Israeli Politics16 September, 20262 min read
Isaac Herzog Says Israel’s Elections Are Not Civil War, Calls for Calm Ahead of Vote
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Herzog said Israel’s upcoming elections are not a civil war and must be accepted. He urged calm amid harsh rhetoric and stressed maintaining red lines.
The Times of Israel was read line by line by the Watchdog: 3.4. See the score →
Herzog on elections
President Isaac Herzog told 103FM that Israel’s upcoming elections “are not a civil war,” and he said he sees “no reason” the results would not be accepted. Herzog framed the campaign’s intensifying rhetoric and divisions as a test of boundaries, saying “maintaining red lines remains an absolute boundary” and calling for calm ahead of the vote.
In the same interview, Herzog warned that “Elections are a proper, magnificent, democratic process,” adding that people should make decisions “by casting a ballot at the polling station, and not through violence, crudeness, or processes that are dangerous.” Herzog also addressed the documentary controversy around NAZA, saying military operations are subject to legal oversight and describing “a complex process for approving operations” that considers harm to uninvolved people and “innocent civilians.”
Rhetoric and accountability
The Times of Israel argued that the election campaign is “turning toxic,” tying the current atmosphere to the escalation that preceded Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination. It recalled that on October 5, 1995, Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a rally from a hotel balcony in Jerusalem’s Zion Square, where participants chanted “Rabin is a traitor,” “Rabin is a murderer,” and “Death to Rabin,” and posters doctored to show Rabin in SS uniform and Rabin in a keffiyeh were circulated.
The piece said Herzog later asserted a cause-and-effect link in a Knesset speech, quoting him: “We are here today because in 1995, on that accursed balcony in that square, in those marches with that incitement, those words were fired that found the murderer.” It also described how Netanyahu denied responsibility and rejected any notion of responsibility for the murder, while Rabin’s daughter Dalia was quoted saying Netanyahu “rode this wave of opposition by nationalist religious Zionism, and took it under his wing.”
Abroad voting and bans
As Israelis prepare to hold their first national elections since the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, the Washington Post described Nirit Eylon, a tech innovator who has lived with her family in Australia for 20 years, heading home to vote.
“The first national elections since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack are viewed as a referendum on Netanyahu’s government.”
The Washington Post framed the election as a referendum on Netanyahu’s government, saying “The first national elections since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack are viewed as a referendum on Netanyahu’s government.”
In Haaretz, the paper revisited a prior precedent for Knesset restrictions, noting that in September 1965 it reported “Al-Ard slate disqualified from the Knesset,” calling it “the first disqualification of a candidate list for the Knesset.”
Haaretz’s article title linked the historical disqualification to a later threshold for banning, stating “When Calling for Israel's Destruction Became Grounds for Banning a Party,” as the piece centered on how such calls can become grounds for political exclusion.