1. He opposes Palestinian statehood and the “two-state solution.”
- Eisenkot is categorically opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state in the occupied Palestinian territories (West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza) as part of the so-called “two-state solution” supported by the international community, telling an interviewer in June 2026:
- ”I have never said two states for two peoples… anyone who talks about ‘peace now’ and two states doesn’t understand the conflict.”
2. He supports Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise in the West Bank.
- Eisenkot wants to class=“nr-h-highlight"continue expanding Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank in violation of international law, declaring in the same June 2026 interview:
- “I very much believe in settlement in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank].”
- In April 2026, he was criticized for touring settlements in the northern West Bank, including a so-called “outpost” - which are illegal under Israeli as well as international law - established by some of the most violent settlers in the West Bank, who ethnically cleansed Palestinians from the area through a campaign of terror backed by the Israeli military.
3. He wants to perpetuate Israel’s apartheid system.
- While he opposes the creation of a Palestinian state and supports the continued expansion of settlements, Eisenkot wants “separation” between Israelis and Palestinians, with Israel still controlling and dominating Palestinians, to “ensure a solid Jewish majority” in Israel and avert “a severe threat to the Zionist project,” perpetuating the status quo of the apartheid system that Israel has imposed in all of Palestine/Israel.
4. He formulated the Israeli military’s “Dahiya Doctrine.”
- As Chief of Northern Command, then-General Eisenkot articulated the Israeli military’s so-called “Dahiya Doctrine,” calling for the use of massive, disproportionate force - which is expressly prohibited under international law - and attacks on civilian targets.
- The doctrine is named after the Dahiya neighborhood of Beirut, where the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah has headquarters, which the Israeli military virtually flattened during its assault on Lebanon in the summer of 2006, which killed about 1,000 civilians. As Eisenkot explained in 2008 referring to a future war on Lebanon:
- “What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on… We will apply disproportionate force on it (village) and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases… This is not a recommendation. This is a plan. And it has been approved.”
- The Israeli military has subsequently used the Dahiya Doctrine repeatedly, particularly in Gaza and Lebanon, including the during the Gaza genocide, killing tens of thousands of civilians and laying waste to most of Gaza and southern Lebanon.
- In March 2026, Eisenkot urged the Israeli government to employ the Dahiya Doctrine in Lebanon once again, posting on social media:
- “The Dahiya Doctrine has never been more relevant than it is now, and it must be implemented.”
5. He was a minister in Netanyahu’s government for the first 8 months of the Gaza genocide.
- Eisenkot joined Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government in October 2023 as a minister without portfolio. While he was in the government, Israel began its campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, including mass killings and the deliberate starvation of civilians, forcibly displacing almost the entire population, and systematically destroying the health care system. The National Unity party, which Eisenkot was then a member of, left the coalition in June 2024 due to disagreements over strategy in Gaza.
- In July 2026, Eisenkot accused New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani of “reckless distortion of the truth” and “pure antisemitism” for calling Netanyahu a war criminal and urging the U.S. government to arrest him under a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the genocide.
6. He was the Israeli military’s chief of staff when Israeli soldiers massacred nearly 200 unarmed Palestinians in Gaza in 2018.
- Eisenkot was chief of staff of the Israeli military in 2018 when Israeli snipers killed at least 189 unarmed Palestinian protesters in Gaza, including 35 children, three paramedics, and two journalists, and wounded more than 6,000 others, during the Great March of Return. As noted by Israeli rights group, B’Tselem:
- “Over the course of the protests, the Israeli military implemented an open-fire policy of using live fire against unarmed protestors who posed no threat to the well-armored soldiers on the other side of the fence or to anyone else.”
- An independent U.N. commission of inquiry into the protests concluded there were:
- “reasonable grounds to believe that during the Great March of Return, Israeli soldiers committed violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Some of those violations may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.”
Go deeper
- Fact Sheet: Is Israel an Apartheid State?
- Explainer: The Dahiya Doctrine & Israel’s Use of Disproportionate Force
- Fact Sheet: Two Years of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza