party led by Gantz, before leaving the party in June 2025 and resigning from the Knesset.

With Eisenkot increasingly unwilling to serve as second-in-command again, and Bennett remaining firm about leading the Together list, the likelihood of Eisenkot running independently appears to be rising, though it is still not certain.

Forming joint electoral lists is a well-established practice in Israeli politics, but the question is whether such a merger would benefit the opposition bloc by increasing its overall vote share, as Lapid has claimed. Alternatively, it could harm the bloc and cause it to lose votes Eisenkot might otherwise attract if he were to run independently.

Dr. Assaf Shapira, an expert on politics and head of the Political Reform Program at the Israel Democracy Institute, told The Jerusalem Post that he is inclined to believe there is an advantage to Eisenkot running separately from Bennett and Lapid.

He said a solo run could gain votes from outside the opposition bloc, from members of the public who would not vote for Bennett or Lapid, especially right-wing voters disappointed by Bennett in the past.

“Drawing some votes from the periphery, some more votes from soldiers, more votes from people who maybe were not planning to vote, Eisenkot, if he runs alone, has more ability to do that,” Shapira said.

However, Shapira noted that a merger among Bennett, Eisenkot, and Lapid could create “a sense of momentum,” which could positively affect the opposition bloc.

“Once you establish a big list, then there will most likely be a party polling with more seats than the Likud. That is something that can create momentum and enthusiasm.” Shapria explained that such momentum could influence young, undecided voters.

“From the personal standpoint, for Eisenkot right now it seems worthwhile to delay the union until the last minute, because then he may have more seats, according to the polls.

“For Bennett, it is better to unite now, because that is the trend: Bennett is going down, Eisenkot is going up.”

Shapria added that “at the end of the day, it is a political game in Israel. And it is not certain that the head of the largest list will actually become prime minister afterward, even within the same bloc.”

Shapira also spoke of the effect Eisenkot’s persona has, saying it has a unique charisma that brings something refreshing and new.

“He projects a very different kind of charisma,” Shapira said, noting that it is somewhat like an “anti-charisma.”

“In the US, for example, they would not call it charisma, because he is a bit slower... very authentic.”

While Eisenkot may stand out now and has distanced himself from his former partner Gantz, who has now lost the majority of his support and is failing to pass the electoral threshold, there are similarities between the two when recalling Gantz’s entrance into the political sphere in 2018.

Gantz also entered politics with a military background as chief of staff, gained broad public support, and was once seen as one of Netanyahu’s strongest rivals. He, too, held a centrist stance and, in the string of elections between 2019 and 2020, managed to both tie and later surpass the Likud, reaching 33 seats.

Yet this support for Gantz no longer exists. Gantz has made unsuccessful alliances, served in two unity governments under Netanyahu, and has been strongly criticized for his back-and-forth approach.

In May, another wave of departures was seen, as more MKs left Gantz’s Blue and White Party, following earlier departures by lawmakers who are now members of Eisenkot’s Yashar. Gantz is now distanced from the opposition bloc and lacks public support, appearing increasingly isolated.

While Eisenkot’s uniqueness as a politician in the post-October 7 reality has given him growing success, time will soon tell whether this will lead him to lead the country, join an alliance, or follow in the footsteps of his former partner Gantz.