Eisenkot’s Yashar submits Knesset slate, with ex-Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen at No. 2

By Ariela Karmel

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7 September 2026, 4:01 pm

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Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.

The first 10 candidates on the slate of the centrist Yashar party. Top row (left to right): Gadi Eisenkot; Yoram Cohen, Orit Farkash-Hacohen, Adi Altschuler, Matan Kahana. Second row: Chili Tropper, Shaul Meridor, Tair Ifergan, Oshrat Gani Gonen, Shira Shapira. (Yahav Trodler/Yashar, Courtesy/Yashar, Yonatan Sindel/Flash90, Bernard Dichek, Yitzhak Kelman, Flash90, Channel 12 screen capture, screenshot/X)

Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party unveils its 40-member slate for the October 27 election and formally submits the list to the Central Elections Committee at the Knesset, ahead of tomorrow’s deadline for parties to register their candidate lists.

Eisenkot will head the slate, followed by former Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen, former minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen, and educator and social entrepreneur Adi Altschuler, whom the party has named as its candidate for education minister.

Former religious affairs minister Matan Kahana will take fifth place, followed by former Blue and White MK Chili Tropper, meaning that three of Yashar’s top six candidates — Farkash-Hacohen, Kahana and Tropper — are former members of Benny Gantz’s Blue and White who followed Eisenkot after he left the union to form Yashar.

Gantz’s much-reduced Blue and White has been hovering around the electoral threshold for months.

Other notable candidates include former Yesh Atid MK and minister Elazar Stern in 12th place, former Druze general and Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Kamil Abu Rukun in 13th, former Shin Bet and Mossad official Devorah Sharifian Bachar in 14th, social activist and One Million Lobby founder Alex Rif in 15th, former senior Welfare Ministry official and social policy adviser Inbar Yehezkeli in 16th, and former Kulanu MK Roy Folkman in 17th.

Yashar also announced 11 honorary candidates who will occupy the final spots on its full 120-member slate, though their names were not included in the list formally submitted to the election committee. They include former hostage Ohad Ben Ami as well as other hostage and bereaved families affected by the October 7 attack and ensuing war, alongside former public officials including economist Manuel Trajtenberg, former minister Dan Meridor, the father of Shaul Meridor, who is 7th on the list, and Adina Bar-Shalom, daughter of late Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

The list was submitted on the party’s behalf by Meridor and Inbar Harush Giti, who led the Defense Ministry’s Directorate for promoting the recruitment and integration of Haredim in the IDF, who is placed 11th on the slate.

The party has emerged in recent months as the largest opposition party in the polls and is currently running neck-and-neck with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud at around 23-25 seats.