An Israeli Election Like No Other

Three years ago, Israel suffered the worst attack in its history. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led gunmen killed nearly 1,200 people and took 251 people hostage. Some called it a pogrom. It shattered any sense of security Israelis had. What followed has radically reshaped the region: Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, which has killed more than 75,000 Palestinians and prompted allegations of genocide that Israel has denied. Military campaigns in Lebanon and Iran. But inside Israel, the trauma of Oct. 7 itself is still fresh. Many Israelis feel there has been no reckoning with the failures that preceded the attack at home. When they go to the polls in two weeks, for the first time since the attacks, one thing many will be voting on is who they think is most likely to keep them safe. I spoke to my colleague Isabel Kershner about what many describe as the most consequential elections in the country’s history. Image Ashdod, Israel, last week. Credit... Ohad Zwigenberg/Associated Press ‘What kind of a country do you want Israel to be?’ Isabel, it’s been three years since the Oct. 7 attacks. How have these attacks changed Israel? Profoundly. Israel is no longer holding back. It’s going beyond its borders and occupying territory. It’s rejecting any international condemnation of its conduct in Gaza and the West Bank. You see a lot of Israelis who are forever traumatized by that one day. And that manifests in two ways: There’s a very large consensus within Israel in support of the military campaigns in Gaza, in Iran and against Hezbollah in Lebanon. At the same time, people have lost trust in everything they previously assumed would keep them safe at home. Hamas and its allies carried out the attack. But leading up to the attack, there were years of government failure: failed policies in Gaza, failure to gather intelligence and failure to interpret available intelligence. And on the day itself, the military was slow to respond. All that has shaken people’s confidence in the state. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in . Want all of The Times? Subscribe .