Two Days Until Israeli Knesset Elections... Who is Competing with Netanyahu?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is heading into a heated legislative election on October 27. Below are his main rivals:

Gadi Eisenkot (66), the son of Moroccan immigrants, is Netanyahu’s main competitor, as recent polls show them neck-and-neck just days before voting begins.

Despite lacking political experience, Eisenkot gained widespread public sympathy following the deaths of his son Gal and two of his nephews during the Gaza battles.

He belongs to the centrist camp, while adopting positions that align with the hardline stance of the current government. He has pledged to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and to end Hamas’s rule in Gaza within 18 months of taking office.

He has also expressed support for building Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, while simultaneously pledging to hold accountable settlers who attacked Palestinians and went unpunished during Netanyahu’s government.

Eisenkot resigned from the war cabinet in 2024 and became one of Netanyahu’s most fierce critics. In 2025, he founded his own party, “Yesh Atid” (Straight). If he wins, he will be the first prime minister of Middle Eastern or North African descent.

The party of former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (54), the right-of-center Yamina (Together), ranks third in opinion polls.

Bennett, who previously invested in the technology sector, has established himself as a prominent leader within the national right and the settler movement.

Bennett caused a stir in 2021 by forming a diverse coalition that included the entire Israeli political spectrum, with unprecedented support from an Arab party.

That coalition ended 12 consecutive years of Netanyahu’s rule, but Bennett’s government lasted only one year.

After a period away from political life, Bennett returned to the forefront following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent wars.

Israeli commentators believe he is capable of attracting right-wing voters who were disappointed by Netanyahu and do not wish to move toward the center or left.

Known for his hardline stance on security issues and opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state, he currently defines himself as a secular centrist.

He formed an alliance with current opposition leader Yair Lapid in an attempt to garner as many votes as possible.

Yair Lapid (62), the journalist turned politician, is one of the most prominent figures in the Israeli political landscape for over a decade.

Lapid has held several ministerial positions, most notably Finance and later Foreign Affairs. He briefly served as prime minister in 2022 under a power-sharing agreement to rotate with Bennett.

Despite his fame and political experience, Lapid struggles to attract voters outside his core base of secular and moderate urban residents, leading many observers to rule out his winning the election on his own.

Avigdor Lieberman was born in Soviet Moldova in 1958 and moved to Israel in the late 1970s. He is a veteran figure in the political landscape.

Several observers credit Lieberman with playing a key role in Netanyahu’s victory in the 1996 elections.

After founding the secular nationalist party “Yisrael Beiteinu,” Lieberman initially relied on the Russian-speaking bloc before gradually expanding his base to include part of the Israeli right.

He is among the few politicians who have held three of Israel’s most important ministries: Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Finance.

He also opposes privileges granted to ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredim) in Israel and has called for years for their conscription into the army.

Manasseh “Mansour” Abbas, leader of the United Arab List (Ra’am), is seeking to mobilize Israel’s Arab citizens, who make up 20 percent of the population, to prevent Netanyahu’s return to power.

If opposition leaders agree to form an alliance with his lawmakers to oust Netanyahu, Abbas could emerge in the next elections as a kingmaker.

In a recent interview with Agence France-Presse, the former dentist pledged to mobilize voters to replace what he described as “Netanyahu’s right-wing, racist, and fascist government.”

In a notable move aimed at winning over voters across the political spectrum, Abbas added former deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council Yoav Segalovich to his list, making him the first right-wing Israeli figure to join his Arab party.

After years of Israel’s growing shift to the right, Yair Golan’s “The Democrats” party represents the remnants of the traditional center-left, including remnants of the Labor Party, which led Israel during its first three decades of statehood.

Golan is the only prominent Israeli leader who continues to publicly support a two-state solution and holds liberal positions on social issues.

A former military officer, he volunteered to return to service immediately after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, personally taking up his weapon and vehicle to rescue victims of the assault.