Former IDF Chief Of Staff Eizenkot Places Himself On Left, At Odds With Colleagues Saar And Elkin

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, who recently joined Benny Gantz and Gidon Sa’ar’s National Unity party, has expressed for the first time his dovish views about the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria. In a meeting in Metulla with activists and supporters, Eizenkot sharply criticized those who advocate building settlements “everywhere” in Judea and Samaria on Wednesday, saying that they would lead Israel to “disaster.”

Eisenkot also expressed his support for the Disengagement Law which saw the evacuation of Chomesh and other settlements in 2005. He maintained that the failure to dismantle the yeshiva at Chomesh — which the current government has allowed to remain intact at Homesh after it was razed dozens of times over the past 15 years — amounts to a violation of Israeli law.

Eizenkot’s statements place him at odds with fellow party members Gidon Sa’ar and Zev Elkin, who are staunch supporters of settlements and voted in 2021 to abolish the Disengagement Law, paving the way for renewed settlement in Northern Samarian communities like Chomesh and Sa-Nor, which were dismantled during the 2005 disengagement but remain under Israeli military control.

In the past Eizenkot had kept his political positions a secret, despite joining Gantz’s center-right party last month. However his current statements could lead him to a collision course with his own party members.

“People who fail to understand… will lead [us] to a bi-national state,” Eisenkot said, joining a long list of former Israeli generals who have criticized unlimited settlement expansion and continued control over millions of Palestinians, which they argue threatens Israel’s ability to remain a majority-Jewish and democratic state. The former chief of staff said that Religious Zionism MKs Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, along with “some in the Likud” party headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, are responsible for steering Israel in this direction.

Eisenkot, who served as military chief from 2015 to 2019 under Netanyahu-led governments, indicated that some of those lawmakers do not truly believe in expanded settlement, but “the political reality pushes them to hold views that are against the national interests of the State of Israel.”

Smotrich responded quickly to Eizenkot’s criticism, stating that “If it walks like the left, smells like left and quacks like left – then it’s left, even if Gantz and Eizenkot have covered their leftist approach with a few religious and right-wing fig leaves to steal votes from the right.”

The Zionist Spirit party led by Ayelet Shaked also responded, stating that “we need to take our hats off to Eizenkot who as opposed to the collective duplicity of the National Unity party, has placed all the truth on the table. Support of evacuating settlements is not right, it is left, this is the dispute between us and the National Unity. Zionist Spirit is the home of those right-wingers with integrity who want the right-wing policies to be implemented in the next government.”

Eizenkot argued that his position regarding Chomesh was actually in line with the National Unity party’s platform, which calls for “enforcing the law” in both Israel and the West Bank.

The former IDF chief of staff characterized himself as a “big expert on the Palestinian issue,” saying that his approach would feature the completion and sealing of the West Bank security barrier, the creation of West Bank hospitals for treating Palestinians, the establishment of West Bank industrial zones to improve the Palestinian economy, and energy independence for the Palestinians.