Gadi Eisenkot

On JudgeMarket, Gadi Eisenkot draws on a store of security credibility: his tenure as the IDF's 21st chief of staff earns him trust that cuts across political camps, and many in the public see him first and foremost as a man of professional judgment and integrity rather than a party politician. He entered politics in 2022 in National Unity alongside Benny Gantz, served as a minister without portfolio and as an observer in the war cabinet after October 7, and left the government with Gantz in 2024; his son Gal was killed in the fighting in the Gaza Strip. In 2025 he parted ways with Gantz and resigned from the Knesset, and in September of that year he founded Yashar!, which he leads into the election on October 27, 2026, alongside former Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen and Orit Farkash-Hacohen. The party's rise in the polls has made him the main challenger to Netanyahu, and that has changed his test as well: his standing now depends less on his military past and more on his ability to turn public trust into consolidated political strength, now that he has chosen to run separately from the Bennett–Lapid alliance. The election results and the coalition negotiations that follow will test whether the public sees him as a genuine statesman or as a respected military man who has yet to complete the move into politics.