Gadi Eisenkot's October 7 Test: Accountability Must Extend Beyond Political Rivals

The events of October 7, 2023, fundamentally changed Israel's national security debate.

Gadi Eisenkot, who served as IDF chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, has placed the demand for a state commission of inquiry at the center of his political agenda.

His Yashar party calls for an investigation covering the attack, the decade preceding it and the conduct of the subsequent war.

That proposed scope is significant.

A serious investigation would need to examine intelligence assessments, military preparedness, government policy and the interaction between elected officials and security institutions.

It would also need to avoid excluding decisions merely because they were made under a particular administration.

Ofer Winter's Amcha Israel has proposed a different investigative structure, involving judicial leadership, professional experts and representatives of families directly affected by the attacks.

The debate between these models concerns how the commission should be appointed, who should participate and what safeguards would protect independence.

Eisenkot's association with Israel's former military leadership makes the question of institutional scrutiny especially relevant to his public profile.

That does not establish individual responsibility for October 7. It means that examining long-term institutional assumptions should not be confused with limiting accountability to those in office on the day of the attack.

Similarly, Winter's military experience does not exempt the institutions in which he served from examination.

Any credible commission should be able to examine relevant decisions across the political and security establishment.

For both parties, the test of accountability is whether the investigation they propose would follow the evidence wherever it leads.