Eisenkot says two-state solution ‘delusional' post-Oct. 7, but E1 settlement plan a 'mistake'

Yashar party chief, leading in election polls, blasts Smotrich and Ben Gvir for spiraling settler violence, says IDF has ‘lost control’ in West Bank

Yashar party chair and election frontrunner Gadi Eisenkot said that anyone who still believes in the two-state solution following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack is “delusional,” but criticized the government for pushing ahead with the controversial E1 settlement plan, which would block territorial contiguity between major Palestinian population centers in the West Bank.

The former military chief also lamented the spiraling settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, in an excerpt from an interview with the Israel Hayom daily that will be published in full on Friday.

“Anyone who is thinking about a two-state solution after October 7 is just delusional,” said Eisenkot, when asked about the broadly accepted international stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But at the same time, he said that the E1 settlement project — which supporters have said is intended to block a path to Palestinian statehood — was a “mistake” costing Israel on the international stage.

“I recall that Netanyahu himself opposed this for a long time, and due to coalition pressure, he gave in and approved it,” he said of the plan.

The E1 expansion would connect the Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim areas, while seemingly scuttling the prospect of a contiguous Palestinian presence between the population centers of Bethlehem, East Jerusalem and Ramallah — long considered the potential basis for a Palestinian state.

This picture taken from the E1 area northeast of Jerusalem shows vehicles moving along a highway near the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim on February 4, 2026. (AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP)

The project was frozen for years amid fierce opposition from the international community, including past US administrations, but was approved by the government last year.

This month, the government issued a tender for the construction of seven residential compounds in the development, with over a thousand homes.

The European Union is reportedly preparing a package of sanctions against Israel if it goes through with the plan.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has championed the E1 project, responded to Eisenkot, writing on X: “The concessions of the Eisenkot-Liberman-Golan government have begun before they’ve even risen to power.”

The far-right minister was referring to Avigdor Liberman, head of the hawkish Yisrael Beytenu party, and Yair Golan, head of the left-wing Democrats.

“The construction that I’m leading in E1 cuts off the dream of establishing a terror state next to Jerusalem,” Smotrich wrote. “Anyone who opposes building in E1 supports the establishment of a Palestinian state. Even if he’s lying to you and trying to present his position otherwise.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at a press conference announcing his plans to approve more than 3,000 housing units in the E1 settlement project between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim on August 14, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)

In Eisenkot’s interview, the Yashar chief also criticized the government, and particularly Smotrich and fellow far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir, for the IDF’s apparent loss of control in the West Bank in the face of near-daily settler violence against Palestinians.

“Netanyahu gave the police to Ben Gvir and COGAT to Smotrich, and therefore the IDF lost its control in the region, and it must be returned,” said Eisenkot, a former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff.

Smotrich holds some control over COGAT, the unit that oversees civilian matters in the West Bank, through his ministerial position inside the Defense Ministry.

“The activities of these two ministers, together with the incidents of settler violence against Palestinians, are causing Israel to lose international legitimacy and are endangering the settlement movement in its entirety,” the Yashar chair warned. “The pair are sabotaging Israel’s national interests.”

Palestinians inspect the damage to a house set on fire by extremist Israeli settlers, where a Palestinian mother and her daughter lived, in the Hallet al-Fara area of Yatta, near Hebron in the southern West Bank, August 20, 2026. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

The most senior IDF officer in the West Bank reportedly warned during a closed-door security assessment on Monday that mounting settler violence could ignite a broader escalation in the territory.

On Tuesday, far-right MK Zvi Sukkot, a member of Smotrich’s Religous Zionism party, smashed a monument to Palestinian “martyrs” in a West Bank village while accompanied by IDF troops.

Settler violence has surged during the current government’s tenure, with harassment and attacks against Palestinians occurring on a near-daily basis. Prosecutions are rare, and critics have accused the IDF and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition of condoning or even encouraging the violence.