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Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel's longest-serving prime minister - more than 19 years if you add up all the terms he's served. This week, he's battling to stay in power. On Tuesday, Israelis go to the polls after years of wars across the region. NPR's Daniel Estrin is in Israel and has this story on the former general trying to unseat Netanyahu and his far-right government.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: No. 1, Gadi Eisenkot, yeah.
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Gadi Eisenkot is Netanyahu's leading opponent. At a stump speech a few weeks ago, I watch him take the stage. He's a short man with cropped white hair, wearing all black.
GADI EISENKOT: (Non-English language spoken).
ESTRIN: The event is in Kiryat Gat, a city near the Gaza border. Historically, it's a conservative Netanyahu stronghold. This crowd knows Eisenkot as the former military chief of staff appointed by Netanyahu a decade ago. He came back into the public spotlight days after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. He joined Netanyahu's war Cabinet. Very soon, the nation saw Eisenkot crying over his son's casket.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
EISENKOT: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Crying).
ESTRIN: His son was a soldier killed in Gaza. The very next day, his nephew was killed fighting in Gaza. Eisenkot tells this crowd that after the first three months of war, he thought things were going in the wrong direction.
EISENKOT: (Non-English language spoken).
ESTRIN: "I saw a deep dysfunction in the decision-making process," he says. "I saw that political and personal considerations were put above everything else." He means Netanyahu. He's pledging to voters the first thing he'll do as prime minister is to do the thing Netanyahu has refused to do, to launch an official national investigation into the security failure of October 7.
EISENKOT: (Non-English language spoken).
ESTRIN: In the crowd, I met Yair Amar. He told me he always used to vote for "Bibi" - Benjamin Netanyahu.
YAIR AMAR: (Non-English language spoken).
ESTRIN: But he says Netanyahu is responsible for all the Israelis killed on October 7. And Eisenkot?
AMAR: (Non-English language spoken).
ESTRIN: He says, "he's straight" - like a straight shooter, down to earth. He's everything Netanyahu isn't, says Amos Harel, an Israeli defense analyst for the newspaper Haaretz.
AMOS HAREL: Many Israelis wish for a saner future, for somebody who perhaps is not as charismatic and doesn't look the part of an American senator but is one of us and is seen as somebody who sacrificed a lot.
ESTRIN: The race is very, very tight. Most polls show Eisenkot's camp ahead of Netanyahu's camp. But those same polls show that neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot has a clear path to victory. The election could tip based on a small amount of votes, or it could end in a stalemate and force a repeat election next spring. If that were to happen, Netanyahu would stay in power without a new mandate from the public but with full authority to make fateful decisions like going to war. If Eisenkot wins, he has promised to crack down on settler expansion and violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. He talks about reaching diplomatic agreements in all the wars Netanyahu has kept open. But there's one thing he's made clear. He would not withdraw troops from Lebanon and Gaza anytime soon.
EISENKOT: (Non-English language spoken).
ESTRIN: "Truth be told," Eisenkot told the crowd, "it will take a lot of time." He said the Israeli military presence in both places is necessary until Hamas and Hezbollah's military forces are dismantled. And on the biggest question of all, how to solve Israel's conflict with the Palestinians...
EISENKOT: (Non-English language spoken).
ESTRIN: ...Eisenkot boasted to the crowd that he never said the solution was two states for two peoples, meaning creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel. That is the vision that the U.S. and the majority of the world has advocated for decades. Eisenkot thinks Israel should preserve possibilities for a solution in the future. After October 7, Israelis do not want to discuss a Palestinian state. Analyst Amos Harel.
HAREL: It's not something that the Israeli public can swallow at this time. More and more people suspect that the Arabs, the Palestinians are out to kill us and that the world is out to get us.
ESTRIN: That mistrust of Arabs has a direct impact on Eisenkot's chances in the race. Polls suggest the opposition parties would easily win if they'd be willing to share power with Arab political parties representing Israel's Arab citizens. But opposition parties say they won't partner with Arab parties, which is a victory for Netanyahu. He's running a campaign claiming the Arab political parties pose a threat, says Harel.
HAREL: The fact that, in spite of his political weakness, Netanyahu managed to reach a sort of a consensus among the Israeli public that the Arab parties, led by Arab Israeli citizens, are illegitimate as partners is quite amazing.
ESTRIN: This is not a race of conservatives versus liberals, right versus left. Eisenkot is leading a group of politicians who are largely right wing - not the far right of Netanyahu's camp, but right wing, focused on boosting Israel's military for whatever dangers are to come and recruiting religious ultra-Orthodox Jews to the military, trying to tell Israelis, it's OK not to vote for Netanyahu. I'll make sure Israel stays strong.
ANAT BEN-ARI: I'm trusting him on the military level, but is it enough?
ESTRIN: High school theater teacher Anat Ben-Ari came to hear Eisenkot speak, and she's almost nervous voicing an unpopular opinion out loud. She thinks he shouldn't shy away from peace agreements.
BEN-ARI: The only way to end war, all the history says that, is by agreements - people talking to people, even enemies, mostly enemies. And I think we should also pay the price for peace in order for less people to die here and not always live on our swords.
ESTRIN: With days to go before elections, war is fresh on Israelis' minds. Netanyahu is campaigning for votes with a new promise. If he wins, he'll partner with the U.S. to launch a new attack on Iran. Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Kiryat Gat in southern Israel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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