Eisenkot Calls for Unity as Netanyahu Challenges Him on Iran

Israeli election contender Gadi Eisenkot said on Sunday that he would seek to unite the country during his final major rally before the vote, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu campaigned to portray his chief rival as soft on Iran.

Mr. Netanyahu has relied heavily on his security credentials, but Eisenkot has cast him as unfit to lead and pledged to establish a state commission of inquiry into the failings that led to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack under the incumbent’s watch.

Polls had shown Netanyahu and Eisenkot running neck and neck before a ban on new polling took effect in the three days before Tuesday’s vote.

Addressing an audience of hundreds on Sunday, Eisenkot pledged to heal divisions within Israeli society after Netanyahu’s divisive tenure, and voiced “a commitment to security and the economy.”

“Our goal is not for one side to defeat the other. That is not our way,” he said. “We will work to bring all Israelis together again — those who voted for us and those who did not.”

The relative newcomer to politics, in contrast with Netanyahu and his three decades on the political scene, saw his pledge to unite Israelis resonate with some voters, and for many the former army chief’s plain-spokenness was part of his appeal.

“I feel that he is a rock for us… he is someone I can trust,” said Yael Shkedi, a 66-year-old jewellery maker, at Eisenkot’s rally.

“Amid all this chaos, what really matters to me is this feeling of someone who can somehow bring everyone together, almost like a father figure.”

In his speech, Eisenkot said he would “always look you in the eye and tell the truth” and pledged to “take responsibility for both successes and failures.”

He also appealed directly to wavering supporters of Netanyahu’s Likud party, urging them to change course.

“Deep down, you too know that Israel cannot go on like this,” he said. “Israel needs change.”

Netanyahu’s critics accuse him of putting his political survival above the greater good, and he is currently facing trial on corruption charges, which he denies.

Rally attendee Chen Sharon, an army reservist, said she wanted “people that I can count on” in office.

“We need someone that we can actually believe his values and what he represents to us,” she said.

– ‘A catastrophe for Israel’ –

Over the course of the campaign, Netanyahu played to Israeli voters’ opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state, and posters were splashed across the country with the slogan “Either the Right or Palestine.”

He also touted the still-unresolved war that he launched against Iran alongside US President Donald Trump, who endorsed him in the race.

Appearing after Eisenkot’s rally on Channel 14, Netanyahu again suggested the former general and his allies “want to create a Palestinian state, a catastrophe for Israel.”

“They will not destroy Iran’s nuclear programme,” he told a boisterous studio audience. “We’ve done 90 percent of the work; 10 percent remains. Who is going to do it? Eisenkot and the Muslim Brotherhood? No. Only I can do it.”

Eisenkot has said he opposed a Palestinian state, but vowed to crack down on extremist West Bank settlers who have attacked Palestinians with impunity.

Netanyahu on Sunday posted an AI-generated image of a mushroom cloud engulfing Tel Aviv, alongside text attributed to a right-wing political commentator calling Iran an existential threat and arguing that all the other issues discussed during the election season were trivial in comparison.

In a post on X addressing Netanyahu on Saturday, Eisenkot accused the premier of playing up the Iran threat when it suited him politically.

“You have once again failed spectacularly and blatantly to achieve the war objectives you yourself set,” he added.

Longtime opposition leader Yair Lapid, who has promised to join a coalition with Eisenkot, said Netanyahu had “lost his grip.”

“Yesterday, Netanyahu announced that U.S. security aid was over and that sanctions would crush our economy. This morning, he posted a video in which an atomic bomb lands on Tel Aviv,” he said on X.

“This man has lost his grip. We absolutely must send him home.”

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