Lt. Gen. (res.) Gadi Eizenkot, the 21st chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), took the plunge into politics this week, joining the party led by his IDF predecessor, Lt. Gen. (res.) Benny Gantz.

Having gone into politics nearly four years ago, Gantz now serves as defense minister and head of the newly formed National Union alliance. His IDF predecessor, Lt. Gen. (res.) Gabi Ashkenazi, also made a brief foray into politics at his side but stepped down after testing the political waters for two years. The IDF’s 17th chief, Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya’alon, who also joined Gantz’s party at its inception, quit the Knesset in late 2020. Gantz had hoped his two army buddies would help catapult him into the prime minister’s chair, where he would join the three august generals who served in that post in recent decades — Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon.

Israeli generals have been playing musical chairs in politics for decades. Of the IDF’s 22 chiefs of staff to date, 14 have gone on to achieve influential political positions — Israel’s famous Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, Shaul Mofaz who became minister of defense and led the Kadima party, Haim Bar-Lev, Mordechai Gur, Rafael Eytan, Amnon Lipkin-Shahak and others. This star-studded lineup begs the question of whether Israel is a state with an army or an army with a state.

The answer has become increasingly obvious in recent years. Until about a decade ago, a general’s stripes usually guaranteed an illustrious political career and was somewhat of a threshold requirement for the job of prime minister. In a state fighting for survival in a hostile Arab neighborhood, generals were revered and perceived as the country’s true leaders. Some enjoyed personality cult status reminiscent of banana republic dictators. Their presence at the top of parties running for the Knesset was considered a surefire electoral draw that clearly affected voting patterns.