It is a highly emotional day in Re'im in southern Israel. Three years after the terrorist organization Hamas' devastating attack on the Nova music festival, the families of the victims have gathered on the edge of the Gaza Strip.
In the middle of it all stands an inconspicuous man with short, white hair in a simple black shirt: Gadi Eisenkot. While hundreds of plaques with the faces of the more than 350 people killed stand in the wind around him, the politician tries to talk to the mourners.
“I hope that this day will make us stronger and bring us even closer together,” says Eisenkot calmly. He is not a man of loud presentation or long words. If he weren't surrounded by photographers, he would hardly be noticed among the grieving relatives. But his words have weight for the people here - because Eisenkot's own pain is real.
From the war cabinet to the opposition
In December 2023, the former Chief of General Staff lost his 25-year-old son Gal in the fighting in the Gaza Strip; A little later, two of his nephews also died. At this time, Eisenkot was sitting as an observer in the war cabinet and had to mourn his own child in front of the public. Shortly afterwards he resigned from the cabinet.
Today he has turned personal tragedy into a political mission. His central campaign promise is to fully investigate the unprecedented security failure of October 7th through an independent, state investigative commission.
“He turned the family tragedy into a life mission,” explains Liane Pollack-David, who is number 25 on his list of candidates. “He brings us hope that we are starting the next chapter for Israel.”
"Choice between unity and division"
Eisenkot's newly founded party is called Jaschar, which translates as "straight ahead" or "forward." The movement attracts an unusually broad spectrum: secular, religious, people from all parts of the country. Even disappointed voters from the traditional strongholds of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party are changing camp.
Like Stella Abidan, who voted for Likud for 24 years and now feels betrayed by Netanyahu: "He did nothing for our security and did nothing to prevent October 7th. You can't continue with this government."
In order to promote social integration, the ex-general is calling for what was previously unthinkable in Israel: general compulsory military service, which should also explicitly apply to Arab Israelis and ultra-Orthodox religious students. Eisenkot himself sees the coming election as a historic referendum: "We will have the choice between Zionism and claim to power, between unity and division, and between national responsibility and neglect of security."
Netanyahu's counterattack
Incumbent Netanyahu is reacting to the new challenger with his usual harshness and is relying entirely on polarization. In AI-generated election commercials, his camp accuses Eisenkot of being weak and secretly planning to establish a Palestinian state - allegations that Eisenkot rejects as slander. Netanyahu is trying to squeeze the election campaign into the classic left-right schema: "It's about left or right. There is no such thing as going straight, that's a bluff," he shouted during a campaign appearance.
But anyone who considers Eisenkot weak because of his quiet, almost wooden manner is ignoring the military past of the man who served in the Israeli armed forces for 41 years and was promoted to chief of general staff in 2015. As head of the Northern Command, he once coined the so-called “Dahiya Doctrine.” This states that Israel responds to attacks from civilian areas with massive, asymmetrical destruction.
"He looks like a nice guy, but he's very tough," emphasizes former Air Force Major General Gideon Scheffer, who has known Eisenkot for almost three decades. "He's a leader, but a quiet leader. You don't have to shout to be a leader."
A fragile alliance of convenience if successful
Although Eisenkot is steadily making gains in the polls and is in a close race with Netanyahu, he would face a huge challenge if he were to win the election. To form a government, he would have to rely on a politically extremely heterogeneous alliance that reflects the deep fractures in Israeli society. This would probably include the following parties:
Whether this balancing act can succeed remains to be seen. Eisenkot is pragmatically betting that the Israeli population is tired of loud promises after years of constant crisis mode. When asked by the online portal YNET whether he simply lacked the necessary charisma compared to Netanyahu, Eisenkot replied, as usual, soberly: "I don't know what that means, charisma. I see where Netanyahu has led the State of Israel. So what is charisma?"
