The anti-Netanyahu: Can Gadi Eisenkot give the world a different Israel?

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has tasked the leader of the Yashar (“Straight”) party, Gadi Eisenkot, with assembling a government after elections left no political alliance with a majority in the Knesset.

Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff, will now have 28 days, with the possibility of a 14-day extension, to put together a government before Herzog allows an alternative leader, most likely Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to try to do the same. If this fails, then new elections would be called.

But as things stand, Eisenkot is unlikely to be able to form a majority government of the kind Netanyahu has relied upon to force through his right-wing policy agenda.

He may have to rely upon the support of at least one of the two parties representing the ultra-Orthodox community, which have often been allies of Netanyahu. It will also be critical for him to persuade some of the more right-wing elements of his opposition bloc to get the support of Arab parties outside the government.

How far he will be able to go in this is uncertain for a man whom observers described as less comfortable with the subterfuge and political guile often attributed to Netanyahu.

Eisenkot emerged as the leader of his volatile opposition bloc just days before the October 27 elections, and even then, messaging from within the coalition appeared confused, contradictory and seemingly absent of any central coordinating figure.

So far, any support from the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party, which has broken with its traditional ally Shas in declining to endorse Netanyahu, is likely to come in return for the continuation of the de facto shield afforded to young ultra-Orthodox men who refuse military service.

Support from parties representing Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, even if offered from outside the government, is likely to come in return for at least some meaningful effort to tackle the violent crime wave that has been allowed to engulf Palestinian communities inside Israel.

They will also want the epidemic of violent settler pogroms, which have swept through the occupied West Bank with the seemingly active encouragement of Netanyahu’s government partners – particularly far-right Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich – to stop.

But Aida Touma-Sliman, a Knesset member from the left-wing Hadash party and a member of the Palestinian-led Joint List, said developments in recent days showed that Eisenkot doesn’t want to rely on Palestinian voters.

“He appears much more willing to compromise with the ultra-Orthodox religious parties, particularly over the law governing military conscription, than risk being seen to depend on Arab support.”

One of the primary issues that whoever leads the country next will have to deal with is Israel’s standing in the United States. Israel’s reputation has fallen to an all-time low among the American public due to the genocidal war on Gaza and the US-Israel war on Iran, which Netanyahu is accused of convincing US President Donald Trump to start.

On the eve of what turned out to be disastrous midterm elections for Trump, he announced an end to the $3.8bn military aid package extended to Israel annually.

Irrespective of the last-minute announcement, Trump’s Republican Party suffered historic losses, and senior officials, including Vice President JD Vance, blamed the war on Iran.

Carnegie Endowment senior fellow Aaron David Miller acknowledged Israel’s reputation in the US was at a low ebb, one that Eisenkot – with his discomfort over the public stage and reluctance to speak in English – would need to address.

“Perceptions of Israel are fairly entrenched. Essentially, the public’s been watching the region in split screen since 2023. On one screen, there’s the carnage inflicted by Hamas on October 7 [2023], and on the other, there’s the death and destruction unleashed by Israel in response.”

“In the eyes of many, Israel is no longer David but Goliath,” he told Al Jazeera. “Ahead of Eisenkot may be the toughest US landscape any Israeli prime minister has to navigate.”

For now, at least, Eisenkot has the backing of the majority of Israelis as much for what he isn’t as for what he is.

Unlike Netanyahu, the well-polished son of a privileged Ashkenazi Jewish family who has nevertheless sought to leverage the grievances of Mizrahi Jews, Eisenkot represents a more genuine package.

Born in Tiberias to parents from Marrakesh and Casablanca, he grew up in the equally remote southern port city of Eilat before joining the army at 18, later rising to the rank of chief of staff. He then followed the well-worn path of senior Israeli military officers into politics, eventually serving in the national unity government assembled by Netanyahu after the Hamas- led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Described by both allies and opponents as both “menschy” (decent) and “schlumpy” (unkempt), Eisenkot’s careworn appearance reflects, at least in the eyes of some voters, his personal connections with the October 7 attacks and subsequent genocidal war on Gaza.

His son Gal was killed in Jabalia in northern Gaza in December 2023 while taking part in the war, followed a day later by his nephew Maor.

In November 2024, another nephew, Yogev Pazy, was killed in Gaza. This has created a persona around Eisenkot at odds with Netanyahu’s family, whose relatively glamorous lifestyle appears far removed from the Israeli public’s current situation.

“He seems very military in his bearing, very steady and a man you don’t always know what he’s thinking,” Yossi Mekelberg, a senior fellow at Chatham House, said. “I think he’s offering what Israel needs above all else right now: a sense of normalcy and the understanding that there are rules that apply equally and to everyone, including the government.”

But this will make little difference for Palestinians. Eisenkot is the architect of the Dahiyeh Doctrine, which advocates the use of disproportionate force and widespread destruction against civilian communities resisting Israeli force. It is far from clear if Eisenkot’s appointment as premier will make any difference to the yawning gulf in rights between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Eisenkot was reported to have expressed resentment at having to sit alongside such far-right figures as Ben-Gvir and Smotrich during his eight-month tenure in the national unity government. But he has nevertheless overseen punishing policies upon both Palestinians and Arabs in neighbouring states.

As chief of staff, Eisenkot oversaw brutal operations against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank as well as overseeing extensive air strikes against Iranian targets and arming rebels in Syria.

From 2015 to 2018, years overlapping with his tenure, United Nations figures record about 650 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or in conflict-related incidents. The toll included 295 deaths in 2018 alone. Among them were 189 Palestinians killed and thousands wounded during the Great March of Return protests in Gaza, including 35 children.

A UN commission later found reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli forces under his command had committed serious violations of international law, some potentially amounting to war crimes or crimes against humanity.