Eisenkot targets 40 cities in plan to deny Netanyahu majority

With less than two weeks until Israelis vote, Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party has rolled out a two-track strategy: pull voters away from Netanyahu's bloc in 40 targeted cities, and position itself as the largest party in the Knesset even if the anti-Netanyahu camp fails to secure 61 seats.

According to a report in Israel Hayom, the campaign has identified 40 cities where it believes voting patterns can be shifted. The list includes Nahariya, where Netanyahu's bloc took 57% in the last election; Afula, 70%; Ariel, 63%; Rishon Lezion, 48%; and Eilat, 62%.

Eisenkot's team does not expect to win a majority in these cities, but believes that even a significant shift in the vote share could affect the national result. The party has assigned a Yashar list member to each city to run the local campaign, and in some cities physical campaign offices have been opened.

The campaign is banking on several of Eisenkot's personal attributes to appeal to right-leaning voters: his Moroccan family background, his service as IDF chief of staff, his status as a bereaved father, and his connection to Jewish tradition.

Netanyahu (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Eisenkot has begun a tour of the 40 cities and is expected to visit all of them before election day. He and other Yashar candidates are scheduled to hold meetings with undecided voters in each location.

Party officials estimate that around three Knesset seats are still in play among voters who have not made up their minds. Internal polling conducted by the campaign found that Eisenkot is the second choice of many voters, including some who identify with the right.

Beyond the city-by-city ground campaign, Yashar is focusing on two other voter groups: Druze and immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The party held a conference in the Druze community and has placed a Druze candidate in a realistic spot on its list, hoping to draw additional votes.

Yashar has hired a campaigner who previously worked with Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman, and Eisenkot has begun giving interviews to Russian-language media, including Channel 9 and Vesti. The party is also trying to reach immigrants who arrived in Israel following the Russia-Ukraine war and will be voting for the first time.

But the most significant move may be Eisenkot's strategy for the day after the election. According to the report, the campaign understands there is a real possibility that the anti-Netanyahu bloc will not reach 61 seats, and has therefore decided to focus on making Yashar the largest party in the Knesset.

The goal is to come to President Yitzchak Herzog with a significant lead in seats over Likud, even if neither bloc has a clear majority. The party hopes that such a lead will help Eisenkot receive the mandate to form the government.

At the same time, the "largest party" campaign is designed to influence the distribution of votes within the right-wing bloc. Party officials believe it may push voters from smaller parties to Likud, potentially hurting those parties' chances of crossing the electoral threshold.

Among the parties that could be affected by the move, according to the report, are Ofer Winter's Amcha Yisrael, the Miluimnikim-Hakalkalit party of Yoaz Hendel and Yaron Zelekha, and Benny Gantz's party.

Another issue that has come up within the party concerns the makeup of the Yashar list, which includes eight candidates from the religious-Zionist sector in the top 20 spots. At this stage, Yashar officials say they are not worried about MKs resigning after the election, and estimate that anyone who does not agree with the basic guidelines of the next government will choose to step down, in line with unwritten understandings with Eisenkot.