The two faces of Eisenkot, who could be Israel’s PM

The controversial political landscape of Israel is currently dominated by a fierce contest between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his primary rival, former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot. Recent exit polls have revealed that both are locked in a deadlock. Over the past decade, Israel's political center has shifted significantly towards security and military power, a fact that has been highlighted in the author's book, "The Fall of Israel".

Eisenkot's role in Netanyahu's war cabinet has been largely overlooked in the mainstream media, which often presents him as a moderate and security-oriented centrist. This portrayal, however, belies his role as a key architect of the genocidal campaign in Gaza. Despite his Jewish Moroccan background and upbringing outside Israel's political elite circles, Eisenkot served as IDF's chief of staff from 2019 to 2023.

During this tenure, he formalized the Campaigns Between the Wars (CBW) doctrine, a covert strategy aimed at weakening enemies and postponing conflicts. This doctrine was instrumental in the brutal assault on Gaza. Eisenkot's tenure as chief of staff was marked by numerous clashes with Palestinians, and his contributions to US-Israel strategic cooperation were significant.

However, his role in the genocidal atrocities in Gaza has been largely whitewashed. In July 2024, an advocacy group submitted a request to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Eisenkot and other war cabinet members for their role in the genocidal atrocities. Despite this, Eisenkot continues to share complicity in these atrocities, even though he was only appointed a minister without portfolio following the outbreak of the Gaza war.