As Israel’s election campaign has not formally opened, the political attacks are already intensifying. In recent days, Likud has identified Gadi Eisenkot as its main rival, citing his rising poll numbers. The party has decided to run a focused campaign against him, arguing that he cannot form a government without Arab parties and that his security views have so far been less hawkish than those of other contenders.
On Tuesday, a new video released by Likud showed clips from an interview with Eisenkot, in which he is pressed on an earlier remark that the Middle East would need to prepare for the entry of nuclear weapons, a statement the party is portraying as resigned acceptance of the situation. Earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted another video on X titled, “Eisenkot would not attack Iran,” ending with the message, “Eisenkot has no government without the Arab parties.”
The Likud offensive followed Eisenkot’s sharp criticism of Netanyahu the day before, after the U.S. and Iran reached an agreement that does not include Israel. After Netanyahu’s press conference, Eisenkot said, “A very regrettable statement by the prime minister of Israel, especially given the failure to achieve the goals of the war after almost three years. It would have been better if he had said, ‘I was wrong, I set false goals that I was not prepared to achieve.’ This would have given Netanyahu much more credit and respect from the public if he had admitted he had made empty statements and conducted psychological operations.”
Likud said it is also targeting Eisenkot because of his poll gains and because undecided voters may switch to him. Netanyahu, meanwhile, has been working to keep his governing bloc intact so no coalition member opens the door to a government with Eisenkot, which would undermine the campaign message that Eisenkot can only govern with Arab party support.
Separately, the party “Together, led by Bennett” announced that Michal Negri, formerly CEO of Ra’anana municipality and now a trainer of municipal CEOs, is joining its list for the 26th Knesset. Negri, who also served as head of the city’s education administration and helped found a national center for municipal knowledge and management, has spent the past two years in the struggle against the draft-evasion law. She is the mother of Reserve Maj. Roy Negri, a lotar team commander who was killed in the battle in Be’eri on October 7. Party chairman Naftali Bennett said she is “an excellent leader who grew from the field, from education and local government,” while Negri said she joined because she believes Bennett can “repair, renew and lead Israel forward.”
