Israelis Cast Ballots in Tight Race Pitting Netanyahu Against Former Chief of Staff

Israeli voters headed to the polls on Tuesday in a contest that pits Benjamin Netanyahu’s long tenure against a fragmented opposition bloc. The race is defined less by traditional left-right divides and more by a binary choice centered on the prime minister, who has held the office for 19 of the past 30 years. Current polling indicates the two camps are running close, with the final outcome potentially hinging on a single seat in the 120-member Knesset.

The leading opposition candidate is Gadi Eisenkot, a former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff who entered politics four years ago. Eisenkot’s party, Yashar, translates to straight or direct. He advocates for US-style term limits for prime ministers and describes his goal as creating a country without lies. At a recent rally in Modi'in, between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, supporters praised his plain speaking style. Noa Sadeh, 56, told reporters she is tired of politicians who only know how to talk and wants a leader who focuses on doing.

The opposition coalition includes former prime minister Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Lieberman. Both are figures from the nationalist right who previously worked with Netanyahu before falling out with him. On the far right, Yishai Fleisher of the Otzma Yehudit party argued that Netanyahu has drifted left. He proposed expanding settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, creating a ministry to encourage the voluntary departure of Palestinians, and implementing the death penalty.

Netanyahu has shaped the campaign by framing the vote as a choice between the right and Palestine. His posters place opposition leaders alongside heads of parties representing Palestinian citizens, who constitute about one-fifth of the population. In a notable slip, Yinon Magal of Channel 14 called Eisenkot a Moroccan monkey this week. Eisenkot did not repeat the slur at rallies, a move some admired as restraint while others viewed as a sign he does not grasp the intensity of the challenge.

Observers point to several factors that complicate the narrative. The 7 October 2023 attacks occurred on Netanyahu's watch, and his war in Gaza has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians. Israel claims a third of those were Hamas combatants, but Hamas was not eradicated, and Iran's nuclear threat remains. Netanyahu also faces an ongoing corruption trial and the fallout from his attempts to curb the supreme court. Oded Levi, a voter who supported Netanyahu in 2022, said the current prime minister is responsible for those events.

Netanyahu’s durability rests on a loyal base built over three decades. His allies maintain that military and intelligence chiefs kept him in the dark before the 2023 attacks, a claim critics call unfounded. Many expect him to outmaneuver rivals in post-election coalition talks. Opposition hopes rest partly on secular expatriate Israelis returning home to vote, a demographic pollsters do not fully capture. A state ceremony marking the 1995 assassination of Yitzhak Rabin took place on Thursday, with Netanyahu absent and represented by a low-ranking minister.

Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats party, expressed optimism about the opposition's ability to agree on a regional strategic process for security. He avoided using the phrase peace process. A video shared this week showed young Israelis singing Shir LaShalom at a Negev music festival, a song Rabin sang before his assassination. The full flights home and the cultural resonance of the song suggest to some that the current era of leadership may be ending.