Moshe Ya’alon: If Telem left Yesh Atid, Gadi Eisenkot would run as my #2

Telem Party head Moshe Ya’alon announced on Friday that if his party were to break away from Yesh Atid and their unity party, he would be running with former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, according to an interview he had with Channel 12.

Ya’alon said that if and when the Telem Party breaks away from Yesh Atid, it will be Ya’alon leading the party with Eisenkot beneath him. 

After initial reports broke this week about Ya’alon’s intention, a Ynet report said a study sponsored by political strategists found that among several options checked, a party of the two former IDF chiefs of staff would be most successful at taking votes away from the right-wing bloc and helping ensure Netanyahu’s defeat.

Ya’alon responded that he was willing to be a partner in any effort that could bring about a change in power, including a party led by Eisenkot. Sources in Yesh Atid responded that “if Ya’alon continued his undermining behavior, he would not be able to run together with Yesh Atid”  and “Ya’alon is just trying to get a higher place on our list.”

Ya’alon joined Opposition Leader Yair Lapid‘s Yesh Atid following the dissolution from Blue and White. He noted that at its current state, the current opposition doesn’t have enough mandates because even if Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu were added to the count, the mandate number would only reach 60. 

He noted that in order to get the needed number of votes, “you would have to convince those who have not decided, those who have currently decided to vote Bennett, you have to convince Likud members of the past, and I think I can bring them.”

In a tweet Ya’alon posted on his Twitter account on Friday, he said that he is committed to partner in any “political efforts that put an end to Netanyahu’s rule, and prevent an end to a coalition forming around him which creates immunity in his favor.”

Eisenkot has yet to comment, but in previous elections he has said that he not interested in joining the political ring. Prior to the September elections in 2019, Eisenkot said that the journalists who would speculate that he would run are “playing chess with themselves.”

In an interview with the Knesset channel on Thursday, Ya’alon explained that on a personal level he hopes that Eisenkot will choose to enter politics, even though “what goes on in politics does not attract good people.”Gil Hoffman and Arik Bender contributed to this report.