The political balance in the anti-Netanyahu camp is shifting, with recent polls showing Gadi Eisenkot overtaking Naftali Bennett. Bennett’s campaign, built around the message that only the right can defeat the right, may have become counterproductive as the broad support he enjoyed from center-left voters begins to erode.
For months, those voters backed the former prime minister tactically, as long as he looked like the strongest candidate to replace Benjamin Netanyahu. As the effect of Bennett’s alliance faded and doubts grew about whether he could actually lead the bloc to victory, some of those voters moved to Eisenkot, who many see as a more natural ideological and value-based fit. Bennett is also having trouble keeping right-wing voters unsettled by his association with Yair Lapid, and even younger voters drawn to his campaign at first appear to be weakening in support.
Bennett is avoiding an open negative campaign against Eisenkot, in part because he believes the “change bloc” does not like internal fights and because Eisenkot is difficult to attack. That is also why Bennett has not ruled out serving under him, since he does not want to be seen as obstructing a possible victory. Likud, meanwhile, is struggling to find an effective attack line against Eisenkot. Minister Amichai Chikli called it a “sociological advantage,” and a Likud campaign source said, “He is a bereaved father and an honest man, what can you say about him?”
Likud’s counteroffensive is aimed at persuading disappointed right-wing voters that backing Eisenkot would lead to a government dependent on Arab parties, while Netanyahu would preserve a coalition with the ultra-Orthodox. Eisenkot is meanwhile touring the periphery and targeting Netanyahu’s weak points, while also hoping that some frustrated right-wing voters will simply stay home on election day. Despite his lack of ministerial experience, he is still seen by many anti-Netanyahu voters as the “next big thing.” Bennett, by contrast, can point to his experience as a former prime minister, a businessman, an Hi-Tech entrepreneur, head of the Yesha Council, and minister in portfolios from education to defense. The next few weeks may determine whether he can regain momentum or whether Eisenkot’s rise becomes irreversible.
