Eisenkot: Israeli voters, not Trump, will choose next PM, I tried to stop endorsement

Opposition frontrunner Gadi Eisenkot, responding to US President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says Israeli voters will choose their next prime minister.

“I have great appreciation for the US president,” Eisenkot says at a Tel Aviv University event for students, but adds that “Israel is a democracy” and “Israel’s citizens are the only ones who will decide who the prime minister will be.”

Asked later, in an interview with Channel 12, whether he tried to stop Trump from endorsing Netanyahu, he says, “There were a number of meetings I don’t want to elaborate on. I requested that there be no intervention in Israel’s internal election. But I’ll deal with it.”

He recalls working with the US military during his tenure as IDF chief of staff, saying the two countries had “excellent relations.”

Asked about a possible resumption of fighting with Iran, Eisenkot says, “I don’t currently see any information or event that requires urgent, immediate action nine days before an election.”

If there were an immediate threat, he says, “I trust the chief of staff. I’ve known him for decades,” and voices confidence that IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, not Netanyahu, would make the right recommendation.

Regarding other opposition leaders’ stated desire to be prime minister, he adds, “The leader of the largest party should be the natural candidate for prime minister… because that reflects the public’s will.”

According to recent polling, Eisenkot’s Yashar is projected to win the most votes in the October 27 election.

He says he will work to form “a Zionist, statesmanlike and stable government.”

Eisenkot adds that he is pushing for a state commission of inquiry into Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, something Netanyahu has resisted.

“I ask myself what I could have done better,” he says, reflecting on the events that led to the onslaught. “I know what I did, and I know what he didn’t do,” he adds about Netanyahu, accusing the premier of doing nothing to prevent the massacre.