Lt. Gen. (res.) Gadi Eizenkot, the 21st chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), took the plunge into politics this week, joining the party led by his IDF predecessor, Lt. Gen. (res.) Benny Gantz.
Having gone into politics nearly four years ago, Gantz now serves as defense minister and head of the newly formed National Union alliance. His IDF predecessor, Lt. Gen. (res.) Gabi Ashkenazi, also made a brief foray into politics at his side but stepped down after testing the political waters for two years. The IDF’s 17th chief, Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya’alon, who also joined Gantz’s party at its inception, quit the Knesset in late 2020. Gantz had hoped his two army buddies would help catapult him into the prime minister’s chair, where he would join the three august generals who served in that post in recent decades — Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon.
