Former army chief Gadi Eisenkot enters Tuesday's vote for the 26th Knesset as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's main challenger, with his Yashar party leading Israel election 2026 polls, CNN and The Jerusalem Post reported.
Eisenkot, 66, was polling in single digits a year ago, according to CNN. He is now the opposition's leading candidate. Israel has never had a Mizrahi prime minister, and if Eisenkot comes out on top, he would be the first.
Leading the polls may not be enough. Polls suggest neither Netanyahu's bloc nor the anti-Netanyahu bloc is on track to reach a 61-seat majority in the 120-seat parliament, CNN reported. That leaves coalition arithmetic, possibly involving Arab parties, to decide who governs.
What TV host Yinon Magal said about Eisenkot
Eisenkot's background became the center of a political and media firestorm when Yinon Magal, a prominent TV host whom CNN describes as widely considered a mouthpiece for Netanyahu, called him a "monkey" of "a Mizrahi-Moroccan" heritage managed by "Ashkenazi elites."
According to CNN, the remarks touched on longstanding inequalities between Jews of European origin and Jews from the Middle East. Magal later said he had not meant to mock Eisenkot's ethnic origins. He said he was using an underworld term for a frontman managed from behind the scenes. Netanyahu condemned the remarks.
The episode drew attention to a political fact: many Mizrahi voters have traditionally supported Netanyahu's Likud party, CNN noted. Eisenkot, a son of Moroccan immigrants, grew up in Tiberias and Eilat, outside the country's centers of political power. CNN contrasted that upbringing with Netanyahu's elite Jerusalem background. Eisenkot rarely mentions his ethnicity, though analysts cited by CNN believe it is part of his appeal.
Who is Gadi Eisenkot?
Eisenkot is the second of nine children and a father of five. He enlisted in the Golani Brigade in 1978 and rose to become chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces from 2015 to 2019, serving under Netanyahu, according to CNN.
His tenure included a contentious case. In 2016, Sgt. Elor Azaria shot and killed a wounded Palestinian attacker in Hebron. CNN reported that Eisenkot backed a military investigation and trial despite pressure from right-wing politicians, including Netanyahu, saying he was defending the army's discipline and ethics.
He entered politics in August 2022 through Benny Gantz's National Unity alliance, taking third place on the list, The Jerusalem Post reported. The alliance brought together Gantz's Blue and White and Gideon Sa'ar's New Hope.
After the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack, Eisenkot and Gantz joined Netanyahu's emergency government. Accounts of his role differ. CNN says both men joined the war cabinet, while The Jerusalem Post says Gantz was a member and Eisenkot served as an observer.
Both left in June 2024. CNN said they cited the absence of a clear post-war strategy. The Jerusalem Post said they accused Netanyahu's leadership of failing to make the strategic decisions needed to achieve the war's objectives.
The war took a heavy toll on his family. His youngest son, Gal, 25, was killed fighting in Gaza in December 2023, and two of his nephews also died in combat, according to CNN.
"Over Gal's grave, I swore that the price he paid, he and his friends, those he knew and those he didn't, would not be in vain," Eisenkot wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth in April 2026.
In July 2025, Eisenkot left National Unity and resigned from the Knesset, citing the need for a transparent and democratic process for selecting the party's candidates, The Jerusalem Post reported. He founded Yashar in September 2025.
What the Yashar party stands for on Gaza, Iran and the draft
Yashar presents itself as a centrist alternative focused on security, national interests and Israel's democratic character, according to The Jerusalem Post. The party did not exist in the 25th Knesset. The Post outlined these positions:
- Palestinian state: Yashar opposes one, though Eisenkot told the Post he would consider the Palestinian Authority preferable to continued Hamas rule if those were the alternatives.
- Hamas: Earlier in October, Eisenkot pledged to destroy Hamas's military wing and dismantle its leadership within 18 months.
- Lebanon: He supports a security zone and seeks stronger American and French involvement against Hezbollah.
- Iran: He favors a lasting, verifiable resolution of the nuclear threat. If diplomacy fails, his proposals include US-enforced restrictions around remaining enriched-uranium sites and wider covert action against Iran's missile capabilities.
- Military service: Yashar opposes blanket haredi exemptions and proposes sanctions for evasion. It would allow a limited Torah-study exemption for 3% of each annual haredi cohort, which opposition rivals who demand no exemptions have criticized.
- Soldiers' pay: A September youth plan proposed raising compulsory-service soldiers' pay by 15%, with a 50% increase for combat soldiers in their third year.
Economist and Yashar candidate Shaul Meridor placed the "working middle class, young people, and service people" at the center of the party's economic policy, the Post reported.
Eisenkot vs Netanyahu: why first place may not decide the government
Most recent polls project Yashar at 20 to 23 seats, more than Likud, according to CNN. The Jerusalem Post put the figure at some 21-23 seats. CNN reported that Eisenkot also leads Netanyahu in polling on who is most suitable to be prime minister, while cautioning that polls can be inaccurate.
Under Israel's system, the president does not automatically give the mandate to the leader of the largest party. It goes to the lawmaker most likely to assemble a coalition, CNN explained. Netanyahu's bloc includes far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, and CNN described political deadlock as a very real possibility.
Eisenkot's path to power runs through left, right and centrist parties and could depend on Arab parties in some scenarios, according to CNN. Netanyahu has spent years working to delegitimize cooperation with Arab parties, and some other opposition leaders have said they will not work with them.
Eisenkot has said he will try to form a government even without 61 seats, raising the possibility of a minority government sustained by Arab parties. Whether other opposition parties would back such an arrangement, or refuse, is one of the questions the results will start to answer after polls close on Tuesday.