Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing his toughest election challenge in years after former Israel Defence Forces (IDF) chief Gadi Eisenkot surged in the polls, prompting Likud to shift its campaign towards the retired general ahead of October's parliamentary election.
Less than a year after founding his Yashar party, which had been polling in the single digits, Eisenkot has emerged as Netanyahu's principal rival, overtaking former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and the joint Bennett-Yair Lapid alliance in recent surveys.