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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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo by Activestills.org)
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From his growing conflict with the White House to frantic attacks on the media, there’s something off with Israel’s prime minister. Election season is a time when politicians say things they generally don’t mean, make promises they generally won’t keep and kiss babies they generally wouldn’t otherwise kiss. But if you have been tuned into…
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A new political show on Israel’s largest news channel has a 1:37 ratio of non-Jewish to Jewish guests. It should be no surprise that the normally soft-ball interviewers suddenly became hostile toward MK Ahmad Tibi. By Oren Persico / ‘The 7th Eye‘ Israel’s Channel 2 has a relatively new show titled “Kidon and Ben-Simon,” named after its…
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IDF: Palestinian nonviolent protest is an ideological crime
Abdullah Abu Rahmah has a sentencing hearing in military court after being convicted of standing in front of an IDF bulldozer. The nonviolent protest organizer from Bil’in who already served more than a year in prison has been declared a ‘human rights defender’ by the European Union. By Yael Marom Diplomats from the European Union,…
By +972 Magazine February 9, 2015
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There’s more to Israeli music than your typical Do-Re-Mi, but as our heroes try to explore new scales, they run into a false note. Click here to read the previous chapters of the ‘Israel-Palestine Lorde Diaries’ The storm was beating relentlessly at our shutters. It was too cold to go out to Nehama, too rainy…
By Yuval Ben-Ami February 9, 2015
License to Kill: No consequences for shooting an unarmed man in the back
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By +972 Magazine February 9, 2015
Naftali Bennett speaks at an event for high schoolers voting for the first time, Tel Aviv University, February 8, 2015. (photo: Yotam Ronen)
Arab, leftist high schoolers walk out on Naftali Bennett’s speech
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By Lisa Goldman February 8, 2015
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Photo by Activestills.org)
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Aside from the elderly, the Russian-speaking community in Israel is no longer throwing its support behind the Yisrael Beiteinu leader. So why aren’t the other parties capitalizing on Liberman’s loss? By Edi Zhensker Much has been written about media’s role in establishing the daily agenda in Israel: issues that the media decides to spotlight make it…
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Tzipi Livni, Benjamin Netanyahu, Naftali Bennett (Photos by Activestills, GPO)
How Zionism is pitting Jewish parties against each other
The Arab parties have understood that they better stick together so that they don’t crash into pieces like the Jewish parties – all because of the hysteria over being the most Jewish-Zionist-Israeli of all. By Gila Zamir / ‘The 7th Eye A few years ago, a salad company aired a commercial that played on a famous…
By The Seventh Eye February 8, 2015
Labor leader Isaac Herzog, December 10, 2014. (Photo by Activestills.org)
For a few votes, Labor joins the attacks on Haneen Zoabi
Two years ago Herzog adamantly stated that the Labor party principally opposes disqualifying any Knesset candidates. Now, in what appears to be the groundwork for joining a Netanyahu government, he and Tzipi Livni want to stop Haneen Zoabi from running for office. The Labor Party and Tzipi Livni’s joint list, “The Zionist Camp,” announced this…
By Noam Sheizaf February 7, 2015
PM Netanyahu's addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress, May 24, 2011 (Photo: GPO)
Why Democrats must stand up to Netanyahu
With more and more people on both sides of the aisle pushing back against Netanyahu’s planned speech, the Obama administration — through congressional Democrats — has an opportunity to reinforce its Iran policy without any pushback from the Israel Lobby. The pushback against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s scheduled address to a joint session of Congress…
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