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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Soldiers arresting youths in Nabi Saleh, 2013. (Yotam Ronen / Activestills).
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By +972 Magazine April 22, 2015
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Why I’m thinking of leaving Israel
I don’t feel a sense of belonging in the place where I was born. I want to live in a place where my right to vote is not seen as a threat to the regime, where my ethnicity doesn’t hold me back and where my language is not a barrier. One day I will leave,…
By +972 Magazine April 22, 2015
Palestinian policemen block protesters during a demonstration against the visit of US President Barak Obama to the West Bank, Ramallah, March 21, 2013. (photo: Keren Manor/Activestills.org)
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By withholding the PA’s tax revenues, the Israeli government is effectively stealing Palestinian money. So why won’t the international community call it that? At the end of last year the Israeli government announced that it would stop transferring Palestinian tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority. The move was explained, explicitly, as a punitive measure for…
By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man April 21, 2015
Elizabeth Tanboura stands with three of her daughters: Sundos, Malak, and Marwa (right), in front of their destroyed home in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip, March 19, 2015. Elizabth's husband, Radad, and their children Ahmed (15) and Amna (13), were killed during an Israeli attack on August 25, 2014. Two other boys survived because they were not in the house at the time of the attack.
In war, there is no safe place for Gaza’s children
A new report details the harrowing reality for Gaza’s children during last summer’s assault. There came a point early on during last summer’s Gaza war when it seemed we reached a nadir. Four children, all under the age of 12, were killed by an Israeli naval attack while playing soccer on a beach. The boys were…
By Natasha Soffer-Roth April 21, 2015
T. photographed in Tel Aviv (R), and appearing in ISIS' execution video (L). (photo courtesy of the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants)
ISIS executes three asylum seekers deported by Israel
Video by extremist Sunni group shows execution of three Eritrean asylum seekers coerced into leaving Israel last year. At least three Eritrean asylum seekers who lived in Israel and were deported to a third country were executed by Islamic State militants in Libya this past week, according to family and friends who recognized them in…
By Haggai Matar April 21, 2015
Darfuri refugees pose for a poster against their deportation from Israel. (Activestills.org)
Likud minister: Drowning of migrants justifies Israeli policy
Just one day after 950 asylum seekers drown on their way to Italy, Israel’s transportation minister praises the government for preventing migrants from entering the country. Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) sees lessons for Israeli policy in the tragic massacre of 700 asylum seekers who drowned when their vessel capsized on Sunday in the Mediterranean Sea.…
By Lisa Goldman April 20, 2015
A woman holds up a photo of a refugee daycare center's yearbook during a protest against living conditions in south Tel Aviv, April 19, 2015. Five refugee children have recently died due to the substandard living conditions in daycare centers. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
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Hundreds demonstrated in central Tel Aviv against the dire living conditions for the residents, refugees and foreign workers who live in south Tel Aviv. Photos and text: Oren Ziv / Activestills.org Approximately 300 Israelis, asylum seekers and foreign workers protested Sunday evening at Habima Square in central Tel Aviv against the living conditions in south…
By Activestills April 20, 2015
Israelis march during a protest calling for social justice, Hatikva neighborhood, south Tel Aviv, June 14, 2012. (photo: Activestills.org)
Mizrahi struggle 101: A beginner’s guide for Ashkenazim
The Mizrahi struggle must widen its ranks, but in order to do so, Ashkenazim must come to the table from a place of solidarity, not victimhood. Orly Noy with a few tips. This past election cycle saw several high-profile Ashkenazi leftists openly make racist comments about Mizrahim. Whether it was Yair Garbuz, who claimed that…
By Orly Noy April 20, 2015
The alternative, joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony, 2014. (Photo by Dan Haimovich)
Settler group tries to shut down bi-national Memorial Day event
The Samaria Settler Council, the same group that recently released a video defaming human rights groups with anti-Semitic imagery, petitions the defense minister to stop Palestinians from participating in, and to pass a law banning an alternative Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony. An Israeli settler group is trying to shut down the 10th annual joint Israeli-Palestinian…
By Haggai Matar April 19, 2015
Thousands in Gaza plan int’l protest: It’s impossible to live here
A group of young activists in Gaza are organizing an international day of solidarity to protest against the impossible conditions and human rights violations created by Israel’s and Egypt’s siege, the occupation, internal Palestinian conflicts and poverty. By Yael Marom “Life in Gaza has always been hard. But after Israel’s last attack it became impossible…
By +972 Magazine April 19, 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