Dimona's former Netanyahu loyalists turn to Eisenkot as battle for final undecided voters heats up

OCTOBER 25, 2026 09:40Updated: OCTOBER 25, 2026 10:03Former supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the once Likud party hub of Dimona are campaigning for rival candidate Gadi Eisenkot in the days leading up to Tuesday's election.The ballot is Israel's first since Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack that shook the country and plunged the region into turmoil, as Israel went to war on the terrorist group in Gaza and its allies in Lebanon and Iran.The October 7 security breach saw Likud's popularity plummet. Opinion polls have predicted for months that Netanyahu's coalition will lose its majority. But his top rival, Yashar's Eisenkot, has no clear path to power either, and the race has become tighter as the election nears.Dimona, where an Iranian missile wounded dozens in March, has become a political battleground."We must have change. Bibi has to go," said Yossi Assayag, 74, who says he has supported Likud most of his life. "Bibi has brought disaster to Israel."The scene where a missile fired from Iran toward Israel caused damage to residential buildings in the southern Israeli city of Dimona, March 22, 2026. (credit: CHAIM GOLDBERG/FLASH90)Eisenkot's Yashar party targets Likud LoyalistsAssayag is part of a group of town residents trying to convince their community to vote for Eisenkot's party, which is neck and neck with Likud in the polls.It's a tough task in Dimona, where half the voters in the 2022 election voted for Likud."I will never betray Likud," said Ruti Ohana, a pensioner, who says she has voted Likud ever since immigrating to Israel from North Africa more than 60 years ago. She said Netanyahu was a cut above his rivals, and that detractors unfairly blamed him for October 7.Likud long ago formed a core voter base among Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent, known as Mizrahis, who felt neglected by the European-influenced Labor Party that dominated Israel for generations.Labor has since dwindled to a rump as Israeli politics have shifted rightward, and around half a dozen other parties now court Likud voters, from the center to the far right. But the link to the party among its past supporters remains strong."Most people here vote for Likud just because that's how they were raised," said Oria Asaf, 25, a past Likud voter now backing Yashar. "The change will come when people start to think about their children's future rather than their parents' past."The Dimona battle for wavering 'Likudniks'While Netanyahu has a substantial base of supporters that can't be won over, the prize is undecided voters who "understand that we are in a state of crisis" and are open to persuasion, said Michal Elmalem Abu, elected as a member of the city council from Likud and now leading Eisenkot's Dimona campaign.Some 13% of Israeli voters still haven't decided how they will vote, according to data collected by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute.Of those who voted for Likud in 2022, just 55% now say they will vote for the party again on Tuesday. Fifteen percent will support parties aligned against Netanyahu, including 8% for Yashar. Another 14% will vote for alternative right-wing parties, and 9% are undecided.In places like Dimona, Eisenkot could take a chunk out of Likud's base, said Amotz Asa-El, a columnist for The Jerusalem Post and political scientist at the Hartman Institute.A child of Moroccan immigrants who rose through the ranks to become military chief of staff, Eisenkot, 66, has a personal story of humble origins in the Mizrahi community that "appeals to a big swath of the Israeli electorate, particularly Likud's traditional electorate," Asa-El said.In an electoral field crowded with ex-soldiers, his peerless security credentials are an asset. The loss of his son, killed in combat in Gaza in December 2023, resonates with voters.At a town hall in Dimona in July, residents said they were excited about the prospect of a Mizrahi leader. Others approached him with hugs and tearful condolences for the loss of his son.But a week later Netanyahu held his own event, demonstrating his powerful appeal in the hardscrabble Negev, where Likud governments have long boasted of bringing development funds."Look around you, look at your community, look at what was here then and what is here now, and ask yourselves which governments invested in this monumental effort. And I do this out of immense love," he said.Lior Katzav, a Likud former mayor of Kiryat Malachi, another small-town stronghold, said party surveys show voters who had abandoned Likud are returning as the election nears.But even some who sympathize with Netanyahu say it may be time for a change. Israel's youngest prime minister when he was first elected 30 years ago, he has since become its longest-serving, now 77, having governed for 18 years over six terms."It's time for him to go," said Dimona software engineer David Iskali. "He's done a lot for Israel, but it can't go on. I won't give my vote to someone almost 80 years old."Follow us on Google