If Benjamin Netanyahu falls from power in Tuesday’s election in Israel, the man considered most likely to replace him is Gadi Eisenkot, a retired lieutenant general and former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces.
In Israeli parliamentary politics, the prime minister is not directly elected. The leader capable of assembling a governing coalition of at least 61 seats in the 120-seat Knesset becomes prime minister and head of the government.
Mr. Eisenkot leads the centrist party Yashar in the Israeli Knesset. As a former top Israeli general, he appeals to centrists and right-leaning voters who want a defense hawk as leader but also someone outside Prime Minister Netanyahu’s immediate orbit.
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Israeli analysts say Mr. Eisenkot doesn’t have longstanding partisan baggage and is considered a political bridge-builder capable of uniting center-left, centrists and right-wing anti-Netanyahu factions.
After retiring from the army, Mr. Eisenkot entered politics in 2022. He joined Mr. Netanyahu’s emergency war cabinet following the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel. He left the cabinet in June 2024, complaining about a lack of a post-war exit strategy and political interference.
Mr. Eisenkot comes from a Mizrahi Jewish family. His parents were immigrants to Israel from Morocco. If elected, he would be the first prime minister whose family came from the Middle East and North Africa.
Every Israeli prime minister since the founding of the state in 1948 has been of Ashkenazi descent — those whose ancestors originated in Central and Eastern Europe.
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