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
EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, July 11, 2014. (EU Photo)
Why EU recognition of Palestine isn’t enough
If the European Union wants to play a more active role in Israel-Palestine peacemaking it should first articulate a common policy and decide whether it can continue playing second fiddle to Washington. By Charalampos Tsitsopoulos Much has been made of recent European initiatives to symbolically recognize a Palestinian state in pre-1967 borders. On December 17,…
By +972 Magazine January 21, 2015
Medics treat a victim of a stabbing attack on a Tel Aviv bus line, January 21, 2015. (Activestills.org)
Netanyahu blames Abbas for Tel Aviv stabbing attack
Palestinian man boards public bus during rush hour, stabbing at least 10 before being shot in the leg and apprehended. Photos by Oren Ziv, Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org A Palestinian man from Tulkarm stabbed at least 10 people on a public bus in Tel Aviv Wednesday morning. Three of them were in serious wounded, four moderately. Israeli…
By +972 Magazine January 21, 2015
Bedouin mourners participate in a rally in the southern Israeli Bedouin city of Rahat to condemn the death of Sami Ja’ar, 22, who died of a gunshot wound last week during a police raid in the Negev Bedouin town, and of Sami Ziadna, who was killed during clashes with Israeli police following the funeral of Ja’ar. The protesters march from the house of Ja’ar family to Ziadna family home, January 20, 2015. (Activestills.org)
PHOTOS: Bedouin protest deadly police shootings in Israel
Police shoot and kill a Bedouin man during an arrest raid, later killing another man at his funeral. A general strike is called and protests take place across Israel. Text by Yael Marom and Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man Photos and reporting by Activestills.org Protests took place across Israel on Tuesday following the police shooting death of…
By Activestills January 21, 2015
Medics at the Al-Shifa hospital mourn their colleague targeted and killed in Shejaiya neighbourhood earlier today, Gaza Strip, July 20, 104. Spokesman of the Palestinian ministry of health Ashraf al-Qidra said rescue teams evacuated more than 80 dead bodies from destroyed houses in Shejaiya including 17 children, 14 women and 4 elderly people. More than 200 injured people were taken to al-Shifa Hospital. Death toll in the Gaza Strip accedes 392 with over 2650 wounded since the beginning of the Israeli offensive. (Anne Paq/Activestills.org)
Report details IDF ‘double tap’ bombings that hit first responders in Gaza
Using human shields, attacking medical teams and hospitals, shooting at civilians waving white flags. A new report by Physicians for Human Rights authored by a team of international medical experts documents shocking testimonies of victims and presents new evidence from Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. The thing that shocked me most in a new report…
By Haggai Matar January 21, 2015
Palestinian children carry goods that were rescued from the village of Khuza'a, which has undergone of intense attacks and was largely destroyed during the Israeli offensive.
Resource: Fact-finding mission investigates ‘Protective Edge’
A new report by Physicians for Human Rights, authored by a team of international medical experts, documents shocking testimonies of victims and presents new evidence from Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. In the course of the armed conflict during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza during the summer of 2014, allegations were made regarding the use…
By +972 Resources January 21, 2015
A resident of Ras Shehada plugs the building's pipe to a pump to help the water pressure, East Jerusalem, March 15, 2014. The family of nine, living in the Ras Shehada neighborhood has been going 10 days without running water. (Activestills.org)
High Court demands a solution to East Jerusalem water crisis
Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem have been suffering from a severe water crisis for 10 months. Israel’s High Court of Justice on Monday ordered the state to find a solution to the severe lack of running water in four East Jerusalem neighborhoods located beyond the separation barrier. Despite their location within territory that Israel unilaterally annexed to…
By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man January 20, 2015
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon looks over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's shoulder at a military exercise, (Photo by Kobi Gideon / GPO)
Is the ICC running against Netanyahu in Israeli elections?
It’s election season: Israeli politicians are peddling pure spin about the ICC and possible war crimes investigations. (This analysis first appeared as part of another article, here.) The Israeli government has gone on the offensive against the ICC since Palestine joined the international court. The attacks and misinformation have reached a crescendo since the ICC’s…
By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man January 20, 2015
A Jewish settler attaches an Israeli flag to a tree in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, January 29, 2010 (Anne Paq/Activestills.org)
WATCH: What do Israelis think being a Zionist means?
In the run-up to general elections, the Labor party and Tzipi Livni’s ‘Hatnuah’ united to run on a joint list called ‘The Zionist Camp.’ But what does being a Zionist mean in today’s Israel? Social TV took to the streets to ask regular Israelis just what it means to them. Related: Election analysis: A shared…
By Social TV January 20, 2015
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon. (Photo by Kobi Gideon / GPO)
Retired Israeli general suggests Syria attack timed for election effect
As elections approach, Israeli politicians are misleading the public about war crimes probes, and according to one general-turned-politician, about war itself. (This analysis originally contained a previous section called, ‘Is the ICC running against Netanyahu in Israeli elections?’ It has been published as a separate article here.) “War is merely the continuation of politics by…
By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man January 19, 2015
An Israeli sniper aims a silenced Ruger 10/22 rifle from a tower in the separation wall in the West Bank town of Bethlehem during clashes with Palestinian youth, March 11, 2014. (Photo by Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)
‘Israeli army increasing use of live fire at West Bank protests’
Despite being illegal as a crowd control weapon, eyewitness accounts and a new report by B’Tselem document the Israeli military’s increased use of 0.22 caliber live bullets against Palestinians at West Bank protests and clashes. Photos by: Ryan Rodrick Beiler and Oren Ziv/Activestills.org Text by: Ryan Rodrick Beiler Two years ago this week, 15-year-old Palestinian…
By Activestills January 19, 2015
Most Read
  1. ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza
  2. 50 shades of right: An Israeli election primer
  3. Eisenkot is trying to outflank Netanyahu on the right. It’s a failed strategy
  4. Israel's election won't change the renewed reality of political apartheid
  5. Jewish Israelis must do more than stand together with Palestinians
  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. Why ‘NAZA’ terrifies Israel's liberal elite
  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