Israeli Politicsupdated 1h ago3 min read
Archive photo · 29 November 2022Israel Holds Legislative Elections After Oct. 7, Netanyahu Faces Coalition Battle Over Gaza Wars
“Netanyahu should have taken responsibility and stepped down”
“Netanyahu is seeking re-election while also facing long-running criminal cases”
Photo: Ranbar, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Cropped for layout
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Netanyahu's bloc and opposition are neck-and-neck, leaving a clear Knesset majority uncertain. The election is the first since Oct. 7 Hamas attack and Gaza war, shaping legitimacy.
Election, blocs, and threshold
Israel is holding legislative elections on Tuesday, the first since the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023 and the subsequent wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, with the vote framed as determining the direction of Israel’s government. The election sets an electoral threshold of 3.25 percent for parties to enter parliament, which has a four-year term and requires a governing majority of 61 seats out of 120. The pro-Netanyahu coalition is led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and joined by United Torah Judaism (UTJ), Shas, Otzma Yehudi and Religious Zionism-Zehut, led by Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
“Any party clearing an electoral threshold of 3.25 percent enters parliament, whose term lasts four years.”
The main opposition coalition comprises the Yashar party led by former Israeli military chief Gadi Eisenkot, the Democrats led by former deputy military chief of staff Yair Golan, the Yisrael Beiteinu party led by former Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and the Together alliance led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and joined by Knesset opposition leader Yair Lapid. A poll by public broadcaster KAN projected that the opposition alliance would win 52 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, compared with 50 for Netanyahu’s bloc, with the remaining seats going to unaffiliated parties including Ra’am and the Joint List.
Oct. 7 accountability and identity
Israel’s election debate centers on accountability for reported security failures leading up to the October 2023 attacks, anger over the ultra-Orthodox community’s military exemption, and concern over Netanyahu’s efforts to push judicial reforms, according to Mairav Zonszein of the International Crisis Group. Yehouda Shenhav-Shahrabani told Al Jazeera that “Strains of Israeli society had always been given to violence and right-wing rhetoric, but the trends that had always been present had accelerated under the current government,” tying the vote to a surge in far-right attitudes. Ehud Olmert said there has never been so much at stake, from national security to the future of Israel’s democratic institutions and its standing in the world, as Netanyahu faces a tight race for reelection on Tuesday.
Gadi Eisenkot said in a radio interview, “What he is offering is an eternal war,” and he argued that choosing Netanyahu means choosing a leader who “will not deliver victories.” Netanyahu’s campaign slogan “Right or Palestine” is presented as a referendum theme, with the slogan rhyming in Hebrew and opponents rejecting the idea of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
What could follow after voting
The election’s outcome could leave Israel in negotiations for a governing majority, because both pro-Netanyahu and anti-Netanyahu blocs have effectively ruled out joining forces with Arab-led parties for now. CNN said the vote could trigger Israel’s next political crisis rather than resolve it, because polls suggest neither Netanyahu’s bloc nor the opposition is likely to win a majority on its own. CNN also said the real contest may hinge on margins, including which small parties clear the 3.25% threshold and how many votes go to parties that miss it, with turnout potentially determining whether a party disappears entirely or enters parliament.
The BBC reported that polls published on Friday put the governing coalition and the main opposition bloc almost neck-and-neck, with half a million first-time voters due to cast their ballot and some 70,000 Israelis reportedly flying in from abroad specifically to vote. Reuters reported that even if Netanyahu loses his majority, he could escape the decisive verdict his foes are seeking, because Netanyahu has rejected blame for the breach and resisted calls for an independent investigation.