The battle-hardened general who could oust Bibi Netanyahu

Manveen Rana (0:01)

From The Times and The Sunday Times, this is The Story. I'm Manveen Rana.

Josh Glancy (0:11)

You can tell just how much Israel has changed as a country since October 7th, 2023, just by walking around its borders.

Manveen Rana (0:19)

That's Josh Glancy, Associate Editor of The Sunday Times. A few weeks ago, he drove across Israel to assess the state of the country ahead of what was described as the most consequential election in Israel's history, held at the end of October.

He found the most telling insights came not just from the electorate, but from the country's newly drawn geography.

Josh Glancy (0:45)

So if you go up to the very northern border with Lebanon, this previously would have been very, very heavily fortified and fiercely contested, and now it's eerily quiet. Because actually the real border is 10, 15 kilometres into Lebanon, where the IDF is stationed, the Israel Defense Force. And over the border you see a bunch of basically destroyed Lebanese villages. And you know, you go down to the border with Gaza, you can walk up to the fence, the fence that was so pivotal in the event of October 7th, and now you can just walk up and touch it.

Because over the fence is an empire of rubble, and on top of that are several newly constructed Israeli army bases. And this is Israel's new reality, and this was the reality in which it had its first election since October 7th. An election that you, I suppose, in any other country would be dominated by the economy and the cost of living. And the Tel Aviv is now as or even more expensive than London, which is astonishing as a shift. And yet that must be the sort of fifth, sixth priority that voters are talking about. So it's a very, very strange and unusual environment to have had an election, in which issues of national security and national identity are so pressing that even the importance of the economy is not paramount.

Manveen Rana (2:07)

This was an election about national security, but it was also a referendum on one man, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Josh Glancy (2:18)

The problem is that Netanyahu himself is such a divisive character. He's been such a toxic force in Israeli politics for those who oppose him for such a long time.

Manveen Rana (2:29)

The man to take him on was the battle-hardened general Gadi Eisenkot. And after a messy election result, it looks like Eisenkot is edging ahead in the race to lead Israel.

SPEAKER_3 (2:42)

President Isaac Herzog says he'll give opposition politician Gadi Eisenkot the first chance to form a government.

Manveen Rana (2:49)

This was not a clear-cut election. So can Gadi Eisenkot now make up the numbers to form a government? Could this really be the end for Netanyahu? And what will it mean for Israel's approach to the war?

The Story today. Could Gadi Eisenkot be the man to unseat Bibi?

Josh, you were in Israel in the run-up to the elections. Gadi Eisenkot has now been offered the opportunity of forming a government. What was your impression of him?

Josh Glancy (3:31)

Netanyahu, who has been prime minister for most of the last 20 years in Israel, really blots out the sun. It's a bit like having Donald Trump in a country the size of Wales. He is such a satanic figure. All Israeli politics is downstream of Netanyahu. Every opponent is defined by being the anti-Netanyahu in some form or other. In the case of Gadi Eisenkot, who you just mentioned, who has now been given the mandate to try and form a government, he is the anti-Bibi in character.

So Netanyahu is the wily, shape-shifting demagogue who will say anything and do anything to stay in power, who's seen as being power-hungry, seen as being sometimes avaricious, and Eisenkot is this sturdy, robust, tough, arguably, you could even say dull, but not quite dull, but sort of avuncular general, who has served in every major position in the IDF and stands for what his party was called Yashar, honest, straight, truth and really was fighting a campaign to restore what he would call norms to Israel and to not work with some of the extreme parties, the far-right parties that Netanyahu brought into government for the first time in his recent coalition.

Manveen Rana (4:54)

Tell us a bit about him because he is a man who might be the one to unseat Netanyahu, who could be the next leader of Israel. What sort of a man is he? What's his background?

Josh Glancy (5:06)

So the first interesting thing about Gadi Eisenkot is that he is what in Israel they call Mizrahi, which is effectively a Jew from the Middle East. His family is from Morocco, from Marrakesh and Casablanca.