00:00It's a showdown between the old God and the new.
00:03Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is running against Gadi Eisenkot,
00:08a political newcomer who is Bibi's opposite in every observable regard.
00:13Eisenkot's centrist Yashar party is edging out Netanyahu's conservatively could
00:18in polls ahead of the election in October.
00:21But who is Gadi Eisenkot?
00:23He's a retired IDF general, a somber straight talker,
00:27the son of working-class immigrants from Israel's often overlooked Moroccan Jewish minority.
00:33As a former chief of the armed forces, Eisenkot is an authority on war.
00:38He's also a face of its human cost.
00:40One of his sons and two nephews were killed in combat in Gaza.
00:46Eisenkot offers a different brand of leadership for a country
00:50battered by regional conflict and international isolation.
00:53Many Israelis are also weary of Netanyahu's corruption trial
00:57and efforts to curtail court powers.
00:59Netanyahu is Israel's longest-serving leader,
01:02whose telegetic English and divisive statesmanship
01:05have made him a dominant and sometimes reviled figure on the world stage.
01:10Critics say Eisenkot is dangerously inexperienced in foreign affairs
01:14and the horse-trading of domestic politics.
01:16But his supporters see him an opportunity to unite opposition parties
01:20to replace Netanyahu's Religious Writers' Coalition government
01:24and put the country on a new path.
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