Gadi Eisenkot, former Chief of Staff of the Israeli army and former minister, is the candidate challenging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and who, according to some polls viewed by the Financial Times, could even surpass him in voter preferences.
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Eisenkot’s new centrist party, Yashar (“Straight”), founded last year after the break with Benny Gantz and resignation from the Knesset, has recorded in recent polls results higher than Netanyahu’s Likud, establishing itself as a possible leading party in the next legislature.
A survey by the public broadcaster Kan gives Yashar a slight lead over the Likud: 24 seats against 23 in the Knesset, composed of 120 deputies. Eisenkot himself is also consistently ahead of Netanyahu when respondents are asked who would be the most suitable candidate to hold the office of prime minister.
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As has already happened with other political rivals, Netanyahu has tried to portray Eisenkot as a representative of the radical left, accusing him of being ready to ally with Arab parties and of putting Israel’s security at risk.
Eisenkot has rejected this portrayal, instead claiming his credentials as a security man. Born into a family of Moroccan immigrants in the southern city of Eilat, he grew up in an environment far from the elites of northern Tel Aviv and the Rehavia neighborhood in Jerusalem, where the Netanyahu family resides.
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