The Two Faces of Gadi Eisenkot, who could be Israel’s PM
Dan Steinbock 10/28/2026
Singapore (Special to Informed Comment: Feature) – In international media, PM Netanyahu’s adversary Gadi Eisenkot has been portrayed as a centrist voice. That’s part of his track-record. But he is also the architect of the Obliteration Doctrine that decimated Gaza.
As expected, the early Israeli exit polls indicate that Prime Minister Netanyahu and his prime adversary former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot face deadlock.
In the past 10-15 years, the country’s political center of gravity has shifted sharply toward security and military power, documented in my The Fall of Israel (2024).
Unsurprisingly, the election aftermath set the stage for coalition-building and wheeling-and-dealing because in the 120-member Israeli parliament the Knesset, neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot has an absolute majority.
What was also expected is the ongoing white-washing of Eisenkot’s military record. In the mainstream media, Netanyahu’s rival is portrayed as a centrist, security-oriented but moderate. Typically, both CNN and TIME, which now offer features on Eisenkot, tend to depict his role in Netanyahu’s war cabinet as a voice of reason. Yet, the fact that he remained in the cabinet through the worst obliteration of Gaza is effectively sidelined.
Neither mentions the word genocide even once in the context of their features. The neutral language is the norm, not an exception.
Complicity in war crimes
Though born in Israel, Eisenkot is of Jewish Moroccan descent. He grew of age in Tiberias and Eilat, outside the country’s centers of political power. His story contrasts sharply with Netanyahu’s deep U.S. roots and elite Jerusalem upbringing in the circles of power. And unlike Netanyahu, Eisenkot doesn’t have an Eastern European Ashkenazi background. With his family history in Casablanca, he would be Israel’s first Mizrahi prime minister if he can put together a ruling coalition.
After high school, Eisenkot was drafted to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and served in the legendary Golani Brigade. As the chief of staff, he prepared Israel for forever wars with the formalization of the Campaigns Between the Wars (CBW) doctrine: covert operations designed to weaken enemies, degrade capabilities, and postpone future conflicts between major engagements.
Eisenkot’s tenure saw numerous clashes with the Palestinians. At the same time, he contributed significantly to US-Israel strategic cooperation.
Eisenkot made his name as Israeli general, politician, and leader of the Yashar party. He served from 2015 to 2019 as the chief of staff of the IDF. Five days after October 7, 2023, he was sworn in as a minister without portfolio after his party joined the government following the outbreak of the Gaza war.
Eisenkot left the government in June 2024. While he served as an observer in Israel’s emergency war cabinet for the first eight months of Gaza’s genocidal atrocities, the official actions of the International Criminal Court (ICC) initially primarily focused on other senior figures.
But in July 2024, an advocacy group called the March 30 Movement officially submitted a comprehensive complaint to the ICC prosecutor. The petition requested that the court expand its investigation and issue warrants for former war cabinet members, including Gadi Eisenkot. Various Palestinian human rights organizations have similarly sent letters to the ICC Prosecutor urging for the prosecution of all decision-makers within the war cabinet
Even as a minister without portfolio, Eisenkot shares complicity for the genocidal atrocities that Netanyahu and his defense minister Gallant initiated in late fall 2023.
Militarizing genocidal atrocities
In a recent book on the Gaza genocide (and the West’s reluctance to prevent them), I concluded that Israeli military actions were fueled by the Obliteration Doctrine, which was first outlined in 2005 by Gadi Eisenkot.
Interestingly, he is no extremist. Officially, he supported Israeli democracy and a two-state solution, which he downplayed during the election campaign.
Eisenkot was appointed head of the Northern Command following Maj. Gen. Udi Adam’s resignation amid criticism over the latter’s conduct in the 2006 Lebanon War. At the time, many Israelis were frustrated that the military had failed to secure a comprehensive victory over the Hezbollah militia or retrieve the two soldiers whose capture had triggered the conflict. It was this popular frustration that set the stage for “tougher measures.”
Eisenkot’s strategy was based on the idea that to create effective deterrence against Hezbollah, the IDF would have to severely damage Dahiya, a densely populated Shia southern suburb of Beirut that served as a Hezbollah stronghold and was heavily bombed by Israel in 2006.