With Israel's general election set for 27 October, former military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot has overtaken Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in opinion polls, according to a recent Channel 12 survey. The poll projects Eisenkot's centrist Yashar party winning 23 seats in the 120-member Knesset, one more than Netanyahu's Likud, and 43 percent of respondents view the 66-year-old as the most suitable candidate for prime minister, compared with 34 percent for the incumbent. The election is widely framed in Israeli political commentary as a referendum on Netanyahu's leadership following the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 and the subsequent wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

Eisenkot, who served as IDF chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, is the son of Moroccan immigrants and grew up in the southern city of Eilat. Israeli media profiles describe him as reserved and methodical, a contrast to Netanyahu's more combative style. His campaign is built on a 10-point platform that includes establishing a state commission of inquiry into the 7 October intelligence and security failures, enacting a universal national service law that would require ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arab citizens to serve, and protecting judicial independence and minority rights. On the Palestinian question, Eisenkot has dismissed calls for a future Palestinian state as irrelevant after the Hamas attack, and he is credited by Israeli security analysts with helping to formulate the 'Dahiya Doctrine' of disproportionate military response against Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon.

The campaign has taken a sharply personal turn after Netanyahu's Likud party published an AI-generated video on social media. The clip depicts Eisenkot running toward a young man wearing a shirt reading 'Israeli unity'—a figure widely interpreted in Israeli public discourse as representing his son Gal, who was killed in Gaza in 2023—only to veer away and embrace Mansour Abbas, leader of the Arab party Ra'am. The video ends with the text: 'Eisenkot has no government without Yair Golan and the Arab parties.' The imagery provoked immediate condemnation from figures across the political spectrum. Former Likud minister Limor Livnat called the video 'pathetic' and said Netanyahu should be ashamed, while former IDF spokesman Avi Benyahu described it as 'insulting' and 'monstrous.' Yashar legislator Matan Kahana said there was 'no bottom to the pit Likud is willing to sink into.' Eisenkot himself has declined to comment.

Israeli political analysts note that the controversy may reinforce Eisenkot's image as a figure who has paid a personal price in the war—his son and two nephews were killed in Gaza—while Netanyahu's son Yair has remained in the United States. The video also highlights the coalition mathematics: Eisenkot would likely need support from Arab-majority parties to form a government, a prospect Likud seeks to weaponise. The election is scheduled for 27 October, and with the campaign intensifying, further polls are expected to test whether the backlash against the video translates into sustained electoral gains for Yashar.