Gadi Eisenkot’s new party, Yashar, has surged to the top of Israel’s election polls just weeks before Election Day on October 27, putting a freshly founded movement at the center of the race for the 26th Knesset. The centrist party is now projected to win about 21 to 23 seats, enough to make Eisenkot one of the most consequential challengers to Benjamin Netanyahu’s political map.
For readers searching now, the appeal is obvious: Yashar is no longer just a name on the ballot. It has become the most visible test of whether Eisenkot can turn a security-first brand into a serious governing force. The party was founded in September 2025, only two months after he left National Unity and resigned from the Knesset in July, following a political path that began in August 2022 when he entered politics through Benny Gantz’s alliance.
That rise matters because the polls do more than show momentum; they suggest a party built around Eisenkot could arrive in the next Knesset with enough weight to shape coalition talks from the start. Yashar’s platform puts national security at its core, with a focus on Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and the future of Palestinian governance and security arrangements. On Gaza, the party wants Hamas replaced while keeping an Israeli security corridor in place, and Eisenkot has said reconstruction should move forward only step by step alongside partial disarmament.
His positions are sharper still on the regional front. Eisenkot has called for a lasting, verifiable answer to Iran’s nuclear threat, including US-enforced limits around remaining enriched-uranium sites if diplomacy fails and wider covert action against missile capabilities if it does not. In Lebanon, he backs a security zone and wants stronger American and French involvement against Hezbollah. He has also opposed a Palestinian state, while saying he would consider the Palestinian Authority preferable to continued Hamas rule if those are the alternatives.
That is where Yashar’s pitch becomes more complicated. Eisenkot says he wants a broad democratic alternative, but the party’s clearest line is also one of the hardest: opposition to blanket haredi military-service exemptions. Its domestic plan ties reform to service, the cost of living and support for working Israelis, young people and those who serve the country. It is a centrist project built on national unity language, yet its core selling points are unforgiving on war, security and obligation.
The next test is not rhetorical. It is October 27, when voters choose the 26th Knesset and find out whether Yashar’s early lead survives contact with the ballot box. If the polls hold, Eisenkot will enter the vote not as a newcomer trying to be heard, but as a potential power broker whose party may help decide who can govern next.
