On a Sunday evening, at the close of a long campaign, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot stood before his supporters and repeated a single refrain: Benjamin Netanyahu must go home. The moment belongs to Israel's first national election since the October 7 attacks, when a nation still shaped by that day is asked to decide whether its leadership should change course. Eisenkot offers himself as the measured alternative, a figure from the security establishment who wants the country to be led differently without abandoning its concern for safety.
Eisenkot Closes Campaign With Rally Call for Netanyahu to Step Aside
"Netanyahu must go home."
Mark
Why does a final rally matter if it's just one speech?
Mimi
Because it's the message he chose to end on. "Netanyahu must go home" is the sentence he wanted voters carrying into the ballot box.
Mark
And he's pairing that with being a moderate?
Mimi
Yes. He's a former military chief, so he brings security credentials, but he presents himself as the less hardline choice.
Luke
Careful with "moderate," though. That's how he frames himself. The reporting doesn't tell us what policies back it up.
Mark
What else do we actually know about the rally?
Luke
Very little. It was Sunday, it was his last one, and he said that line. We don't have crowd size, location, or the rest of his speech.
Mimi
What gives it weight is the context. This is the first national election since the October 7 attacks.
Mark
So the vote is partly a judgment on how leadership handled that?
Luke
That's the expectation, but it's an interpretation. The source frames it as a test of how voters weigh security and leadership. It doesn't tell us what voters will actually decide.
Mimi
Right. The result is the thing to watch.
Le Pouls
- Israel's first national election since October 7 puts a nation's grief and security anxieties directly onto the ballot.
- Eisenkot ends his campaign with a blunt demand that the sitting prime minister leave office, sharpening the contest into a personal confrontation.
- He positions himself as the moderate option, trying to win voters who want firmness on security without the hardline posture attributed to Netanyahu.
- The result will be read as a verdict on how the government handled security, and turnout will reveal how much voters trust a change at the top.
On a Sunday evening, at the close of a long campaign, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot stood before his supporters and repeated a single refrain: Benjamin Netanyahu must go home. The moment belongs to Israel's first national election since the October 7 attacks, when a nation still shaped by that day is asked to decide whether its leadership should change course. Eisenkot offers himself as the measured alternative, a figure from the security establishment who wants the country to be led differently without abandoning its concern for safety.
On Sunday, Gadi Eisenkot closed his campaign with a rally where one line carried the whole evening: Benjamin Netanyahu "must go home." The words were a direct call for the prime minister to step aside, delivered by a man who spent his career inside the Israeli military.
Eisenkot, a former chief of the military, has presented himself as the moderate choice in a race dominated by the question of who should lead the country. His final appeal rested less on a list of policies than on the combination of wanting new leadership and promising a steadier path.
The election is the first national vote since the October 7 attacks, so the campaign has unfolded under that long shadow. Voters must weigh the desire for change against their concerns about security, and the outcome will be read as a judgment on how Netanyahu handled that test.
On Sunday, Gadi Eisenkot stood before supporters at his final campaign rally and told them, in words that served as the evening's refrain, that Benjamin Netanyahu "must go home."
Eisenkot is a former chief of the Israeli military, and he has cast himself as the moderate option in the race against the prime minister. The rally closed out his campaign ahead of Israel's upcoming national election.
The vote carries a particular weight. It is the country's first national election since the October 7 attacks, which means the campaign has unfolded in the shadow of that day and of the questions about security and leadership that followed it.
The reporting available on the rally is brief. It establishes the date, the setting as a closing campaign event, the central line of Eisenkot's message, and the way he presents himself: a figure from the security establishment offering a less hardline alternative to the man who has led the government. It does not detail the size of the crowd, the location of the event, or the other points he made from the stage.
What the rally does show is the shape of Eisenkot's pitch at the finish. He did not close with a policy list in the account we have. He closed with a direct call for the incumbent to leave office, joined to a claim of moderation.
The election will test how Israeli voters weigh those two things, a change in leadership and a promise of a steadier course, in the first national vote since October 7. Watch for turnout and for how the result is read as a verdict on Netanyahu's handling of security.
Citations marquantes
Netanyahu must go home.— Gadi Eisenkot, at his final campaign rally
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