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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Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett campaigning. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)
Bennett as education minister: Less science, more Judaism
Bennett’s party website lists promoting ‘love for land and [Jewish] people’ as a top priority; the Education Ministry already announced that fewer classroom hours will be devoted to core subjects like math, language and history. Along with the announcement that Netanyahu finally formed a governing coalition Wednesday night came the anticipated news that Israel’s next…
By Natasha Soffer-Roth May 7, 2015
Masked Israeli Border Police officers (Illustrative photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
When the police start acting like a gang
A journalist learns that if you photograph Border Policemen committing a felony, you’ll probably end up paying for it. By Yesh Din, written by Yossi Gurvitz Near the end of January 2015, Amin Hassan Raneh Alawiya left his home in East Jerusalem’s Al-Azariya neighborhood and made his way to a wedding. As he later described…
By +972 Magazine May 7, 2015
Susya, West Bank, Palestinian village under threat of destruction (Activestills)
Palestinian village of Susya faces imminent demolition
Since the Israeli army evicted residents of Susya from their village in order to establish an archeological site in its place, the Israeli military has refused to issue the Palestinians any building permits. Now, the High Court has given the army a green light to demolish the village and forcefully transfer its residents. Israel’s High…
By Mairav Zonszein May 7, 2015
An IDF Memorial Day service (Wikicommons)
Deconstructing Israel’s culture of bereavement
Protesting against the appropriation of their sons’ death by the state, a group of bereaved families sets out to redefine their relationship with their fallen relatives, independently of nationalism.
By Social TV May 6, 2015
Israel's Supreme Court sits as the High Court of Justice, April 1, 2014. (Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills)
The real reason Netanyahu has the High Court in his crosshairs
The government’s plan to curb the High Court’s authority distracts from the fact that on most of Israel’s discriminatory and anti-democratic laws and policies, the two institutions see eye to eye. In recent weeks, the Israeli media has reported on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s plan to propose new legislation that would grant the government more authority…
By Amjad Iraqi May 6, 2015
Illustrative photo of masked IDF soldiers. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
How I became involved with Breaking the Silence
When I ran into an old classmate who suggested that I testify, I told him I had nothing to tell. He insisted, and only then I realized how wrong I was. By Avihai Stollar Back in 2008, I ran into Dotan, a former classmate from high school. We started chatting and he told me he…
By +972 Magazine May 6, 2015
A police officer shoots and kills Kir Hamdan from Kafr Kanna. (CCTV footage)
No charges for officers involved in Kafr Kanna killing
Netanyahu and the Israel Police offer diametrically different responses to two cases of police violence, one against an Ethiopian Israeli and another against an Arab citizen of Israel. When it comes to police brutality, it seems that even racism stinks of discrimination. Two separate cases of police violence against Israeli citizens were caught and recorded…
By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man May 5, 2015
Police sprays protesters with coloured water during an Israeli Ethiopian protest against police brutality and racism, Tel Aviv, May 3rd, 2015. Oren Ziv / Activestills.org
A month in photos: Bringing the struggle to Tel Aviv
Separately, thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel and Jewish Israelis of Ethiopian descent protest against institutional discrimination and racism in Tel Aviv’s central stage: Rabin Square. Palestinians mark Israeli Independence Day with a ‘March of Return,’ two Palestinian teens are shot dead by Israeli forces, Palestinian journalists denounce Israel’s imprisonment of reporters, and West Bank…
By Activestills May 5, 2015
An Israeli artillery unit fires a shell toward the Gaza Strip from its position near the border, July 24, 2014. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)
Chronicle of a tragedy foretold in Gaza
If there’s one takeaway from the newly published Breaking the Silence report, it’s that the IDF is most certainly not the most moral army in the world. By Ido Even Paz Breaking the Silence member Idan Barir published an article during last summer’s Gaza war, in which he warned against the firing of artillery into…
By +972 Magazine May 5, 2015
Police arrest a protester at a demonstration by Israelis of Ethiopian descent against police in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square, May 3, 2015. (Activestills.org)
Beyond racism: What’s keeping Ethiopian-Israelis down?
Racism is a severe problem for the community — and the country — but that doesn’t fully explain the difficulties faced by Ethiopian-Israelis. To the extent that they were protesting against face-to-face racism from “white” Israelis, the thousands of Ethiopian Israelis who raised hell in Tel Aviv Sunday night had more than a legitimate gripe.…
By Larry Derfner May 4, 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