Israeli President Isaac Herzog has tasked Yashar (“Right”) party leader Gadi Eisenkot with forming 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 form a government before Herzog allows an alternative leader, most likely Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to try to do the same. If this fails, new elections will then be called.
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But as things stand, it is unlikely that Eisenkot will be able to form a majority government like the one Netanyahu has relied on to impose his right-wing political agenda.
He may have to count on 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 key for him to persuade some of the more right-wing elements in his opposition bloc to gain support from Arab parties outside the government.
It is uncertain how far he can go in this area for a man whom observers have described as less comfortable with the subterfuge and political trickery often attributed to Netanyahu.
Political learner
Eisenkot became leader of his volatile opposition bloc just days before the Oct. 27 election, and even then, messages emanating from the coalition seemed confused, contradictory, and seemingly absent from any central coordinating figure.
So far, any support for the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, which broke with its traditional ally Shas by refusing to back Netanyahu, will likely come in exchange for maintaining 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, will likely come in exchange for at least a significant effort to combat the wave of violent crime that has helped engulf Palestinian communities in Israel.
They will also want an end to the epidemic of violent pogroms against settlers, which have swept the occupied West Bank with the apparently active encouragement of Netanyahu’s government partners – particularly far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
But Aida Touma-Sliman, a Knesset member of the left-wing Hadash party and a member of the Palestinian-led Joint List, said developments in recent days showed that Eisenkot did not want to rely on Palestinian voters.
“He seems much more willing to compromise with ultra-Orthodox religious parties, particularly on the law governing military conscription, than to risk giving the impression of dependence on Arab support. »
A toxic legacy
One of the main questions that the country’s next leader will face is Israel’s position in the United States. Israel’s reputation has fallen to an all-time low among the American public due to the genocidal war against Gaza and the US-Israeli war against Iran, which Netanyahu is accused of convincing US President Donald Trump to start.
On the eve of what turned out to be a disastrous midterm election for Trump, he announced an end to the $3.8 billion military aid program given annually to Israel.
Regardless of the last-minute announcement, Trump’s Republican Party suffered historic losses and top officials, including Vice President JD Vance, blamed the war on Iran.
Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment, acknowledged that Israel’s reputation in the United States was at an all-time low, a situation that Eisenkot — with his discomfort on the public stage and reluctance to speak in English — should address.
“Perceptions of Israel are quite ingrained. Essentially, audiences have been watching the region on split-screen since 2023. On one screen there is the carnage inflicted by Hamas on October 7 (2023), and on the other there is 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. “The Eisenkot situation may well be the most difficult American situation any Israeli prime minister has to face. »
The “anti-Bibi”
For now, at least, Eisenkot enjoys the support of the majority of Israelis, as much for what he is not as for what he is.
Unlike Netanyahu, the polite son of a privileged Ashkenazi Jewish family who nonetheless sought to exploit the grievances of Mizrahi Jews, Eisenkot represents a more authentic whole.
Born in Tiberias to parents from Marrakech and Casablanca, he grew up in the equally isolated port city of Eilat before joining the army at 18, rising to the rank of chief of staff. He then followed the well-known path of senior Israeli army 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 allies and opponents as both “menschy” and “schlumpy,” Eisenkot’s concerned appearance reflects, at least in the eyes of some voters, his personal ties to the October 7 attacks and the subsequent genocidal war on Gaza.
His son Gal was killed in Jabalia, northern Gaza, in December 2023 while participating 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 around Eisenkot a personality at odds with Netanyahu’s family, whose relatively glamorous lifestyle seems far removed from the current situation of the Israeli public.
“He seems very military in his demeanor, very steady and you don’t always know what he’s thinking,” said Yossi Mekelberg, a senior researcher at Chatham House. “I think it offers what Israel needs most of all right now: a sense of normalcy and the understanding that there are rules that apply equally and to everyone, including the government. »
Soldier
But this will make little difference to the 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 certain that Eisenkot’s appointment as prime minister will make a difference in the yawning divide between the rights of Israel’s Jewish and Palestinian citizens.
Eisenkot reportedly expressed resentment at having to sit alongside far-right figures such as Ben-Gvir and Smotrich during his eight-month term in the national unity government. But he nonetheless oversaw punitive policies against Palestinians and Arabs in neighboring states.
As chief of staff, Eisenkot oversaw brutal operations against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as widespread airstrikes against Iranian targets and the arming of rebels in Syria.
From 2015 to 2018, the years overlapping his mandate, United Nations figures show around 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 injured 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 its command had committed serious violations of international law, some potentially amounting to war crimes or crimes against humanity.
During the 2006 Lebanon War, in which Eisenkot is considered the author of the Dahiyeh doctrine, Israel killed 1,109 people, including approximately 860 civilians. There are no figures for the tens of thousands of people killed by Eisenkot’s tactics in the years that followed.
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