Israel's election campaign has entered a new phase of internal confrontation within the opposition, with Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, accusing fellow opposition leaders Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Lieberman of weakening their bloc's ability to challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Eisenkot made the accusation Thursday in an interview with Kan public radio, arguing that the parties opposed to Netanyahu should agree in advance on fundamental principles and on the method for selecting the candidate who would seek to form the next government.

The dispute comes as recent polling shows a complicated electoral picture. While Yashar remains one of the largest parties — and leads Likud in several recent surveys — the opposition has not translated that advantage into a clear parliamentary majority.

A Channel 13 poll published this week projected 54 seats for Netanyahu's bloc, compared with 52 for the Jewish opposition parties, with Arab parties projected to hold another 14 seats.

Eisenkot: "They Are Harming the Bloc's Chances"

Eisenkot said Bennett and Lieberman were making a mistake by refusing to establish common principles for choosing a prime minister.

"I think they are harming our chances of victory," Eisenkot said, according to reports of his interview.

He called on the two politicians to "come to their senses" and begin discussing common principles and a strategy for defeating Netanyahu.

Eisenkot also rejected suggestions that the criticism directed at him by his political rivals would change his position.

"The briefings against me don't change anything," he said.

His argument is based on a straightforward political principle: the opposition parties should unite behind whichever party emerges as the largest after the election.

That position, however, conflicts with the strategies of other opposition leaders, who have resisted committing themselves to Eisenkot before voters have cast their ballots.

No Rotation Government, Eisenkot Says

Eisenkot also ruled out a rotating premiership.

"A rotation is not on the table," he said. "I oppose a rotating prime minister. It is not democratic."

He argued that the prime minister should be elected for a full four-year term in order to implement domestic and regional policies.

The issue is significant because a rotation agreement has previously been used in Israeli politics as a mechanism for resolving competing claims to the premiership.

Eisenkot's position would effectively require the opposition parties to accept the election result and allow the largest party within their prospective coalition to determine who leads the government.

Bennett Takes a Different Approach

Bennett has so far declined to endorse Eisenkot as the opposition's candidate before the election.

But on Wednesday, following a meeting with Lieberman, Bennett said that the leaders of the anti-Netanyahu parties would meet after the election and select a common candidate.

"I am running for prime minister because I believe that our team, our plans and I are the only ones who know how to repair the country," Bennett said.

"At the same time, the day after the election all the leaders of the bloc will meet, come out with one candidate, and I will respect the results."

Bennett's formula therefore differs from Eisenkot's.

Rather than determining the opposition's candidate before the election, Bennett wants voters first to determine the relative strength of the parties and then have the party leaders agree on a candidate.

Lieberman: The Question Is Who Joins the Government

Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu has also avoided endorsing Eisenkot for prime minister.

Following the Eisenkot interview, the party said he should clearly explain to the public who his prospective coalition partners would be after the election.

Yisrael Beiteinu said it is committed to establishing a "Zionist government" without Netanyahu, the Arab parties or the ultra-Orthodox parties.

The party said its priority was strengthening what it calls the "serving bloc" and establishing a stable government.

That position highlights a second dispute inside the opposition: not only who should become prime minister, but which parties should be permitted to participate in the next coalition.

Yair Golan Calls for an End to the Internal Fighting

Democrats leader Yair Golan attempted to lower the temperature.

Addressing Eisenkot, Bennett and Lieberman, Golan said:

"We must not attack one another. The game of musical chairs is not important — the country is."

His intervention reflects a growing concern within opposition circles that competition among the three major centrist figures could overshadow their common objective of replacing Netanyahu.

The political problem is particularly acute because Israel's electoral system rewards parties according to their individual vote totals, while government formation depends on assembling a parliamentary majority.

Yashar Leads, But the Bloc Has No Majority

The latest polling illustrates the contradiction confronting the opposition.

A Channel 13/Index/Stat-Net/Sample/Askaria survey published Thursday gave Yashar 22 seats, compared with 18 for Likud.

Bennett's Together party received 12, the Democrats 10 and Yisrael Beiteinu eight.

Yet the bloc calculation produced a different picture:

Party / bloc	Projected seats
Yashar — Eisenkot	22
Likud — Netanyahu	18
Together — Bennett	12
Democrats — Golan	10
Yisrael Beiteinu — Lieberman	8
Netanyahu's bloc	54
Jewish opposition	52
Arab parties	14

The poll surveyed 886 respondents and reported a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points.

The figures show why the opposition leaders are arguing over strategy: being the largest individual party does not automatically translate into the ability to form a government.

Other Polls Show a More Ambiguous Picture

The Channel 13 survey is not the only measure of the current political landscape.

A separate September 16 poll by The Madad projected:

• Yashar — 21
• Likud — 17
• Together — 12
• Democrats — 10
• Yisrael Beiteinu — 8

Its bloc calculation gave 52 seats to Netanyahu's coalition, 51 to the opposition and 13 to Arab parties.

In that survey, 47% of respondents said they intended to vote for the opposition bloc, compared with 30% for the coalition bloc, although the poll's bloc definitions and the eventual coalition possibilities are separate questions.

The differing results demonstrate why it would be premature to describe the election as having a settled direction.

The Central Problem: Fragmentation

The opposition's difficulty is therefore not simply a question of the popularity of individual leaders.

It is also structural.

Three politicians — Eisenkot, Bennett and Lieberman — are competing for overlapping sections of the electorate while attempting to preserve their own political identities.

Eisenkot wants the largest opposition party to determine the leadership.

Bennett wants the opposition leaders to decide after the election.

Lieberman is demanding clarity about the composition of the future government.

The Democrats under Golan are attempting to preserve a broader anti-Netanyahu coalition while avoiding an escalation among its leaders.

These competing approaches have produced an increasingly public debate over the question of who should lead the post-Netanyahu camp.

The dispute is also connected to the central political issue of the election: responsibility for the failures surrounding the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.

Eisenkot, a former IDF chief of staff, again attacked Netanyahu's record.

He said Netanyahu, as prime minister and supreme commander, bore responsibility for the failures preceding the attack.

Eisenkot also referred to investigations by the Shin Bet and Military Intelligence, saying he believed their eventual publication would have major political consequences.

He further repeated his claim that Netanyahu received a warning before October 7 from a senior source.

According to Eisenkot, his own checks had convinced him that such a warning had reached the Prime Minister's Office, although he said he could not be certain that the source was the United Arab Emirates.

The claim remains disputed and has not been established as an independent fact. Netanyahu's office has denied receiving such a warning.

Election Is Becoming a Two-Level Contest

The current campaign is increasingly developing into two simultaneous contests.

The fundamental question is whether Netanyahu can retain the premiership and assemble another governing coalition.

The second: the opposition versus itself

The competing opposition leaders are simultaneously fighting over who will emerge as the dominant political force in a potential post-Netanyahu government.

That second contest is now becoming increasingly visible.

Yashar currently has the largest individual party numbers in several polls, but Bennett remains a major political force, while Lieberman maintains a significant independent base.

A New Political Arithmetic

The latest figures also demonstrate the importance of parties near the electoral threshold.

Israel's 3.25% threshold means that relatively small changes in support for smaller parties can alter the distribution of Knesset seats and potentially change the bloc arithmetic.

The recent polls show several parties hovering in politically significant territory.

That makes the final weeks of the campaign particularly sensitive to shifts among undecided voters, tactical voting and possible last-minute alliances.

The Question of 61 Seats

Ultimately, the Israeli election will not be decided by which leader wins the most favorable personal ratings.

A government requires the ability to command the support of 61 members of the 120-seat Knesset.

That is why the current disagreement between Eisenkot, Bennett and Lieberman matters.

If they cannot agree on a common framework for forming a government, their parties could emerge from the election with substantial combined support but without a clear path to a coalition.

Conversely, if they agree too early on a candidate or coalition formula, they risk alienating voters who have not yet decided which opposition party to support.

A Campaign Entering Its Most Competitive Phase

The October 27 election is still weeks away, and the polling picture remains fluid.

The latest surveys do not establish a definitive winner or a guaranteed governing coalition. Rather, they reveal a political system in which Yashar has emerged as a leading individual party, while the opposition as a whole continues to face difficulties translating that strength into a clear parliamentary majority.

Eisenkot is now openly demanding that Bennett and Lieberman recognize the largest opposition party as the natural vehicle for leadership.

Bennett is proposing that the question be decided after the voters have spoken.

Lieberman is demanding clarity about the coalition's composition.

And Golan is urging all three to stop fighting one another.

With the election approaching, the opposition's central challenge is therefore becoming increasingly clear.