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Gadi Eisenkot founds Yashar party after leaving National Unity

Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot launched the centrist Yashar party in 2025 after leaving Benny Gantz's National Unity, aiming to challenge Netanyahu.

5 Nov 2026, 23:041 min read

This summary was written by AI to complete the context; it is not based on a current source.

Gadi Eisenkot, a former Israeli military chief of staff, founded a new political party called Yashar, Hebrew for "straight" or "upright", in September 2025. The launch came after he left the National Unity alliance led by Benny Gantz and announced he would resign from the Knesset (Israel's parliament).

Eisenkot had served in the wartime government after the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023, and his departure from National Unity was linked to his view that the party was dominated by Gantz. At the launch he presented a list of around 120 founders, drawn from public life, and stressed clean governance and public responsibility.

The party positioned itself in the political centre as an alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud-led bloc. It mattered because Eisenkot, one of Israel's best-known security figures, offered centrist voters a new vehicle ahead of the election scheduled for 27 October 2026, and Yashar soon appeared among the leading parties in some polls.