Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the Hatikva Market in Tel Aviv as part of the Likud party’s election campaign, October 22, 2026. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

50 shades of right: An Israeli election primer

While Netanyahu’s bloc adds more extremists to its ranks, his opponents are impeding their own path to power by refusing to work with Arab parties.
By Ben Reiff
Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh, surrounded by MK Ahmad Tibi and Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen, at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem for a hearing on the Central Elections Committee’s decision to disqualify candidates and parties from running in the upcoming Knesset elections, October 1, 2026. (Oren Ziv)

Israel’s election won’t change the renewed reality of political apartheid

Abu Shehadeh’s disqualification sends a clear message: Jewish-majority state institutions now determine who represents Palestinian citizens.
By Areej Sabbagh-Khoury
Election campaign billboards featuring Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot and Likud party chairman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alongside opposition leaders, displayed on a road in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, October 17, 2026. (Sharon Leibel/Flash90)

Eisenkot is trying to outflank Netanyahu on the right. It’s a failed strategy

The more hawkish the opposition leader is, the harder it is to explain what alternative he offers — and he’s not the first to make that mistake.
By Amos Brison
Finance Minister and Religious Zionist Party chairman Bezalel Smotrich tours the Mahane Yehuda Market as part of the party’s election campaign, in Jerusalem, October 9, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Why Smotrich still defines the horizon of Israeli politics

Israeli liberals have acceded to the maximalist vision of the MK's 2017 ‘Decisive Plan’ — while claiming to oppose ‘messianic’ violence.
By Avi-ram Tzoreff
Leena Dallasheh (courtesy)
PODCAST

What’s at stake for Palestinian citizens in Israel’s election?

Leena Dallasheh discusses the echoes of military rule in today’s crackdown on Palestinian dissent, and the struggle for a more substantive form of citizenship.
By +972 Magazine
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Even in Gaza, you can’t have a film festival without a red carpet
The human rights film festival sends a message that Gaza is not just a strip of flattened homes, poverty and militants, as the media tends to portray it, says one of the organizers. ‘The people of Gaza are human beings, who love life, who seek peace, and who want to go to the movies, to…
By +972 Magazine May 14, 2015
WATCH: A report card for organized labor in Israel
Organized labor has seen a boost in Israel since the social protests of 2011. While companies’ profits have consistently risen, the real wages of workers have been static for nearly 15 years, explains Dr. Efraim Davidi.
By Social TV May 14, 2015
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks with EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini,September 26, 2014. (State Dept Photo)
European leaders: Find ways to hold Israel accountable for occupation
Former European officials urge a new two-state approach that includes more pressure and fewer Americans. But can the EU ever bring enough pressure to change Netanyahu’s calculus? The Oslo peace framework is obsolete, Netanyahu is disingenuous about a two-state solution, European funding for the Palestinian Authority only perpetuates the occupation, and the United States has…
By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man May 13, 2015
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If you’re going to publish ominous warnings portending the killing of scores of civilians, shouldn’t you verify the grounds and ask why? In an article published on the New York Times website today, Israel sells the author, Isabel Kershner, the pretense for its next war: its claims that Hezbollah has dramatically beefed up its military infrastructure along Israel’s…
By Noa Yachot May 13, 2015
An Israeli soldier locks a border fence. (Illustrative photo by Shutterstock.com)
A tragically unexceptional story of life and death under occupation
Three decades ago the Israeli military government canceled my sister-in-law’s Palestinian residency because she studied abroad for ‘too long.’ Now, Israel is denying her one last visit with her dying father. But my family will not allow her case, like thousands before it, to be buried in silence. By Sam Bahour If you prick us,…
By +972 Magazine May 12, 2015
Israeli settlers march into the Old City of Jerusalem during the 'Jerusalem Day' march, East Jerusalem, May 8, 2013. Earlier that day, police forces ordered Palestinian shops and stands inside the Old City to close at 15:00. In previous years, Israeli settlers had vandalized and destroyed many Palestinian shops that remained open during the march. (Photo by: Yotam Ronen/ Activestills.org)
WATCH: Racism-filled march curbs Palestinian movement in Jerusalem
High Court dismisses petition to re-route the ‘Jerusalem Day’ march away from the Muslim Quarter, but tells police it expects them to act against the type of racist incitement for which the ‘March of the Flags’ is notorious. Two Jerusalem-based NGOs on Monday lost a legal battle to keep Israel’s hyper-nationalist, racist and often violent…
By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man May 12, 2015
Prime Minister Netanyahu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel meet in Jerusalem in 2011. (Photo: Avi Ohayun/GPO)
Occupation increasingly a touchstone for Israeli-German relations
After 50 years of diplomatic relations, the Israeli-German partnership is strained by mounting German dismay over Israel’s settlement policy and reinvigorated anti-Semitism in Germany. By Angela Gruber Israel and Germany are marking 50 years of diplomatic relations this week. While most people probably aren’t reeling with excitement in anticipation of the countless festivities (especially on…
By +972 Magazine May 12, 2015
Prime Minister Netanyahu meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, 2009. (Photo by GPO)
Israeli-German relations: Timeline of a difficult relationship
Read more here on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and Germany. By Angela Gruber September 1951: Germany’s Chancellor Konrad Adenauer recognizes his country’s guilt over the Holocaust in his governmental statement [German]: “Unspeakable crimes have been committed in the name of the German people. They oblige us to moral…
By +972 Magazine May 12, 2015
WATCH: What makes a city ‘workable’ for women?
Urban planning in Israel has been done by men for men. If the 51 percent stand up, said participants in a recent panel discussion on women and urbanism, it would make cities better for everyone. 
By Social TV May 11, 2015
Bedouins and other activists shout slogans during a protest against the Israeli government's Prawer Plan, on road 31 near Hura, Israel, on November 30, 2013.
So we meet again, Prawer Plan
 In 2013, when the government shelved a plan to displace thousands of Bedouin from their villages, we rejoiced. Now, less than two years on, it’s back on the table. And so is our struggle. By Huda Abu Obeid The following is what I wrote in December 2013, when then Minister Benny Begin suspended the Prawer Plan,…
By +972 Magazine May 11, 2015
Most Read
  1. 50 shades of right: An Israeli election primer
  2. ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza
  3. Israel's election won't change the renewed reality of political apartheid
  4. Jewish Israelis must do more than stand together with Palestinians
  5. Eisenkot is trying to outflank Netanyahu on the right. It’s a failed strategy
  1. ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza
  2. 50 shades of right: An Israeli election primer
  3. Jewish Israelis must do more than stand together with Palestinians
  4. Eisenkot is trying to outflank Netanyahu on the right. It’s a failed strategy
  5. Why Smotrich still defines the horizon of Israeli politics
  1. ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza
  2. Why ‘NAZA’ terrifies Israel's liberal elite
  3. Debunking Israel’s latest list of ‘terrorist’ journalists in Gaza
  4. ‘The Gaza Holocaust won't be forgotten’: An Israeli musician screams into the void
  5. Israel’s flailing chatbot army