Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival Gadi Eisenkot have both offered competing claims to lead Israel after the elections, as exit polls show coalitions of both leaders in a neck-and-neck fight. Both rivals have also offered starkly different solutions on how to end the Iran war, one of the biggest campaign issues.
Eisenkot, who favoured war in the past, said he supports Trump’s policy of “peace through strength” and that his policy of economic pressure has a better chance of giving the Islamic Republic “a sense of defeat” than a renewed military campaign.
He, however, backs military strikes on Tehran’s nuclear programme, but not a return to all-out war. He has long opposed Netanyahu’s approach to war as poorly planned, and he has called for diplomacy to end the war. His US approach also differs from Netanyahu’s.
Eisenkot, a decorated general who rose to become chief of staff of Israel’s military and lost one of his sons in fighting in Gaza in December 2023, two months after the war began, backs the idea of a contemporary Israel where Jews and Arab settlers co-exist.
He has said that he believes that currently, economic pressure is the best way to defeat Iran. A recent CNN report said that Netanyahu even pushed for joint US-Israel strikes on Iran before the elections, but Washington turned his proposal down as US President Donald Trump weighs his options. The Israeli Prime Minister’s office has called the report “fake news”, but it was not the only time when Netanyahu was accused of trying to restart the war in hopes of postponing the elections as he faces a tight race against Eisenkot’s opposition coalition. The former IDF chief has said he believes regime change in Iran is “not an achievable goal”. Eisenkot, who favoured war in the past, said he supports Trump’s policy of “peace through strength” and that his policy of economic pressure has a better chance of giving the Islamic Republic “a sense of defeat” than a renewed military campaign, according to a New York Times report. Eisenkot has repeatedly said Tel Aviv must focus on a future without any reliance on Washington and act independently While the Prime Minister maintains that his ties with Trump and the US are the best protection Israel has.
