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BEER TUVIA, Israel — The military chiefs appeared on screen in full battle dress, commanding troops, sitting in cockpits or charging across deserts with assault rifles.
The video clip that opened a pre-election town hall meeting at the small, prosperous farming community of Beer Tuvia in southern Israel was not a trailer for the next war against the militant groups Hezbollah or Hamas. It was a promo for how the triumvirate of ex-soldier statesmen leading the new centrist Blue and White coalition intends to oust the longtime conservative incumbent, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Election victories by prominent military veterans are nothing new in Israel. Two former chiefs of staff, Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak, served as prime minister. But after a drop-off in recent years in the political involvement of retired generals, they are back in the vanguard, posing the most formidable challenge in a decade to Mr. Netanyahu.
Even though Mr. Netanyahu is facing possible indictment in three corruption cases this summer, he has maintained a strong, popular base of support. The Blue and White leaders and other critics of Mr. Netanyahu have presented the return of the generals as a one-time, emergency call-up for the sake of the country and clean government.
Surrounded by hostile neighbors, Israel has generally shifted to the right, and leftists are widely criticized as naïve and feckless about threats from Iran and its militant allies on Israel’s doorsteps. Many liberals view the centrist generals as the only real match for Mr. Netanyahu, who has led the diplomatic campaign against Iran on the world stage and has acquired an aura of invincibility.
“If you are a general, you are not a wimp,” said Gadi Wolfsfeld, a professor of political communications at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya near Tel Aviv. “The wimp factor is very important in Israel.”
Israeli elections are set for April 9 against a background of simmering tensions with Hamas in the south and Hezbollah to the north. For years, Mr. Netanyahu has relied on the politics of fear and projected himself as the only one who can keep Israelis secure.
Polls show the Blue and White alliance is slightly ahead of Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party, but it might have a harder time than Likud in assembling enough partners to form a governing coalition.
The Blue and White commanders — former chiefs of staff Benny Gantz, Gabi Ashkenazi and Moshe Yaalon — boast a wealth of experience in tough decision-making, fighting Israel’s battles and protecting its citizens. They joined ranks with an existing centrist party led by the distinctly civilian Yair Lapid, a former journalist, television host and finance minister.
“The population loves generals,” Mr. Wolfsfeld said. “They have leadership qualities. They are the only ones who can be in the center and have a chance of winning.”
Mr. Gantz, a political newcomer and candidate for prime minister, has a reputation as uncorrupt and refined. Mr. Ashkenazi, also new to politics, has a rougher warrior image as a former commander of the Golani Brigade, a macho front-line combat unit.
Mr. Yaalon has political experience: He joined the Likud party in 2008 and served as Mr. Netanyahu’s defense minister before breaking with him in 2016.
Mr. Netanyahu and the generals seem to represent two Israels. Mr. Netanyahu’s is seen by opponents as divisive and polarizing. The Israel Defense Forces, the country’s most popular and respected institution, has historically been an apolitical unifier and equalizer. Many view it as the last bastion of national consensus in a diverse and fractious society.
“It goes back to the creation of Israel, when David Ben-Gurion put the army above all other institutions,” said Avi Shilon, a historian, referring to Israel’s first prime minister. “The army became the logical, responsible place in Israeli society,” said Mr. Shilon, who teaches at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and New York University’s campus in Tel Aviv.
The lines are blurred between the general population and the army, a conscription force that drafts most Jewish 18-year-olds, male and female, for more than two years of compulsory service.
A dozen former chiefs of staff have entered politics, starting with Moshe Dayan who served as defense minister during the Six Day War in 1967. But they have not always been successful.
Experts partly attribute the drop-off in generals entering politics in recent years to a 2007 law requiring a three-year interval for senior officers between taking off their uniforms and running for Parliament. The legislation was promoted by a Netanyahu loyalist and is considered to have worked to the prime minister’s advantage by excluding potential rivals, because the three-year delay dims some of the celebrity shine from the retiring generals.
“The public memory is short,” said Zipi Israeli, an expert in military and civil relations at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.
The image of generals as heroes also has faded, Ms. Israeli said, as Israel’s battles have become more contentious and less decisive.
Still, the generals are seen as the best chance for those belonging to the anti-Netanyahu camp under the slogan “Anyone But Bibi,” a reference to Mr. Netanyahu’s common nickname.
Not to be outdone, the opposition Labor party recruited Tal Rousso, a former southern command chief, for its No. 2 spot. Before joining up with Blue and White, Mr. Lapid brought Orna Barbivai, the first woman to reach the rank of major general in the army, onto his own party list.
The Likud bolstered its ranks with Yoav Galant, another former southern commander who moved over from a smaller party.
More often than not, retired generals and security chiefs have been a moderating force in Israeli politics. Perhaps having been closer to the horrors of war, most have tended toward the center or left of the political map, advocating separation and accommodation with the Palestinians, even if they see no immediate prospect of resolving the conflict.
Opposition by generals and security chiefs prevented a possible Israeli decision in 2010 to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. Mr. Netanyahu has accused Mr. Gantz of being soft on Iran’s ayatollahs and of supporting the 2015 international deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program — an agreement that Mr. Netanyahu considered disastrous.
Since the start of the election campaign, Mr. Netanyahu has emphasized that he also is Israel’s defense minister, part of an effort to capitalize on public sympathy for soldiers. He visited military bases and took selfies with the troops until the elections commission barred him from exploiting them for political purposes.
To circumvent the ban, his Likud party filmed a campaign ad accusing Mr. Gantz of being part of the “dangerous” left, against the backdrop of military graves. The ad stirred a backlash.
In Beer Tuvia, Mr. Gantz was introduced as a lieutenant general in the reserves but he took the stage in a dark suit and white shirt. His agenda was purely civilian. He pledged to work for LGBT rights, to help Israel’s struggling farmers, to increase benefits for people with disabilities and to reduce the exorbitant cost of living.
“These are people who gave their lives to the state and now their goal is the good of the country,” said Menachem Por, 73, a retired farmer and a disabled army veteran from the 1967 war, explaining the attraction of the generals. “If we put our soldiers’ lives in their hands, there’s no reason they can’t run the country.”
Anat Shindler, 58, a cosmetician, said, “I like to believe they come clean to politics.”
Maor Douiev, 34, who had just returned from a trip to India, said his own military service had been “very problematic” and that he believed in nonviolence. But he said he would vote for the Blue and White generals “because Bibi has to go and we need a good alternative.”
