Israeli Politicsupdated 2h ago3 min read
Voters Cast Ballots For Israel’s 26th Knesset As Netanyahu Seeks Another Term
“consequences will be global”
“Netanyahu sought for weeks to orchestrate a new airstrike on Iran”
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Netanyahu seeks another term as Israelis vote in 26th Knesset election. Israel uses a proportional representation system; party seat totals shape government coalition.
Polls for 26th Knesset
Israelis head to the polls on Tuesday, October 27, to elect the 26th Knesset, the first general elections since Israel’s campaign of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the wars in Lebanon and against Iran. Benjamin Netanyahu, who spent 19 years as prime minister, seeks another term while being tried on corruption charges, as the Likud party and the far-right coalition he leads run in a tight race with an opposition bloc led by Jewish parties. The Israeli Central Election Committee says about 7.3 million people aged 18 and over are eligible to vote, and most polling stations opened from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
The Knesset will be entered by any party surpassing the 3.25% threshold, and the Knesset term is four years with no limit to the number of terms for the prime minister. The president of Israel tasks a member of parliament with forming a government within 28 days, extendable by 14 days, to form a coalition of 61 seats.
Coalitions and thresholds
Israel’s legislature consists of a single body, the Knesset, with 120 members elected for a four-year term, and the law stipulates that elections must be "general, national, direct, equal, secret, and proportional". Voters cast their ballots for a party list and do not choose a specific candidate, and the vote is based on proportional representation with a 3.25 percent electoral threshold for lists to enter the Knesset. The 3.25-percent threshold neutralises votes for lists that fail to reach that percentage, and Israel then allocates seats based on each party’s share of the remaining votes.
The president, currently Isaac Herzog, is legally responsible for appointing the list leader best placed to form a coalition, based on recommendations submitted by the parties. In 2021, after the fourth election in less than two years, Netanyahu failed to form a government, and Naftali Bennett became prime minister at the head of a varied coalition even though his party had won just six seats in parliament.
Oct. 7, war, and stakes
The election campaign centers on security failures on October 7, after three years with no official inquiry committee formed into those events, and the operation “Thunder of the Temple Mount,” led by Hamas, left about 1,200 dead and around 250 taken hostage. Al Jazeera’s guide links the aftermath to Israel’s genocide campaign against Palestinians, with at least 74,000 killed and most of the besieged Gaza Strip turned to rubble. The Guardian frames the vote as a referendum on Netanyahu’s leadership since the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023, and it says the election follows Israel’s subsequent destruction of Gaza and the launch of its war with the US against Iran.
The Guardian also says Netanyahu is on trial for corruption in three separate cases, despite interventions from Donald Trump who called for a pre-emptive pardon and wrote to Israeli president Isaac Herzog on Netanyahu’s behalf. The stakes for the opposition are tied to whether it can reach the 61-seat majority needed to form a government, because the opposition bloc is forecast to fall short of that threshold even as Netanyahu’s coalition is forecast to lose its majority in the 120-seat Knesset.