politics
Polls: Likud leads, Yashar second as Israeli parties fall short of majority
Former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot's new party trails only Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud in recent Israeli polls. Both parties are projected to fall short of a parliamentary majority in the election due by late October.
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Polls conducted as of June 26, 2026, show Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party on course to win the second-most seats in Israel's parliament behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud, Al-Monitor reported. Both parties are projected to fall short of a majority. Eisenkot, 66, founded Yashar after entering politics four years earlier and winning a parliament seat in 2022 as an independent.
He briefly served in the war cabinet formed after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack before quitting after eight months. The next election must be held by late October 2026, though no date has been set. Eisenkot served as Israel Defense Forces chief of staff from 2015 to 2019 and commanded forces during the 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
He lost his son Gal Meir, 25, who was killed in Gaza in December 2023, and two nephews also died in the Gaza war. A son of Moroccan immigrants, he has drawn support from voters of Middle Eastern and North African Jewish descent. At a conference this week, Eisenkot said he had implemented the Dahiyeh doctrine with disproportionate strikes and that the military should be free to attack Hezbollah anywhere in Lebanon.
He described the ceasefire demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump as creating an "insane reality" tying the hands of Israeli forces and called demands for a Palestinian state irrelevant. Naftali Bennett leads another party contesting the election.
Netanyahu faces lingering corruption cases.
