Eisenkot Backs the Prime Minister. The Fighter Jets Say the Same Thing.

On the morning of 3 May 2026, former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Eisenkot offered something that looks, from the outside, like a routine political endorsement. He told an audience he would be "very happy" to see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continue in public life, describing the prime minister's potential continued presence as a source of "change and hope, for a better and stronger Israel." By afternoon, the Israeli cabinet had approved the purchase of two new squadrons of fighter jets — F-35 Lightning IIs and F-15IAs — at a cost of tens of billions of shekels. The timing is not incidental.

Neither item is trivial on its own. Eisenkot is not a marginal figure. As chief of staff from 2019 to 2023, he oversaw the most intensive sustained conflict in Israel's recent history, and he has spent the eighteen months since leaving uniform building a political profile that positions him as the figure most likely to succeed Netanyahu if — and when — the current government exits office. That he chose to publicly reaffirm the prime minister's legitimacy on the same day the cabinet approved the largest single procurement announcement in recent memory tells us something about how Israeli political elites manage the boundary between military credibility and governing authority.

What Eisenkot Is Actually Doing

Eisenkot has been careful not to formally join the government. He sits outside the coalition. But his public statements — and the fact that they circulate widely enough to become news — suggest a deliberate calibration: stay close enough to the security establishment to inherit its authority, keep enough distance to avoid accountability for its decisions. The statement on 3 May is the clearest signal yet that he is not positioning himself as an opposition figure. He is positioning himself as the continuity candidate — the one who would carry the current government's security logic into whatever comes next.

That matters because the political landscape inside Israel has not stabilised. The war in Gaza, now in its second year, has not produced a clear endgame. The northern border with Lebanon remains a live concern. And the question of what a post-Netanyahu Israeli government actually looks like is still entirely open. Eisenkot appears to be making a bet: that the voters most likely to decide the next election are the ones who prioritised security above everything else, and that affirming the current government's direction is the fastest path to inheriting their trust.

The Fighter Jet Purchase, Contextualised

The procurement approved on 3 May is significant in its scale. Two full squadrons — the fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II alongside the upgraded F-15IA — represents a capability addition that will reshape the Israeli Air Force's inventory for a decade. The cost, described as tens of billions of shekels, is a multi-year commitment that commits future governments regardless of who occupies the prime minister's office.

Israeli governments have historically used major arms purchases as political signals. The Iron Dome network, the David's Sling medium-range interceptor, the F-35 acquisition — each was announced at a moment when the signal to regional adversaries and domestic audiences alike was the same: Israel is not de-escalating. The cabinet's timing on 3 May, coinciding with Eisenkot's public statements, suggests the government wanted both messages in the same news cycle. The premier remains strong on security. The proof is in the aircraft.

What the announcement does not specify is the exact financial terms, the delivery schedule, or the offset agreements with the American manufacturers. Those details will emerge in the weeks ahead. For now, the political communication is primary: Israel is investing in sustained air superiority as its ground operations continue and its northern front remains unresolved.

The Succession Logic

Eisenkot's statement that he would be "happy" to see Netanyahu continue in public life is, in the context of Israeli politics, a loaded sentence. It is not a formal endorsement — he did not say he would campaign for the prime minister, or that his party would join the coalition. It is, rather, a positioning move. By expressing satisfaction at the prospect of Netanyahu's continued influence, Eisenkot is doing two things simultaneously: he is denying the opposition the use of his voice against the government, and he is signalling to the security establishment that he remains a credible interlocutor for its priorities.

This is not unusual in Israeli politics, where former military chiefs routinely navigate the space between formal opposition and formal support. Moshe Ya'alon, Ehud Barak, and others have played the same game. What is different is the timing — Eisenkot is moving while the war continues, which means any miscalculation on his part risks being read as either endorsement of a government that is still prosecuting a contested conflict, or as abandonment of a leadership that is still, officially, at war.

What This Tells Us

The combination of Eisenkot's public remarks and the fighter jet approval is, in the end, a single message: Israeli security politics is operating on two parallel tracks. One is the actual management of a multi-front security environment — procurement, deterrence, intelligence, operations. The other is the quiet positioning of figures who expect to be running that environment within two to four years. Eisenkot is on the second track. The aircraft are on the first. And the Israeli public is being asked to treat both as matters of routine business.

The fighter jets will arrive. The election, when it comes, will be fought on questions the aircraft cannot answer — questions about the war's endgame, the hostages, the future of Gaza, the relationship with Washington, and the identity of the country that emerges from all of it. Eisenkot's statement tells us he is thinking about those questions now, even if the fighter jets are not.