For Oran, a 36-year-old Israeli living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the decision to fly home for Israel's October 27 election is partly about politics and partly about being able to live with himself decades from now.
"I don't know if it's so much my vote that would change the future because it's just one vote," he told Newsweek. "But it's more looking back at my life one day when I'm old, and if Israel is really doing poorly, at least I know I did my part and I showed up and I did the bare minimum."
Oran left Israel at 21, after completing his military service, to pursue his undergraduate degree in the United States. He hasn't always returned home for elections. This year, however, the prospect of another government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made the journey feel particularly urgent.
"It feels like the future of Israel is depending on this," he said. "It feels like if Netanyahu gets reelected, Israel will turn into Iran, and it will be the end of anything that we know, really."
Oran is among thousands of Israelis living overseas who are preparing to return to their home country to participate in Tuesday's election. According to the U.S.-based nonprofit AID Coalition, an estimated 53,000 Israelis abroad are expected to make the journey. The projection comes from an August survey of approximately 17,500 respondents, 72 percent of whom said they intended to travel to Israel to vote. Fifty-eight percent reported that they had already purchased plane tickets.
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The unusual mobilization is partly a consequence of Israeli election law. Unlike Americans, who can generally cast absentee ballots from overseas, most Israeli citizens must be physically present in Israel to vote. Exceptions exist for diplomats, certain government representatives serving abroad and qualifying family members.
For Israelis living in New York, that means crossing the Atlantic, potentially spending thousands of dollars and rearranging their lives for the opportunity to cast a single ballot.
The organization Fly&Vote, an initiative of AID Coalition, has been helping expatriates navigate those logistical obstacles. The group previously advertised round-trip flights from New York to Tel Aviv for $1,800, although airfare is only part of the potential expense.
The effort has also become a political controversy. Netanyahu's Likud party challenged the initiative before Israel's Central Elections Committee, arguing that the assistance risked violating election laws governing benefits to voters. Fly&Vote maintained that it was nonpartisan and did not subsidize travelers. The dispute ended in an October compromise under which Likud withdrew its petition and the organizers agreed not to subsidize tickets or arrange additional flights beyond those already advertised.
The political organizing behind the travel effort has a history of its own.
As The Times of Israel reported this week, some of the same WhatsApp groups and activist networks that organized protests against Netanyahu's proposed judicial overhaul in 2023 subsequently mobilized to aid the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on October 7. Those networks are now being used to coordinate travel and encourage participation among expatriates.
For some Israelis, the motivation extends beyond what happens within Israel's borders. They believe decisions made in Jerusalem have increasingly consequential repercussions for Jewish life in America.
Oran, who has lived in New York throughout the past three years, described the atmosphere as particularly difficult.
"I'm more exposed to antisemitism being in New York. The last three years were pretty brutal," he said. "And I kind of blame Netanyahu for it. I think we are so hated because of his choices. So I hope that we have a new government that could lead us to a better future."
Hila, 54, expressed similar concerns about the relationship between Israeli politics and Jewish life overseas. She has never voted in an Israeli election before, explaining that she previously considered it inappropriate to participate while living outside the country.
"Never voted before as I felt it wasn't my place to do so as I don't live in Israel," she told Newsweek. "This time it's different."
For Hila, the decision reflects what she regards as a fundamental departure from the principles on which Israel was established.
"The state of Israel was created as a home for the Jewish people wherever they are," she said. "It was based on the values of democracy, mutual guarantee, freedom and justice."
"I could not stand aside watching my beautiful, unique country deteriorate because of its corrupt and extremist government."
Hila pointed to the events of October 7 and what she described as an attempted hijacking of the country's institutions as reasons for her loss of confidence in the government.
"The prime minister has failed to choose the right people to lead the country and made all efforts to divide the citizens and create a hostile environment," she said.
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Her concerns are also personal. Although she describes herself as happy living in the United States and closely engaged with Israeli political and cultural life, she believes the experience of being Israeli abroad has changed substantially.
"People in Israel do not fully understand the change in atmosphere on the streets and the antagonism, antisemitism and the wrong image of Israel due to lack of Hasbara/knowledge of the situation," she said. Hasbara is a Hebrew term commonly used to describe efforts to explain and advocate for Israel's positions to international audiences. "I want a government that will make me proud and will know how to show the beautiful aspects of Israel."
Hila said many of her friends in the United States, as well as Israelis living elsewhere, are also planning to travel home to vote.
For Omry Hananya, a 28-year-old Harlem resident who moved to the United States in November 2021, the upcoming election will mark his first return trip specifically to cast a ballot.
"This election in my opinion is very important to Israel's future and my own," he told Newsweek. "I believe current leadership is steering us off a cliff and we need to steer back."
Yet Hananya draws a distinction between his personal experience of living in America and the political considerations that will determine his vote. His priorities, he said, have not fundamentally changed since leaving Israel.
"What I'm voting on remains the safety of my friends and family living here, the equality of service between different segments of the population, and reaching some resolution in the conflict," he said. "I believe all those things would improve the lives of Israelis and Jews living everywhere in the world. That was my opinion before I moved as well."
The three voters offer slightly different explanations for making the journey, but each describes a sense of responsibility that has persisted despite years spent outside Israel. Their opposition to Netanyahu is clear, although the broader expatriate electorate is not necessarily politically uniform, and there is no established historical comparison for the number expected to return this year.
Indeed, not everyone crossing the ocean is doing so to unseat the prime minister. Shoula Romano-Horing, an attorney and political commentator based in Kansas City, Missouri, traveled to Israel to support Netanyahu. In a video posted from Jerusalem's Western Wall and reported by The Washington Post in September, she said she had returned to vote for the sixth time for the prime minister, whom she credited with Israel's military successes. "He needs to be reelected to finish the job," she said.
Nor is there any guarantee that the anticipated influx of overseas voters will determine the election. Israel's proportional parliamentary system requires parties to assemble a governing majority and the political significance of expatriate participation will depend on how many actually arrive, cast ballots and distribute their votes among competing parties.
For Hananya, the calculation is considerably simpler. Asked what he hopes his journey will accomplish, he offered a modest answer.
"My hope is that it will be another drop in the bucket of change."
For Oran, there is also the possibility of enjoying some time at home. Israel's weather is pleasant this time of year, he observed, and the beaches are beautiful.
But behind the prospect of a few days in the sun lies a more consequential calculation: whether he will someday be able to say he did what he could when he believed his country's future was at stake.