Netanyahu faces six key rivals in Israel election

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a tough contest as the country prepares for a general election on October 27, with several opposition figures seeking to end his hold on power.

The main challengers include a former army chief, a former prime minister, a former television journalist and an Arab party leader who could prove crucial in determining the next government.

Here are six key figures challenging Netanyahu:

The 66-year-old former army chief has emerged as Netanyahu’s main rival, with opinion polls placing them neck and neck ahead of the election.

Eisenkot, whose parents were Moroccan immigrants, has gained public sympathy following the deaths of his son and two nephews during the Gaza war.

Although he belongs to the centre-right, he has taken a hard line on security, pledging to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state and end Hamas’s rule in Gaza within 18 months if elected.

He also supports Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank but has promised to crack down on settlers who attack Palestinians.

Eisenkot resigned from Netanyahu’s war cabinet in 2024 and has since become a vocal critic of the prime minister. He founded his Yashar party in 2025.

The 54-year-old former prime minister leads the centre-right Beyahad party, which is polling in third place.

A former technology entrepreneur, Bennett built his political career on nationalist and pro-settlement positions but has since sought to present himself as a secular centrist.

In 2021, he formed an unprecedented coalition spanning Israel’s political spectrum, with the support of an Arab party, ending Netanyahu’s 12 consecutive years in power. The government, however, lasted only a year.

Bennett is seen as a potential choice for voters who oppose Netanyahu but remain on the right politically. Despite his criticism of the prime minister, he has not ruled out including Netanyahu in an opposition-led coalition.

A former television journalist, Lapid, 62, founded the centrist Yesh Atid party in 2012 and quickly became one of Netanyahu’s leading opponents.

He has served as finance and foreign minister and briefly became prime minister in 2022 under a power-sharing agreement with Bennett.

Lapid, a secularist with a strong social media presence, regularly attacks Netanyahu’s leadership. However, his support has largely remained concentrated among urban and secular voters, limiting his prospects of winning power independently.

He is again allied with Bennett in the effort to challenge Netanyahu.

Lieberman, 68, was born in what is now Moldova when it was part of the Soviet Union and moved to Israel in the late 1970s.

The founder of Yisrael Beiteinu, he is known for his hardline nationalist position on security and his secular outlook. His political support initially came largely from Israel’s Russian-speaking community before expanding.

Once a close ally of Netanyahu, Lieberman is now among his fiercest critics, accusing him of failing on security.

He has held three major cabinet portfolios — foreign affairs, defence and finance — giving him extensive experience in government.

Abbas, leader of the Arab Israeli party Raam, could emerge as a kingmaker if opposition parties need his lawmakers to form a government without Netanyahu.

Arab citizens make up about 20 per cent of Israel’s population, and Abbas is seeking to mobilise voters from his community to prevent Netanyahu’s return to power.

In 2021, Raam became the first Arab party to join an Israeli government as part of Bennett’s coalition.

Abbas has condemned Netanyahu’s right-wing government and has sought to broaden his party’s appeal by selecting an Israeli Jewish former police official, Yoav Segalovitz, as a candidate.

Netanyahu has repeatedly sought to undermine his opponents by suggesting they could depend on Abbas’s party to govern.

Golan leads The Democrats, a party representing much of Israel’s remaining mainstream left, including remnants of the Labour movement that dominated the country’s early political history.

A former senior military officer, he is the only major political leader among the challengers who explicitly supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He also backs liberal social policies, including legalising same-sex marriage and allowing public transport to operate on the Jewish Sabbath.

When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, Golan volunteered to return to duty and helped rescue people in his car.

His party represents an alternative to the dominant right-wing political bloc, although Israel’s broader shift to the right presents a challenge to his electoral prospects.