Is Gadi Eisenkot's biggest selling point that he's 'not Netanyahu?'

Front-runner Gadi Eisenkot is drawing support precisely because he is "everything Netanyahu isn't," Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Zvika Klein said in an election discussion with host Jacob Laznik. 

Klein described Eisenkot's disciplined, low-noise operation as a "Swiss watch" that rolls out respected recruits at a steady pace and grants few interviews, contrasting it with what he called the "reaction politics" of Naftali Bennett.

The pair opened on the foreign sanctions targeting Israeli figures, which Laznik dismissed as "stupid" and poorly thought through, even as he noted the governments behind them track Israeli coalition politics closely.

From there, they turned to a right-wing camp Laznik called "in shambles," citing the failure of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich to run together despite Netanyahu's push and the mergers that never came together. Klein said Likud's candidate list was assembled "last second" and became "a mess," with the fight over reserved slots landing in the party's internal court and nearly splitting its base. Both flagged puzzling placements: a former hostage and a Channel 14 television host in high, coveted slots while a serious defense figure was buried at number 35.

Where they diverged most was on what the election is actually about. Laznik rejected the idea of an "exciting list," insisting the vote should turn on a bare-minimum agenda the country needs "yesterday," a state commission of inquiry into October 7, a haredi draft law, and honest budgets: items he called "non-negotiable." Klein pushed instead for a cross-partisan government, and the two weighed whether any coalition could rely on the Arab parties, the case for term limits, and how any incoming leader would inherit simultaneous pressure from Iran, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey.

Klein closed with three priorities regardless of who wins: resolving the draft through financial pressure rather than force, governing as "everyone's prime minister," and overhauling Israel's diplomacy at "Ariel Sharon magnitude."

Full discussion, including a tease of upcoming interviews with "big names," in the video.