Eisenkot says Netanyahu's campaign lies are 'sickening', projects Yashar lead

Gadi Eisenkot, the former IDF chief of staff and current chairman of the Yashar party, used a Radio 103FM interview to publicly rebuke Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling Netanyahu's recent campaign statements "sickening." In the extended conversation with Yinon Magal and Ben Caspit, Eisenkot directly referenced Netanyahu's Tuesday-night interview on Channel 14 and accused him of misrepresenting Eisenkot's role around Gaza manoeuvres, saying Netanyahu "knew how hard I pushed him to maneuver in the Strip."

Eisenkot framed his remarks against a backdrop of election polling that the article cites: a Channel 12 poll placing Yashar first with 23 seats and Likud with 20. He spoke in confident terms about Yashar's prospects and positioned the party to press specific post-election reforms, laying out three central items he said he would pursue if elected: a state inquiry commission, a universal draft law without loopholes, and an eight-year limit on the prime minister's term. On the draft issue specifically, Eisenkot told the radio hosts he had pledged to be "the toughest on the draft issue," and he criticised what he described as loopholes that, in his view, could prevent the formation of a government. He framed that pledge as non-negotiable and as central to Yashar's platform. The interview is presented in the article as a direct confrontation between Eisenkot and Netanyahu in the closing fortnight of the campaign, with both figures emphasising security and responsibility for the October 7th failures as central campaign themes. The article attributes the "sickening" line to Eisenkot's response to Netanyahu's Channel 14 appearance and quotes Eisenkot describing his prior efforts to push Netanyahu on Gaza manoeuvres. Outside the Radio 103FM text, two other outlet headlines cited alongside the article underscore similar electoral stakes: The Jerusalem Post's headline framed Netanyahu as fearing that an Iran war before the election could cost Likud power and hand victory to Eisenkot, while The Times of Israel's headline said Eisenkot called Netanyahu unfit to lead another Iran operation and aimed to overtake Likud by a "significant" margin. Those headlines corroborate the political stakes but do not add new quotes or details beyond the Radio 103FM interview excerpt quoted in the article. The piece presents Eisenkot's agenda and rhetoric as a campaign strategy tied to security credibility and institutional change, and it highlights the polling figure cited as evidence of Yashar's momentum. The account keeps to Eisenkot's recorded statements and the Channel 12 poll numbers provided in the article.