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
Latest
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo by Activestills.org)
‘Israel Hayom’ and Netanyahu’s shared fear of Arab voters
The prime minister’s gravest allegation against those working against his re-election is that they are trying to raise voter participation among Arab citizens of Israel. ‘Israel Hayom,’ meanwhile, has decided that Arab voters’ opinions just don’t count. By Oren Persico “Millions of shekels from overseas — to raise voter participation for the Left and the…
By The Seventh Eye March 9, 2015
Prime Minister Levy Eshkol (left) and Min. Yigal Allon (second from left) in the Negev, May 25, 1967. (Photo: GPO)
The violent roots of Israel’s Labor party
The Labor party’s glory days included the Nakba, conquering and settling the West Bank and East Jerusalem and other affairs Israeli society has yet to begin processing. By Tom Pessah Senior Labor MK Shelly Yachimovich published the following status on her personal Facebook page a few weeks ago: “Hi this is Shelly. Spot the differences: education…
By +972 Magazine March 9, 2015
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at Bar-Ilan University. (Photo Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
Netanyahu: Two-state solution is off the table, kinda
The Israeli prime minister moves closer than ever to officially declaring an end to the two-state solution. He doesn’t say it explicitly, but there are only so many eulogies a political paradigm can sustain before it expires.  Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday announced that his  commitment to a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside Israel was…
By Dimi Reider March 8, 2015
Palestinian demonstrators hold a mock wedding during a nonviolent demonstration in the West Bank village Al-Ma'asara, July 31, 2009. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
For the IDF, marriage isn’t a ‘humanitarian need’
What kind of future is Israel offering Palestinian women when they can’t even obtain permits to leave the country in search of a better life? Amira Hass published an article in Haaretz last week about the Israel government rejecting a request by a young woman from Gaza to travel to Turkey in order to get…
By Haggai Matar March 8, 2015
Supporters of Labor and Tzipi Livni’s ‘Zionist Camp’ at a rally calling to oust Prime Minister Netanyahu, Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, March 7, 2015. (Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
50,000 Israelis show up at the wrong protest
Imagine what would happen if tens of thousands of Israelis marched on the Qalandia checkpoint demanding that the occupation end immediately. Some 50,000 people showed up on Saturday at a rally demanding change: a change in government, a change in attitude toward the Palestinian issue, a change in the state’s approach to social issues. The…
By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man March 8, 2015
Women Asylum seekers and their children protest against the new detention center and call on the Israeli government to recognize their refugee rights, Tel Aviv, January 15, 2014. Asylum seekers marched from south Tel Aviv to the UNHCR offices and the US embassy, in an action following last week general strike and mass protests.
In Photos: Int’l Women’s Day in Israel-Palestine
Photos by Yotam Ronen, Anne Paq, Basel Yazouri, Oren Ziv, Faiz Abu Rmeleh, Ahmad al-Bazz, Keren Manor / Activestills.org From asylum seeker struggles to the assault on Gaza, women were on the front lines of some of the major struggles in Israel/Palestine. In honor of International Women’s Day, Activestills brings you the best photos of the…
By Activestills March 8, 2015
Tens of thousands of people at a demonstration calling to replace Netanyahu as Israel’s prime minister, Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, March 7, 2015. (Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
Tens of thousands in Tel Aviv demand Netanyahu’s ouster
Ten days before Israelis head to the polls, masses turn out in anti-Netanyahu rally in Tel Aviv. Latest polls put Zionist Camp ahead of Likud but it’s still unclear who can form a coalition. Tens of thousands of Israelis attended a rally to demand a new government Saturday night in Rabin Square. Israel Police estimated…
By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man March 7, 2015
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Photo by Activestills.org)
Liberman to head of Joint List: You’re not wanted here
Why is it that neither the debate host nor the heads of the other political parties stopped the foreign minister as he alluded to the expulsion of one out of every five Israelis? By Oren Persico When does staying silent become collaboration? Last Thursday, Channel 2 hosted a debate between the heads of all the…
By The Seventh Eye March 7, 2015
Palestinian women march toward the Qalandia checkpoint separating Ramallah and Jerusalem. Israeli soldiers broke up the joint Israeli-Palestinian protest against the occupation, a day before International Women’s Day, March 7, 2015. (Anne Paq/Activestills.org)
Israeli, Palestinian women protest on both sides of Israeli checkpoint
Ahead of International Women’s Day, Israeli and Palestinian women demonstrate against the occupation. Israeli security forces use tear gas to break up the protest. Text by Yael Marom Photos by Anne Paq, Ahmad Al-Bazz / Activestills.org Roughly 500 Israeli citizens (of both Jewish and Palestinian backgrounds) along with around 1,000 Palestinian women (from the West Bank),…
By +972 Magazine March 7, 2015
An Israeli police van outside the City of David archeological park in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. (File photo: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)
Parks and Occupation: Archaeology is the new security
The Biblical blueprint is being dragged up around our feet, seeking to use what is under the ground as evidence of divine right and the political and territorial sovereignty it supposedly affords us. The past makes for prime real estate when you’re developing a national mythology. It’s also a fine way to exert control over…
By Natasha Soffer-Roth March 7, 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. Days away from Israeli elections, a ‘sour mood’ pervades the Haredi street
  3. ‘We’ve paid the price for war. We haven’t yet reaped the fruits of peace’
  4. Jewish Israelis must do more than stand together with Palestinians
  5. Israel’s far right has unprecedented power. Why isn’t it satisfied?
  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. ‘NAZA’ is forcing Israelis to reflect. But we Palestinians are not your mirror