Israel Votes Oct. 27 as Ex-Army Chief Eisenkot's Yashar Party Challenges Netanyahu's Likud

Israelis vote on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, in an election in which Gadi Eisenkot, a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces and leader of the centrist Yashar party, is challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the country's longest-serving premier. Polls cited in the coverage put Yashar ahead of Netanyahu's Likud, narrowly according to Fox News, and The Hindu reports a projection of 20 of the 120 parliamentary seats. Either party would need a 61-seat majority coalition to govern. Eisenkot was born in Tiberias to a Moroccan Jewish family and raised mostly in Eilat. He served in the Golani Brigade and was IDF chief of staff from 2015 to 2019. Yashar is about a year old. In Sderot, a city near the Gaza border where Likud won over 40% of the vote in 2022 against 23% nationwide, Yashar posters use a slogan mixing Hebrew and Moroccan Arabic meaning "prime minister of our own."

Fox News, the right-leaning outlet, leads with the head-to-head contest and Eisenkot's résumé, quoting journalist Yossi Melman, who called him a brave, humble soldier. It also links to a story on Trump's statement that Netanyahu must be re-elected. Left-leaning outlets had not reported this story at the time of writing, while alternative/independent and right-leaning outlets had. Deutsche Welle focuses on Eisenkot's appeal to Moroccan-descent voters in Sderot, a traditional Likud stronghold. The Hindu highlights his anti-Netanyahu campaign, his "Dahiya doctrine" and his working-class image. Both sides agree on the polling lead and his biography; they differ in emphasis on military credentials versus identity and criticism of Netanyahu.