Israelis go to the polls in the nation’s first election since the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 2023. Many Jews in Israel and around the world view these elections as a referendum on the Netanyahu government and its policies.
In the country’s complex parliamentary process, 37 parties compete for 120 seats in the Knesset, but that’s just the beginning of forming a new government. Who officially becomes prime minister will depend on their ability to form a majority coalition.
37 flavors: The negotiations begin on Election Night
Israelis will enter a polling station on Oct. 27, choose a slip of paper with a party’s name on it and drop it in the ballot box. Unlike in U.S. elections, there is no direct election of the prime minister.
The Jewish state is a parliamentary democracy with a 120-seat legislature: the Knesset. This year, 37 parties or alliances are running, and many will not even win seats. A party must reach a four-seat minimum threshold, or it gets nothing. The whole country votes as one district, so Israelis do not have a local representative the way Americans have a member of Congress. A party that wins 10% of the vote claims about 10% of the seats.
Leading parties in the polls are Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu; Yashar, led by Gadi Eisenkot, former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces; and B’Yachad, led by former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. No party is currently polling at more than 20%. To govern, an incoming prime minister must assemble a coalition government of multiple parties, including some that he or she campaigned against.
No party in Israel’s history has ever won a majority of the seats in an election. Israel has had 37 governments, and only three completed a full four-year term. The current government is the first to serve its full term since 1992. Netanyahu has been prime minister for most of the past two decades.
When asked what matters most in choosing a party, Jewish Israelis rank security and cost of living as top concerns. Arab Israelis name crime in their own communities and the cost of living. Foreign affairs are less of a concern for both groups.
Israel’s Arab citizens vote as equal partners in Israel’s democracy. The Joint List—an alliance of three Arab-majority parties—and the Islamist Ra’am are both on the ballot, running against each other. In 2021, Ra’am became the first Arab party to join an Israeli governing coalition. Many analysts suggest that the Arab parties might again decide Israel’s next prime minister.
Israel has identified intentions by Iran and its terrorist proxies to launch attacks. The IDF has placed the military on its highest alert level, and voting locations are preparing for possible emergencies.
Neighboring countries cancel, skip or rig elections
Across Israel’s borders, the governments that call it a criminal state do not hold elections at all.
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas is currently serving his 22nd year of a four-year term that started in 2005. He recently postponed legislative elections again, citing security issues. Australia, Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the European Union pressed him to hold the vote anyway; some countries were set to provide election monitors.
Qatar is run by a monarchy, the Al Thani family, which rules absolutely. It funds the anti-American Al Jazeera network, the social-media machinery that carries its messaging worldwide and pours in money to influence American education.
Iran holds elections that decide little to nothing. The Guardian Council screens candidates before voters ever see a ballot, and the supreme leader, who outranks every elected official, is chosen by a clerical body of Islamic scholars.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei served as supreme leader from 1989 until his death on Feb. 28, the start of the joint U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. The government kills its own citizens in the street by the tens of thousands when they protest for their rights and demand different leaders. Russia and China are its closest partners, and neither allows its citizens to freely vote.
Israelis abroad returning to vote
Israel has no absentee ballot. The only exceptions are for Israeli officials and their families living abroad, as well as soldiers in combat outside Israel. Every other Israeli citizen must be physically present at a polling station in Israel on Oct. 27.
Voter turnout in Israeli elections has historically been high. Israeli diplomats and their families posted abroad have already turned out, and nearly 87% of those eligible. The IDF is overseeing hundreds of stations for soldiers to vote early. More than 50,000 Israelis living abroad (in a country of 7.3 million registered voters) are expected to fly to Israel, many citing their opposition to or support for the current government.
Americans vote a week later
U.S. citizens go to the polls one week after Israelis. Both electorates are very divided. They have been told that the entire future of their country rides on the result and that the elections are a referendum on their leaders. For all Israelis and Americans, regardless of religion and ethnicity, both democracies will be tested in the weeks to come.
Points to consider:
1. A free election is the cornerstone of a democracy.
Choosing your own government is one of the basic rights a free nation has, and Israelis have never surrendered it. They have voted through wars, terror campaigns and a pandemic. They will vote again on Oct. 27. Israel has had 37 governments, with only three ever finishing a full four-year term. Prime ministers often govern with partners they disagree with, and fragile coalitions do not always hold, sending Israelis back to the polls. No matter how ugly the election campaign, this is what a parliamentary democracy looks like.
2. The regimes attacking Israel refuse to hold fair elections.
Mahmoud Abbas has spent two decades demanding that the world recognize a Palestinian state. He has not stood for election since 2005 and called off the upcoming Palestinian vote weeks before Election Day. In Iran, a clerical council decides what candidates citizens may choose from, and the supreme leader never appears on a ballot. Qatar, Russia, China and Cuba are all among governments that regularly condemn Israel and even criticize its democracy. None of them offer free speech, freedom of religion or even the freedom to vote in democratic elections. They are the antithesis of democracy.
3. Changing Israel’s government will not stop attacks on Jews.
Attacks on Jews were happening long before the State of Israel was established and were rapidly accelerating before Oct. 7, 2023. They surged after the Hamas massacres. For the anti-Israel activists whose goal is the destruction of Israel, no Israeli prime minister will ever be acceptable short of one who surrenders to Hamas. If Netanyahu is replaced, the activist rhetoric, Islamist propaganda and Hamas attacks will continue.
Jews attacked in Washington, D.C.; Boulder, Colo.; and Melbourne, Australia, didn’t vote in any Israeli election. Antisemites will always find an excuse to attack Jews. The Israeli election is just the latest justification.