Israel’s forthcoming general election is due to take place in September or October, and if the pollsters are correct Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will fail to capture enough Knesset seats to cobble together yet another right-wing coalition.

Public opinion surveys released by the Times of Israel and Channel 12 on June 11 predicted that the centrist Yashar and Yachad parties would each win 21 seats, giving them a reasonable chance of forming the next government, but leaving non-Zionist Arab parties holding the balance of power.

The leaders of Yachad, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, were briefly prime ministers when Netanyahu led the opposition. Yashar’s leader, Gadi Eisenkot, was the chief of staff of the Israeli armed forces from 2015 to 2019 and the minister without portfolio in Netanyahu’s cabinet from 2023 to 2024.

Eisenkot is the subject of Ben Shani’s Hebrew language documentary, Israel’s Next Leader, which is now available on the Izzy........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)