Gadi Eisenkot

Eisenkot was born on May 19, 1960, in Tiberias to Meir and Esther Eisenkot, Jewish immigrants from Morocco who arrived in Israel during the 1950s.[1] Although born in Tiberias, he grew up in Eilat, where he attended Goldwater High School and studied maritime subjects.[1] He was the second of four children in his family.[5] His upbringing connected a Moroccan Jewish family background with childhood in Israel’s southern port city.[1]

His maritime education did not lead to a naval career: he chose infantry service rather than the naval service suggested by his studies in marine mechanics.[6] He entered the IDF in 1978, initially attending the Israeli Air Force pilot course before leaving it after a month and joining the Golani Brigade.[6][5]

Eisenkot earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Tel Aviv University and pursued postgraduate political science studies at the University of Haifa, including study there in 2011.[5] He also earned a master’s degree from the U.S. Army War College.[7] His later biographical profiles identify him as married, the father of five children, and a resident of Herzliya.[1]

Eisenkot served as a company commander during the 1982 Lebanon War and advanced through Golani’s command structure.[8] Shortly after that war, he became commander of the brigade’s 13th Battalion.[9] His subsequent appointments included deputy brigade commander, command of the Ephraim regional brigade, and command of an infantry reserve brigade.[6][9] In 1997 he returned to Golani as its brigade commander, holding that position in 1997–98.[5]

An episode from his early command career concerned the difficulty of commanding soldiers who had previously been his peers: after he returned from officer training, only one soldier appeared for a 6 a.m. workout he had ordered.[10] Eisenkot entered a tent and overturned a soldier’s bed; half an hour later, the unit was outside, and relations with the soldiers subsequently ran smoothly.[10]

In 1999 Eisenkot became military secretary to Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.[5] In that position he coordinated the military and political aspects of Israel’s 2000 withdrawal from Lebanon.[6] After Barak’s tenure ended, Eisenkot held further operational commands, including the 366th Division and the Judea and Samaria Division.[9]

He was appointed commander of the Judea and Samaria Division in 2003, overseeing counterterrorism operations in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — during the second intifada.[11] A Begin-Sadat Center account identifies him as one of the leaders of the approach later called “mowing the grass,” which used recurring operations to suppress Palestinian terrorism.[9]

In June 2005 Eisenkot became head of the IDF Operations Directorate, placing him in a central General Staff role during the 2006 Second Lebanon War.[9] He urged an early mobilization of reserve ground forces, but the call was not heeded at the beginning of the war; his objections remained within General Staff discussions.[9] He also opposed an offensive push during the war’s final weekend.[12]

During the fighting, Eisenkot supported strikes on Hezbollah positions in Beirut’s Dahiya district while warning against operations that could unnecessarily endanger Israeli troops.[6] After learning that eight Israeli soldiers had been lost, he warned against fighting “out of anger.”[12] Chief of Staff Dan Halutz subsequently identified Eisenkot as the officer who spoke his mind during the war.[12]

Following criticism of Northern Command chief Udi Adam’s conduct during the war, Eisenkot was selected to replace him.[9] He remained at Northern Command for about five years, concentrating on rebuilding the northern front and strengthening its divisions.[6] He later served as deputy chief of staff under Benny Gantz before succeeding him as chief of staff in February 2015.[9][2]

Eisenkot became the IDF’s 21st chief of staff in February 2015 and its first chief of staff of Mizrahi background.[13] His term was extended in 2017, and he remained in office until January 2019.[14] His central institutional project was the Gideon multi-year plan, which combined a smaller overall force with investment in training, readiness, core missions, cyber capabilities, and operational effectiveness.[3]

In August 2015 he released a public IDF Strategy document, an unclassified version of a broader strategy developed alongside Gideon.[3] The document addressed the employment of force against terrorist organizations, particularly Hamas and Hezbollah, and opened an unusual public dialogue with the political leadership.[3][15] A further IDF Strategy document appeared in 2018.[15] Gideon’s force-development priorities were based on this strategic framework and emphasized the army’s ability to operate against those two adversaries.[15]

The plan entered use in early 2016.[3] Eisenkot argued that the IDF had to prepare for a rapid outbreak of war rather than rely on a period of escalation in which to make its preparations.[3] He summarized that emphasis in the statement, “For all practical purposes, preparedness is the IDF’s top priority.”[3] His proposals sought strong, well-trained, sustainable units while reducing the size of the regular, career, and reserve forces.[3]

Gideon included establishing a cyber corps, combining ground forces with components of the logistics corps, grouping special units into a brigade, and making the 98th Division a regular depth-corps division.[3] Other measures included reducing career-service positions, merging units, closing some divisions and squadrons, and reorganizing training.[16] The plan also set out provisions for exercises and procurement and continued the transfer of military capabilities and units to the Negev.[3][16]

Eisenkot linked military effectiveness to the relationship between the armed forces and Israeli society.[3] His tenure included the introduction of “From Uniform to Studies,” a program providing scholarships to 20 veterans for further education.[17] He also advanced a broader proposal to provide every soldier with free education.[14]

On service integration, Eisenkot approved a joint-service protocol intended to clarify rules for mixed-gender service after a period in which the command had been frozen.[18] In a 2018 interview he said he had added two mixed-gender battalions and pointed to growing numbers of Haredi soldiers and religious women in the IDF.[18] His tenure included the first four female tank commanders and the appointment of women to command an Air Force squadron and transport planes, although he opposed women serving on the front lines.[5]

In 2016 U.S. General Joseph Dunford awarded Eisenkot the Commander of the Legion of Merit.[7] The award recognized his service as chief of staff and his contribution to U.S.–Israel strategic cooperation.[7] He retired on January 15, 2019, when Aviv Kochavi succeeded him, ending approximately four decades of military service.[2]

Eisenkot ranked Iranian regional entrenchment as Israel’s foremost strategic threat, followed by Hezbollah, the Palestinian arena, and Islamic State.[19] After cabinet authorization for an intensified campaign in early 2017, the IDF increased action against Iran’s military presence in Syria while seeking to remain below the threshold of full-scale war.[19] He expanded the “War Between Wars,” a campaign of covert operations against Israel’s enemies that included operations in Syria becoming public after his retirement.[5]

In a 2018 interview, Eisenkot said Israel had conducted hundreds of actions to impede Iranian military infrastructure in Syria and Hezbollah’s acquisition of precision-guided weapons.[18] He identified preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear capability as an Israeli objective.[18] In his final interview as chief of staff, he said Israel had struck thousands of Iranian targets without publicly claiming responsibility or seeking credit.[20] He argued for concentrating resources on Iran rather than allowing a prolonged confrontation with a weaker enemy to wear Israel down.[20]

Air Force operational activity in 2018 was 300 percent higher than in 2017, with 60–70 percent of its aircraft participating in combat rotations.[19] The campaign included a major attack in May 2018 and sought to disrupt Iranian bases, air-defense systems, and efforts to develop precision missiles.[19] His four-year term was regarded as one of the quieter chief-of-staff tenures, although it included continuing operations and covert activity.[1]

In Gaza, Eisenkot prioritized the threat of Hamas tunnels and oversaw the beginning of an underground barrier along the border.[19] He opposed a large-scale operation that could culminate in reoccupation, maintaining that deterrence was built over years and that force should serve defined objectives.[19] During Operation Protective Edge, before becoming chief of staff, he favored limited military objectives rather than a full-scale invasion to overthrow Hamas.[9]

When tensions around Gaza rose in 2018, Eisenkot’s preference for ceasefires and a more moderate response drew criticism from Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and other government figures.[5] He regarded Hezbollah as the more serious threat and pursued smaller operations between larger conflicts to deter attacks and improve readiness.[5]

In December 2018 the IDF launched Operation Northern Shield to locate and neutralize Hezbollah attack tunnels crossing into Israel from Lebanon.[19] Its planning team had met more than 80 times before the operation.[19] After internal professional disagreements over when to expose the tunnels, Eisenkot secured a unified military position to present to the political leadership.[19]

After retiring in January 2019, Eisenkot became a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, with a remit covering Israel’s security concept and policy, civil-military relations, and the IDF budget.[21] He also joined the Washington Institute for Near East Policy as a visiting military fellow in 2019 and subsequently served on several boards.[7][8] His public activities included volunteering as chairman of Yad Ben Gurion.[17]

Eisenkot entered electoral politics in 2022, taking third place on the National Unity list led by Benny Gantz and Gideon Sa’ar and winning election to the 25th Knesset.[2] As a Knesset member, he served on the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee.[17]

Before joining National Unity, Eisenkot had been courted by other parties.[13] He said he wanted a party capable of forming “a broad and stable government,” and his long professional relationship with Gantz was widely understood to have influenced his choice.[13] In an interview that year, he described entering politics “out of responsibility” to the state.[8] Before the election, he declined to state positions on several major issues, including the two-state solution, public transportation on Shabbat, and same-sex marriage.[13]

In December 2022 Eisenkot warned that policies proposed by Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies risked politicizing the IDF and could lead to its breakup.[13] Attempts to change Israeli governance in 2023 prompted protests and strikes, including among army reservists.[13] By August, senior IDF officials were warning lawmakers that military readiness had begun to weaken.[13]

On October 12, 2023, following the Hamas-led October 7 terrorist attack, Israel formed a national unity war government that added five ministers, including Eisenkot and Gantz.[22] The Knesset approved the arrangement by 66 votes to four.[22] Its terms restricted legislation to matters directly connected to the war effort and empowered the war cabinet to issue operational directives to the security services.[22]

Eisenkot became a minister without portfolio and a nonvoting observer in the restricted war cabinet.[4] Netanyahu, Gantz, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were its principal decision-makers; Eisenkot and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer held observer status rather than votes.[4] Eisenkot and Gantz conditioned their participation on concentrating military efforts against Hamas in Gaza rather than expanding the conflict to Hezbollah in Lebanon.[23]

The two were the first cabinet members to meet hostage families, who said they felt that hostage release was a leading priority for them.[13] Eisenkot and Gantz helped secure the brief November ceasefire that freed 105 hostages.[23] Eisenkot opposed a preemptive widening of the war through strikes on Hezbollah while the Gaza fighting continued.[1]

On December 7, 2023, Eisenkot’s son, Master Sgt. (res.) Gal Meir Eisenkot, was killed in northern Gaza at the age of 25.[24] Gal served as a combat medic and infantry soldier in Battalion 699 of the 551st Reserve Brigade and died after an explosive device detonated near a shaft on the outskirts of Jabaliya.[24] He and fellow reservist Eyal Meir Berkowitz, also killed in the incident, had been friends since training.[25] Their unit was attempting to recover hostages’ bodies, which were ultimately retrieved.[25]

At Gal’s funeral, Eisenkot recalled his son’s seriousness, humor, and determination to make his own way in the military without relying on his father’s position.[26] Gal had previously told him that he had missed his father during childhood because of Eisenkot’s military service.[26] During the traditional Jewish mourning period, Eisenkot left home to attend a critical security discussion.[27] He later explained his determination to continue in politics: “I can’t turn back the clock. I will do everything I can to be worthy of the heavy price Gal paid.”[27]

The family sustained further losses in the war: Eisenkot’s nephew Maor Cohen Eisenkot was killed in Gaza in December 2023, and another nephew, Yogev Pazy, was killed there in November 2024.[2]

In a January 18, 2024 interview, Eisenkot spoke of “sharp and clear responsibility” belonging to everyone who held political or military office on October 7 and during the preceding decade, explicitly including himself as a former chief of staff.[28] He said that political and security leaders did not need to take responsibility because “it is theirs.”[28]

During the war, Eisenkot argued against promises of “absolute victory,” criticized delayed strategic decisions, and pressed for priority to be given to the release of hostages.[29] Eisenkot and Gantz announced their departure from the coalition on June 9, 2024.[23] In a subsequent interview, Eisenkot said he had observed political considerations entering cabinet discussions and contrasted that experience with decision-making during his service as chief of staff.[29]

Eisenkot left National Unity and resigned from the Knesset in 2025, following disagreements over internal party democracy and the creation of a broader governing alternative.[2] His objections included the failure to implement promised reforms such as open primaries.[5] In September he established Yashar! Im Eisenkot, rendered in English as “Straight! With Eisenkot.”[5] The new party said it would work for repair, healing, and hope in Israeli society.[5]

Its founding members came from politics, the military, business, film, and civic activism.[5] Eisenkot presented the organization as focused on security and national interests and on constructing broader alliances ahead of the 2026 election.[5] Its listed policies included pursuing regional peace through military strength, requiring military or national service for all, enacting a constitution, protecting an independent judiciary, and improving public education.[30]

Eisenkot headed Yashar’s electoral list in the October 27, 2026 election.[1][30] In commentary on that campaign, SAPIR Journal characterized him as the most prominent Mizrahi contender challenging Netanyahu from the center-left, placing his candidacy within a discussion of Mizrahi voters’ relationships to political identity.[31]

Eisenkot’s military record combines operational command, institutional reform, and an explicit public statement of IDF strategy.[3][15] The Gideon plan connected force reductions with a program of readiness, training, cyber development, and organizational restructuring rather than treating reduced personnel numbers as an isolated objective.[3] Publishing strategy documents in 2015 and 2018 also brought elements of military planning into public dialogue with the political leadership.[15]

His tenure paired efforts to impede Iranian military entrenchment in Syria and Hezbollah’s weapons development with a preference for avoiding a full-scale war.[18][19] In Gaza, he emphasized limited objectives, deterrence, and opposition to reoccupation, while directing attention to the tunnel threat and the border barrier.[19] Northern Shield, launched near the end of his tenure, applied that attention to cross-border tunnels on the Lebanese frontier.[19]

His educational initiatives and service-integration measures addressed the IDF’s relationship with Israeli society alongside its operational responsibilities.[3][18] The Legion of Merit recognized a further dimension of his service: strengthening strategic cooperation between Israel and the United States.[7] After retirement, his research appointments, parliamentary work, wartime government service, and founding of Yashar carried his engagement with national security into civilian public life.[21][5]

Eisenkot’s association with the Dahiya doctrine generated debate over deterrence, proportionality, and civilian risk.[32] In 2008 he said that the destruction experienced by Beirut’s Dahiya neighborhood in 2006 would be repeated in villages from which Israel was fired upon, promising “disproportionate force” and extensive destruction.[32] He described such villages as military bases rather than civilian villages; the doctrine remained on paper during his term as chief of staff.[10] Debate concerned when the policy would be activated and the dangers it posed to civilians.[32]

His restraint during the 2015–16 wave of Palestinian terrorist stabbings also drew political criticism.[33] He said he did not want to see “a soldier empty the magazine of his rifle into a girl holding a pair of scissors,” prompting attacks from right-wing politicians, including Uzi Dayan’s accusation of “irreparable damage to the IDF.”[33] Eisenkot rejected a shoot-to-kill policy and town curfews and supported the prosecution of Elor Azaria, convicted in 2017 of manslaughter for shooting a neutralized, unarmed Palestinian terrorist in Hebron.[13][5]

Military readiness remained another significant dispute: shortly before Eisenkot’s retirement, IDF Ombudsman Yitzhak Brick alleged deterioration and critical gaps and warned that the army was unprepared for war.[5] A panel of former officers appointed by Eisenkot rejected that conclusion in December 2018 and said the IDF was ready for a new ground war.[5] His Gaza policy likewise faced criticism from ministers who considered the military response too restrained, while Eisenkot defended rules of engagement consistent with his operational and moral positions.[5][19]