{"id":261685,"date":"2026-08-23T22:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T22:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/261685\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T22:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T22:26:10","slug":"eisenkots-yashar-surges-ahead-of-likud-in-latest-israeli-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/261685\/","title":{"rendered":"Eisenkot’s Yashar surges ahead of Likud in latest Israeli polls"},"content":{"rendered":"

The number 26 came up before policy did. A Channel 13 poll had put Yashar on 26 seats, ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s<\/a> Likud at 23, placing a party founded in 2025 in contention to become the largest faction in the Israeli parliament. Orit Farkash-Hacohen did not describe the result as a shock.<\/p>\n

For more stories from The Media Line go to themedialine.org<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI see it as a very natural process,\u201d the Israeli parliamentarian and Yashar candidate told The Media Line.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not as if we are being overwhelmed by that. On the contrary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other recent polls have differed on the size of the advantage, but most of the six surveys reviewed for this article placed Yashar ahead of Likud. The party ranged from 22 to 26 seats, while Likud ranged from 21 to 23.<\/p>\n

Polling has elevated Yashar\u2019s<\/a> standing in the political landscape. The party is now being asked not simply why voters are turning to the former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff, but what an Eisenkot government would actually do on the economy, military service, public spending, and the recovery of regions still dealing with the effects of the years since October 7.<\/p>\n

\"InsideInside the Knesset building. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)Eisenkot’s personal appeal is not a new phenomenon in Israeli politics<\/p>\n

Israeli parliamentarian Farkash-Hacohen, who served as tourism and strategic affairs minister and later as technology and innovation minister, said Yashar has already begun preparing for a possible move into office. The party is working on plans for its first months in government, she said, drawing on former ministers and senior public officials as well as younger members of the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are focused on preparing the plans for the first 100 days of, hopefully, a new government,\u201d Farkash-Hacohen said, describing a cabinet whose ministers would be expected to work for the public rather than concentrate on \u201ctheir own political survival.\u201d<\/p>\n

That governing pitch is closely tied to Eisenkot\u2019s personal appeal. Farkash-Hacohen said she sees voters looking for an alternative not only to Prime Minister Netanyahu\u2019s policies but also to his political style. Playing on the Hebrew meaning of the party\u2019s name, she said Israelis \u201cwant something yashar\u201d meaning leadership associated with integrity and public service.<\/p>\n

Speaking with The Media Line, political scientist and educator Jack Drassinower, who specializes in Israeli politics, said the emphasis on Eisenkot himself is hardly unusual in Israel. He argued that Israeli elections have increasingly centered on party leaders rather than fine ideological distinctions, and that Eisenkot\u2019s military background gives him an advantage at a time when security remains central to voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you ask the voter what the important issues are when going to vote, the military element is still the most important,\u201d Drassinower said. He believes security has become an even greater priority since October 7.<\/p>\n

Farkash-Hacohen said the first domestic task of an Eisenkot government would be to reduce the divisions that deepened in Israeli society before and after the October 7 attacks.<\/p>\n

She accused the current government of using polarization as a political instrument and said Yashar would seek to govern beyond the constituencies that brought it to power.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest challenge for us as a leadership is to bring back the unity of Israeli society,\u201d she said. \u201cThe people of Israel are very united, and we\u2019re a very resilient and special kind of people. We hold each other, especially in times of challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next issue she raised was service. Yashar wants to broaden military or national service among populations that have historically had exemptions, particularly ultra-Orthodox and Arab Israelis<\/a>. Farkash-Hacohen said national service in hospitals, schools, and other institutions could be part of the model for those who do not serve in the military.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission is to bring about a strategic change in which both these populations will also contribute and take part in the very big burden that now rests on the shoulders of not all of Israeli society,\u201d she said. \u201cIt will be a very challenging and ambitious task that we are committed to pushing forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drassinower identified conscription as one of the areas where Eisenkot has found room to distinguish himself from the current coalition without closing every door for future political negotiations.<\/p>\n

He noted that Eisenkot has supported a much broader obligation to serve while also acknowledging that full ultra-Orthodox enlistment cannot happen immediately and that some limited exemptions could remain.<\/p>\n

The economic platform has received less public attention, something Drassinower considers a weakness in the party\u2019s definition so far. \u201cIf you ask me what Eisenkot\u2019s economic position is, I couldn\u2019t tell you,\u201d he said, adding that the lack of emphasis may also allow Yashar to attract voters who disagree with one another on economic and religion-and-state questions.<\/p>\n

Farkash-Hacohen, whose own background includes senior economic and regulatory positions, gave a detailed account of where she wants the party to go. The starting point, she said, is the cost of a larger long-term defense burden.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next decade will be very challenging economically,\u201d she said. Israel, in her view, will have to spend more on security than it did before October 7, leaving less room for a government to avoid decisions about which programs deserve public money. \u201cIt requires us as a government, first of all, to be very clear on our priorities and how we manage the Israeli taxpayers\u2019 money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yashar would close ministries it regards as unnecessary and reduce government spending tied to coalition politics, she said. Farkash-Hacohen argued that state resources should increasingly favor Israelis who work and serve, and said the party would review subsidies that it believes discourage participation in the workforce.<\/p>\n

The cost of living would require a different set of measures. Farkash-Hacohen singled out groceries and cosmetics as markets where concentrated corporate power and exclusive import agreements limit competition.<\/p>\n

She said a Yashar government would seek to remove barriers to competitors, challenge exclusive import arrangements and, where necessary, force dominant groups to give up some of their market power.<\/p>\n

Housing would be harder. \u201cI don\u2019t think that we will have magic solutions,\u201d she said. Instead, she tied housing to transportation, infrastructure and the ability of people to live farther from the country\u2019s most expensive population centers without losing access to jobs.<\/p>\n

Better transportation, she argued, could expand the realistic housing market rather than treating the shortage as a problem that can be solved solely by construction policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

A future government led by Yashar would have it work cut out, expert says<\/p>\n

Farkash-Hacohen is also working on infrastructure planning tied to energy security, artificial intelligence, and quantum technology.<\/p>\n

A separate initiative is aimed at Israelis who have left the country in recent years, particularly physicians, engineers, researchers, and high-tech workers. She described the proposal as an \u201cin-location\u201d program, a play on relocation, and said she studied comparable efforts abroad to bring highly skilled citizens back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have prepared a very specific program,\u201d she said. But incentives alone, she added, may not determine whether people return. \u201cFrom what we see, many of these people will be back once the leadership and the government will be changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winning enough seats to implement any of those programs would be only the first political obstacle. Israel\u2019s parliamentary system requires a majority of 61 lawmakers to sustain a government, and Drassinower said Eisenkot\u2019s position among voters is stronger at the moment than his authority over the parties he may eventually need as partners.<\/p>\n

His problem, Drassinower said, \u201cis not the larger number of votes\u201d but reaching 61. Potential partners include leaders with their own ambitions and parties with significant ideological differences. Drassinower said that remains a vulnerability for an opposition camp whose members can agree on replacing the current government without necessarily agreeing on what comes afterward.<\/p>\n

\"TrainingTraining at a construction site. (credit: Israel Institute for Safety and Health)<\/p>\n

Farkash-Hacohen said Yashar believes a future coalition can operate around several common principles: Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, respect for the Declaration of Independence, and broader sharing of national responsibilities.<\/p>\n

She listed education, the cost of living, military service, democratic institutions, and the rule of law as issues that would give a new government more than enough work without allowing every ideological disagreement to dominate its agenda.<\/p>\n

Drassinower was more cautious. The experience of the previous change of government, he said, showed the danger of leaving disputes unresolved simply because partners agree that a different prime minister should be in office. \u201cThe points of disagreement were not touched,\u201d he said of that coalition. \u201cThey were simply put under the rug.\u201d<\/p>\n

He sees another distinction between polling well and exercising power. \u201cThe problem, as we know, is not only to form a government, but to govern,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Yashar says northern Israel would be an early priority for the party. It released a reconstruction plan last week for communities that endured prolonged evacuation and economic disruption after October 7. Farkash-Hacohen said improved shelter would come first, followed by incentives designed not merely to bring residents back but to persuade young families to build their futures there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first and foremost priority would be to perform and execute very expedited sheltering,\u201d she said, arguing that residents need a higher standard of personal security before long-term development promises can mean much.<\/p>\n

Yashar also proposes additional education and tax incentives, investment in tourism, agriculture, and energy projects, and special treatment for Kiryat Shmona, including added tax benefits and development initiatives.<\/a><\/p>\n

Farkash-Hacohen said the northern plan would also depend on restoring residents\u2019 confidence in the government\u2019s ability to deliver on its commitments. That is a standard Yashar would have to meet if the poll numbers eventually translate into seats and those seats form a government.<\/p>\n

The aim, she said, is \u201cto rebuild the trust of the people of the north with their government.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The number 26 came up before policy did. A Channel 13 poll had put Yashar on 26 seats,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[41,16707,394,423,37,30318,4028,71966,16705,4030,715,71965],"class_list":["post-261685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-gadi-eisenkot","tag-government","tag-idf","tag-israel","tag-israel-elections-2026","tag-knesset","tag-lebanese-government-resignation","tag-likud","tag-poll","tag-the-media-line","tag-yashar-party"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117147178531521434","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}