From an outsider's perspective, it's tempting to apply the French expression blanc bonnet et bonnet blanc – "same old, same old" – to Israeli politics. Some might say that whether it's Benjamin Netanyahu or Gadi Eisenkot who forms the next government matters little.

After all, the October 27 elections, the outcome of which remains uncertain, didn't really focus on the key issue of future coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. The horror of the October 7, 2023, massacre weighed heavily. What's more, both the prime minister and the opposition leader share the same position on the question of statehood: no Palestinian state between Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea.

At 77 years old, right-wing Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu has been in power for nearly a quarter of a century. The leader of Yashar, the new center-right opposition party, is former chief of the General Staff Gadi Eisenkot, 66. Both reflect a "monolithically anti-Palestinian stance that dominates Israeli politics," which "makes meaningful change on the most critical issues unlikely," observed Mairav Zonszein, an Israeli-American expert from the think tank International Crisis Group.

Real divide Nevertheless, Netanyahu and Eisenkot are not the same – and not just in terms of style. On one side is a seasoned political operator who blends American-style PR and political know-how into a cocktail of ideological convictions, demagoguery and personal interests. On the other is a straight-talking military man, blunt and unembellished – as unfeeling as a tank, but attentive to the country's divisions and the preservation of its institutions. These differences matter – both domestically and internationally. Israel's near-even electoral split reveals a divided country.