Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a new challenge from Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief, in the upcoming election. Eisenkot’s Yashar party has been gaining momentum, with recent polls showing it running close to Likud and ahead of the joint list formed by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and another former Prime Minister, Yair Lapid.

Eisenkot’s Background

Eisenkot, 66, is the second of nine children born to Moroccan immigrants. He was raised in Tiberias and Eilat, outside Israel’s traditional centers of power and influence. As a soldier, he rose through the Golani Brigade to become the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, picked by Netanyahu.

Eisenkot’s background may carry political significance. Mizrahi voters – Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent – are traditionally a core Likud constituency, but Israel has never had a Mizrahi prime minister. Even Likud lawmaker David Bitan recently acknowledged in an interview that Eisenkot’s background and personal story ‘give him a very interesting advantage.’

Netanyahu’s Response

Netanyahu’s allies have already escalated their attacks on Eisenkot, accusing him of past leniency toward Hezbollah figures – claims he rejects and over which he has said he is weighing legal action. Likud messaging has also returned to a familiar argument aimed at right-leaning voters: that any anti-Netanyahu coalition would depend on the support of Arab parties.

Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.