Israel | Elections during the multi-front war

A woman walks past a Likud Party election billboard featuring US President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, along with a message in Hebrew that reads: "We have a chance to win." Photo: DPA/Oded Balilty Nothing is normal in Israel's parliamentary elections on Tuesday. Around 7.3 million eligible voters are expected to cast their votes for one of the competing parties and fill 120 seats in parliament, the Knesset - in the middle of the war. The incumbent right-wing extremist government led by Benjamin Netanyahu is creating the illusion of a normality that cannot exist. The country is fighting with its army on several fronts - in the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank, in Lebanon, in Syria, against Yemen and Iran - and has shaken up the cards in the Middle East region through a war policy since October 7, 2023.

Is it reassuring when Defense Minister Israel Katz officially announces that his country has no intention of attacking Iran before the elections? "I make it unmistakably clear that Israel never had any intention of initiating an attack on Iran before the elections in Israel," the minister said on Platform X.

Conversely, this can actually only mean that an attack will occur at some point after the elections. US President Donald Trump also debated with himself over the weekend once again about whether he should make a deal with Iran or destroy the country. The second option is undoubtedly the one preferred by the Israeli leader. And he can be sure that Washington is at his side.

Two days before the general election, US President Donald Trump reiterated his support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Sunday, he called on Israelis on his Truth Social online service to vote for Netanyahu again. “When you go to the polls, please remember that Bibi was an outstanding, combative prime minister,” Trump wrote. He referred to the joint fight between the USA and Israel against Iran as an example of how to “win together”.

So Netanyahu peddled the mantra of national security during the election campaign, warned of diffuse threats to Israel and had his propagandists create an AI-generated image of a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv - obviously a clear allusion to what would happen if the Islamic Republic were allowed to do so: an Iranian attack with nuclear weapons on Israel. In a video released by his Likud party, Netanyahu said that if he wins the election, his close ties to Trump will help "finally eliminate the Iranian threat within the next two years - or even sooner." Iran has already been “defeated.”

Although Eisenkot is considered a sharp critic of Netanyahu's leadership, there are no differences in his relationship with the Palestinians.

These are the circumstances under which the Israelis are electing their new parliament. Eleven parties have a realistic chance of making it into the Knesset. The 120 seats will be distributed proportionally among the lists that receive at least 3.25 percent of the vote. The liberal camp rallies around ex-general Jair Golan, the extremist settlers and the ultra-Orthodox stick to the fascist Security Minister Itamar Ben Gwir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

The two center-right politicians Naftali Bennett and Jair Lapid, who are allies in the joint list Bejakhad (Hebrew: Together), are also seen as having little chance. The first, an ex-prime minister and former tech entrepreneur, had formed a coalition in 2021 that spanned Israel's entire political spectrum, but soon collapsed. In an interview with the Times of Israel in June, he warned against another term in office for Netanyahu's government. "Four more years with this government and we will no longer have an economy and a society."

The second, Jair Lapid, has been one of the most famous faces in Israeli politics for more than ten years. The former TV presenter switched to politics in 2012 and founded the centrist party Yesh Atid, soon becoming one of the leading opposition politicians and Netanyahu opponents. As an outspoken advocate of a secular-liberal line, Lapid sided with the demonstrators against the Netanyahu government's controversial judicial reform, which had deeply divided Israel before the Hamas attack. But Lapid barely managed to win over voters outside of his urban, liberal and secular core constituency.

The election will be decided between Prime Minister Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party and his challenger Gadi Eisenkot, a former chief of staff whose parents come from Morocco. The proven strategist and Hezbollah expert worked as military secretary under the former heads of government Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon, and from 2015 to 2019 he was army chief.

Eisenkot did not enter politics until 2022. After the Hamas attack, he was briefly part of Netanyahu's war cabinet, but resigned in 2024. The opposition bloc around the Jashar (Hebrew: Straight Ahead) party, founded by Eisenkot in 2025, is neck and neck in the polls with Netanyahu's alliance of right-wing and right-wing extremist parties. Although Eisenkot is considered a sharp critic of Netanyahu's leadership, there are no differences in his relationship with the Palestinians: he is against an independent Palestinian state and, like Netanyahu, he wants to eliminate the radical Islamic Hamas. He also supports Jewish settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. But he wants to act “with an iron fist” against settlers who act outside the law.

Is Gadi Eisenkot the right man for a policy change in Israel? One has to doubt that. He seems to be particularly bothered by the division within Israeli society, perhaps also by Netanyahu's uncompromising war policy, but he is not in favor of a new beginning: "Our goal is not for one side to defeat the other," the former chief of general staff said on Sunday in front of hundreds of supporters in Tel Aviv. He wants to "bring all Israelis back together - those who voted for us and those who didn't."

Netanyahu, meanwhile, intensified his attacks on the challenger. During an appearance on the pro-government television station Channel 14, he accused Eisenkot and his allies of wanting to establish a Palestinian state. This would be a “catastrophe for Israel,” said Netanyahu. However, Eisenkot also rejects a Palestinian state.

People take part in a demonstration against Netanyahu and his government near the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem. Photo: DPA/Jamala Awad Netanyahu also accused Eisenkot of not being decisive enough in the conflict with Iran. The head of government said that "90 percent" of the work had been done in taking action against Iran's nuclear program; only he could handle the remaining ten percent himself.

Netanyahu is going on the offensive in the election campaign because there is a lot at stake for him. He has to stand trial for corruption; If his political career ends, he could face serious criminal consequences if convicted. A new parliament could also set up a committee of inquiry to investigate the government's responsibilities in the murderous attack by Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters on October 7, 2023. Netanyahu would then have to respond to the allegations that he had received tips about the impending terrorist attack. So far he has prevented any attempt to come to terms with it, citing the ongoing war as the reason for this.

Instead of the independent commission, the Netanyahu government is proposing an investigative body whose members will be appointed by politicians from different parties. The opposition, in turn, criticizes this proposal. The aim of such a body would be to "clear those responsible and prevent a real investigation into the greatest catastrophe that has befallen the Jewish people since the Shoah," explained opposition leader Jair Lapid.

While Netanyahu sought to dominate the political debate in the election campaign with the issue of security, the difficult economic situation remains a central concern for many voters. The gross domestic product has more than doubled since 2000 and unemployment is at an all-time low. But the cost of living in Israel is as high as in few other countries in the world. Economists say long-standing structural problems, including housing shortages, trade barriers and limited competition in key sectors, are the main drivers of high prices.

Observers expect a stalemate in the parliamentary elections, so that no camp would have a majority to form a government. The left-wing United List and the Arab parties come into play. Mansur Abbas's Raam party agreed to work with Gadi Eisenkot's bloc, and the United List offered itself as a "safety net" to any coalition that ousts Netanyahu. However, opposition leaders are reluctant to publicly consider this scenario because a large portion of the Jewish electorate rejects any form of cooperation with Israeli Arabs. With agencies

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