Bibi’s centrist rival

Bibi’s centrist rival
 
Gadi Eisenkot speaks in Israel during the launch of his party’s election campaign last month. Photo: Ariel Schalit/AP

David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, writes in a “Letter from Israel” that the strongest challenger to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the election coming Oct. 27 is Gadi Eisenkot, a general who quit Netanyahu’s war cabinet in 2024 and founded the centrist party Yashar (“straight, upright, just”).

“Most analysts here believe that, in a close election, Eisenkot can prevail if he attracts at least some ‘soft right’ voters in provincial cities like Kiryat Shmona, Ofakim, Ashdod, Nahariya, and Dimona,” Remnick writes.

Eisenkot, 66, a son of Moroccan immigrants who rose to chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, pledges to restore Israel as a “Jewish, democratic, progressive, and liberal state,” Remnick writes:”Eisenkot is selling himself as the humble soldier, a political novice untainted by corruption or duplicity. …

At the urging of his consultants, and in response to the political realities of post-October 7th Israel, he is tacking further toward the center. He seldom voices reservations about the scale and prosecution of the war in Gaza.

Remnick concludes that the election will decide whether those themes can “compete with the fears Netanyahu … spent years cultivating.”Keep reading.
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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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