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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Israeli soldiers blindfold and arrest a young Palestinian man in Hebron. (photo: Activestills.org)
The illusion of change in the West Bank military courts
Positive developments in the treatment of minors by Israeli security forces are overshadowed by partial and half-hearted implementation. By Gerard Horton In March 2013, UNICEF recommended that all children detained by the Israeli military in the West Bank must be given written information about their rights, including the right to silence and prompt access to…
By +972 Magazine May 2, 2015
WATCH: The conflict starts in school
Documentary filmmaker Tamar Erde went to five Israeli and Palestinian schools to find out what role state education plays in shaping children’s notions about politics.
By Social TV May 1, 2015
The Palestinian soccer league: A microcosm of a national struggle
Originally founded in 1928, the Palestinian Football Association endured the many trials of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ahead of the conclusion of an eventful season, we look at one of the only national institutions that unifies the Palestinians these days. By Yoni Mendel The Palestinian soccer league is experiencing one of the most dramatic moments in…
By +972 Magazine May 1, 2015
Ethiopian-Israelis protest police brutality against Ethiopians in Jerusalem, blocking Israel’s Highway 1, April 30, 2015. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Ethiopian-Israeli protest against police brutality is met with violence
This isn’t Baltimore. This is Jerusalem, on Thursday night.  Photos by Oren Ziv and Tali Mayer/Activestills.org Thousands of young Ethiopian Israelis demonstrated against police brutality in Jerusalem on Thursday, in a vigil that spiraled into violent clashes with police. The protesters congregated in the afternoon under the banner: “Down with racism! A black person will not…
By Activestills April 30, 2015
Mohammad Zarif (left) with the Washington Post's David Ignatius in New York City, April 29 2015 (credit: Gili Getz)
Zarif in New York: Why does he seem so inviting?
In between truth-dodging and trolling Senator Tom Cotton, Iran’s foreign minister, speaking Wednesday in New York, displayed an impressive command of colloquial English and contemporary American culture. And no, Netanyahu was most certainly not spared his wry sarcasm. NEW YORK — Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, believes that Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons is…
By Lisa Goldman April 30, 2015
Channel 10 military reporter Alon Ben-David. The subtitle reads: 'A feeling of control, absolute control.' (Screenshot)
Reporting in the line of duty
Channel 10’s veteran military analyst rides along with a unit that goes undercover as Palestinians, taking a shot at embedded reporting. The result has very little to do with journalism. By Nir Gontarz Television journalists generally bring a videographer with them when they report from the field. Embarrassingly enough, the person who filmed veteran reporter…
By The Seventh Eye April 30, 2015
A baby is delivered at the Israeli army’s field hospital in Nepal, April 29, 2015. (Photo by IDF Spokesperson)
Israelis’ surrogate mothers in Nepal are no laughing matter
The precarious situation of surrogate mothers in Nepal carrying babies for Israelis, as well as the ethical questions surrounding surrogacy in the developing world, should be treated with the utmost seriousness. But what does Israel’s interior minister do? He laughs at them.  Saturday’s horrific earthquake in Nepal has dominated the news here in Israel, not only…
By Mairav Zonszein April 30, 2015
Nabi Saleh villagers protest house demolition. Credit: Bilal Tamimi.
First demolition in Nabi Saleh: Warning shot or ominous sign?
Four years ago, the residents of the village received demolition orders, but they were never carried out. On Monday, bulldozers razed an uninhabited house. Now the villagers, who have been protesting every week since 2009, fear that the army will carry out the rest of the demolition orders to collectively punish them. “When we started…
By Natasha Soffer-Roth April 29, 2015
Jewish Home MK Yinon Magal. (Photo by Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)
MK says advocating for two-state solution is treason
Freshman Jewish Home MK Yinon Magal accuses a former Israeli Foreign Ministry director of committing a capital offense: advocating for a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Right-wing elements in Israel have long claimed that the two-state solution is national suicide. Logically, it follows that advocating for such an outcome would constitute treason.…
By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man April 29, 2015
African asylum seekers walking towards the March For Freedom camp, Negev Desert, June 28, 2014. (Photo by Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)
Uganda denies agreement with Israel on asylum seekers
The Ugandan government officially denies claims it has signed an agreement with Israel, whereby it would absorb forcefully deported Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers. The Israeli government has resisted calls to divulge the details of the agreements it had allegedly signed with ‘third countries.’ Government officials in Uganda deny there is any agreement with Israel…
By Mairav Zonszein April 29, 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
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  5. Israel’s flailing chatbot army