Ex-army chief emerges as main rival to Netanyahu

JERUSALEM : As Israel heads into a fiercely contested general election on Oct 27, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot has emerged as the principal challenger to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Eisenkot’s rise comes at a pivotal moment in Israeli politics, with the election widely viewed as a referendum on the long-serving premier’s leadership in the violent aftermath of Hamas’s Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

A recent Channel 12 poll put Eisenkot’s new party, Yashar (Hebrew for “Straight” or “Upright”), ahead of Netanyahu’s Likud, projecting 23 seats to Likud’s 22 in the 120-member Knesset.

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