Who is Gadi Eisenkot, the man with the best chance to oust Netanyahu?

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

55% : he bellowed from a podium in Tel Aviv. Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar ("Straight") party, waves to supporters following the release of the first exit poll results in Israel's general election in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026.
52% : But it's also a major challenge for a man relatively untested in Israel's hardscrabble tradition of coalition building.
51% : (AP Photo/Baz Ratner) Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar ("Straight") party, speaks to supporters following the release of the first exit poll results in Israel's general election in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026.
49% : The commander of some of Israel's most difficult wartime battles, now he is up against Netanyahu, who has shown, time and time again, an almost uncanny ability to survive the cutthroat world of Israeli politics.
48% : It's a military strategy advocating using disproportionate power against any entity that fires on Israel, no matter how small or insignificant. Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar ("Straight") party, speaks to supporters following the release of the first exit poll results in Israel's general election in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026.
45% : JERUSALEM (AP) - Hawkish, reserved and unpolished, Israel's former military chief has a viable chance of unseating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
44% : In a bid to prevent such defections, his party has asked Israel´s Arab parties to publicly profess certain principles: that Israel is a Jewish and democratic state, guided by the Israeli declaration of independence; that Hamas is a terrorist organization that should be disarmed and demolished; and that ultra-Orthodox Jews and Palestinian citizens of Israel must no longer be exempt from Israel´s mandatory military draft.
43% : After the Hamas attacks on Israel Oct. 7, 2023, Eisenkot took on a role as an observer in Netanyahu´s war Cabinet.
42% : Israel then launched a war in Gaza that has killed over 74,000 Palestinians, according to the territory´s health ministry.
39% : Thousands of citizens who flew into Israel to vote in the first round might be unable to return for a second, and Arab parties would likely suffer from lower turnout, too.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.