Eisenkot must beat Netanyahu at his own game, not repeat Gantz's mistakes - opinion

Ben Caspit argues that Gadi Eisenkot must adopt a ruthless political strategy to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu, warning against repeating Benny Gantz's mistakes. He calls for a united opposition task force and analyzes missed merger opportunities and election results showing Netanyahu's bloc lost ground but the opposition failed to secure a majority.

In an opinion piece published on October 31, 2026, Ben Caspit argues that Gadi Eisenkot must adopt a ruthless political strategy to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu, warning against repeating the mistakes of Benny Gantz. Caspit calls on Eisenkot to form a task force with Avigdor Liberman, Naftali Bennett, and Yair Lapid, expressing frustration that this has not yet happened. He analyzes the recent election results, noting that Netanyahu's bloc lost 72,000 votes compared to the previous election and saw its coalition shrink from 68 to 53 seats, while the opposition bloc gained roughly a quarter of a million more votes. However, the opposition failed to reach 61 seats. Caspit highlights two pivotal missed opportunities: a failed merger between Eisenkot and Bennett, which polling suggested could have won 31 or 32 seats, and the Bennett-Lapid merger, which he calls a fatal mistake that allowed Bezalel Smotrich to cross the electoral threshold. The framing relies on emotionally charged vocabulary and personal exhortation without procedural sourcing.