What Israel’s Election Won't Change

Billboards featuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli military chief Gadi Eisenkot outside Kiryat Malachi, Israel, October 2026 Amir Cohen / Reuters ALUF BENN is Editor in Chief of Haaretz and a Senior Fellow at the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto. Share & Download Print unlock this feature or Sign in. Save Sign in and save to read later Copy This is a subscriber-only feature. or Sign in. Chicago MLA APSA APA Chicago Cite not available at the moment MLA Cite not available at the moment APSA Cite not available at the moment APA Cite not available at the moment Request reprint permissions here. But despite this blame game, both sides agree on the tragedy’s primary lessons: that Israel is surrounded . This attitude is, in part, a raw expression of anti-Arab racism, which is more visible in Israel’s post–October 7 Jewish society. But it is also an electoral play. If the polling is correct, Eisenkot will need the support, however tacit, of Israel’s two Arab parties to put together a government. Netanyahu is thus trying to win over voters who, much as they hate him personally, cannot stand the idea of a government propped up by Palestinians. This strategy is unlikely to work on liberal Israelis, who view this election as the last chance to save their homeland from sliding into dictatorship. Many Israelis who live abroad, including immigrants who left the country because of Netanyahu’s leadership, thus intend to come home and vote for his replacement. But these election day visitors and likeminded liberal voters are rallying to protect and preserve their way of life in a country that is becoming more religious and nationalistic. And even many of the anti-Netanyahu voters would be unhappy about partnering with the Arab parties to replace the current government. Few would bother to think about the two-state solution, viewing the idea as a relic from the overly optimistic 1990s. Eisenkot, the current leader of this electorate, has declared his personal opposition to a Palestinian state, as have Israel’s other centrist and conservative opposition figures. Only Yair Golan, the leader of Israel’s sole left-wing Jewish party, supports what he calls “separation from the Palestinians” and a return to diplomacy—and even he lacks a plan for how to make that happen. Both sides agree: Israel is surrounded . In one sense, the country’s rejection of a two-state solution is not new.