In Israel, Eisenkot tries quiet appeal to oust Netanyahu

JERUSALEM: Gadi Eisenkot, the man who could unseat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, almost always dresses in black, speaks halting English and tends to respond to interviews with bullet-point lists, reflecting the military culture that shaped him.

For some voters in Tuesday's general election, the 66-year-old's lack of charisma may be one of his greatest assets.

Serious and unassuming, Eisenkot is in many ways the opposite of Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, who speaks flawless English with an American accent and is ever ready with headline-grabbing soundbites on US television or social media.

Eisenkot, who served as military chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, has vowed to unite Israelis after Netanyahu's divisive tenure, during which the country has moved sharply to the right.

"There is a large camp in Israel whose main goal in the coming election is just for things to be calmer," said Tal Elovits, a researcher at the Molad think tank.

"The middle class," he said, "is looking for someone who will look responsible, boring. I think Eisenkot has that appeal."

Eisenkot, who has been neck and neck with Netanyahu in polls, has promised to try to restore Israel's international image, badly strained after three years of war in Gaza and violence in the occupied West Bank.

He has vowed to crack down on extremist West Bank settlers who have attacked Palestinians with impunity and recently beaten up an American journalist and a French mayor, denouncing the incidents as "Jewish terror" abetted by Netanyahu's government.

But the military man is no peacenik. He has even sought to position himself to the right of Netanyahu by vowing there would be no Palestinian state, replaying clips from an earlier political era in which the long-serving prime minister reluctantly voiced openness to the idea under US pressure.

Having commanded the military during the 2006 war with Hizbollah, Eisenkot devised the so-called "Dahiya doctrine", named after a Beirut suburb, under which Israel vowed to use massive force against civilian infrastructure in areas populated by the Lebanese militants.

Israel has adopted the doctrine again in Gaza, causing destruction that critics say amounts to war crimes, an assertion disputed by Israel.

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Working-class roots

Eisenkot has garnered broad public sympathy after his son Gal and two nephews were killed fighting in Gaza.

His working-class roots are another element of his appeal. He would be the first prime minister of Sephardic Jewish heritage, referring to Jews whose recent origins trace back to the Middle East and North Africa.

Unlike Netanyahu, who comes from an elite family and whose father was a prominent professor in the United States, Eisenkot is the son of Moroccan Jews and grew up on Israel's geographic periphery.

His background came into the spotlight when a senior commentator on the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 television station described Eisenkot as "a monkey" controlled by "Ashkenazi elitists". He was referring to Jews of European descent who have historically dominated Israel's political and economic institutions.

While the term is not necessarily a racial slur in Hebrew and can mean something akin to a "fall guy" taking the blame on behalf of others, the remark drew widespread condemnation from opposition politicians and Netanyahu himself.

Eisenkot swiftly sought to turn the episode to his advantage.

His campaign erected billboards denouncing discrimination against Sephardim, and his party accused Netanyahu of sidelining Sephardic members of Likud by limiting their media appearances during the campaign.

Limited change on security

In a pair of weekend appearances, Eisenkot went from meeting LGBTQ activists and promising the community greater protection at a forum in a hip cafe to meeting religious Jews, to whom he defended Israeli control over the West Bank.

"Israeli settlement (of the West Bank) is a value, on condition that it serves the interests of the state of Israel, and it's done according to the law," he told representatives of the Religious Zionist movement on Sunday.

He appeared to be rejecting the establishment of unauthorised settlement outposts, which have fuelled a recent rise in violence against Palestinians.

On Gaza, he has vowed to end Hamas rule within 18 months. He recently said this could be achieved either through the implementation of US President Donald Trump's ceasefire plan, which envisages Hamas's gradual disarmament and a transfer of power, or through "creative operations" aimed at destroying the movement's military wing.

Addressing a key source of resentment among Israelis following three years of war, Eisenkot has promised to curb exemptions from military service for religious students.

He has promised a "universal national service law" requiring ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arab citizens to perform either military or civil service.

He has sought to appeal to centrist and liberal voters by pledging to "protect judicial independence, the rule of law, minority rights and a free press".

At his final major rally before Tuesday's vote, he appealed directly to wavering Netanyahu supporters to change their vote.

"Deep down, you too know that Israel cannot go on like this," he said. "Israel needs change."