Israel Elections

With new players and old alliances, Israel’s post-October 7 political map takes shape

POLITICAL AFFAIRS: Two significant political developments played out this week as Israel moves towards elections. Gadi Eisenkot and Yonatan Shamriz took the reflectors with key announcements.

|ByHERB KEINON
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett seen with Gadi Eisenkot during a march in support of the conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews into the IDF, from the entrance of Jerusalem to the Knesset, January 15, 2026
Benny Gantz (Blue and White) at the Knesset in Jerusalem. December 22, 2025.

Gantz willing to make agreement with Netanyahu as 2026 elections approach - analysis

In an interview earlier, Gantz said he does not rule out sitting with Netanyahu in a unity government. “It’s time to abandon the ‘anybody but Bibi’ idea and shift to ‘anybody but extremists."

|ByHERB KEINON
Israel Elections: A polling station in Jerusalem, as Israelis vote in their general elections, on March 23, 2021.

February 2024 local elections plagued by widespread financing irregularities, report reveals

The report also addresses problematic employment practices, including cases in which lists paid salaries to candidates who were themselves running in the elections.

|BySARAH BEN-NUN
A man casts his vote in the Israeli general elections, at a polling station in Jerusalem, on November 1, 2022.

How Israel's migration figures are liable to affect the next election results - opinion

The figures show that the number of Israelis who left Israel for in excess of nine months in the years 2023-2025 is around 211,000.

|BySUSAN HATTIS ROLEF

Deliver us from our electoral mess

If democracy is truly about noise, then the Jewish state has been nothing short of cacophonous of late and for all the wrong reasons.

NOVEMBER 4, 2022ByMICHAEL FREUND
WHAT COMES next? Yair Lapid votes in March 2021.

Israel's elections in 2022 were haunted by the ghosts of 2018 - takeaways

POLITICAL AFFAIRS: At the end of the day, Israel has a lot of centrist voters, but they still don’t seem to bring home more than 35 mandates, which is around 1.2 million votes.

NOVEMBER 4, 2022BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu and colleagues attends the swearing-in ceremony of the 22nd Knesset in October 3, 2019.

Is Itamar Ben-Gvir the real winner of Israel's elections?

MIDDLE ISRAEL: Activist, rabble-rouser and lawyer Itamar Ben-Gvir, is the politician who outsmarted Benjamin Netanyahu himself.

NOVEMBER 4, 2022ByAMOTZ ASA-EL
Head of the Otzma Yehudit Party MK Itamar Ben-Gvir speaks to supporters as the results of the Israeli elections are announced, at the party's campaign headquarters in Jerusalem, November 1, 2022.

Israel election results due to Bennett and Lapid's utter failure

INSIDE POLITICS: After Bennett’s prime ministerial hubris destroyed his party and brought down the coalition, Lapid’s same pride and boastfulness led his camp to what many consider its doomsday.

NOVEMBER 4, 2022ByTAL SHALEV
PRIME MINISTER Yair Lapid with Alternate Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at a cabinet meeting in September.

Netanyahu won Israel's elections because of Lapid bloc's faults

POLITICAL AFFAIRS: The anti-Netanyahu bloc has three people to blame: Yair Lapid, Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli and Balad leader MK Sami Abou Shahadeh.

NOVEMBER 4, 2022ByELIAV BREUER
Likud party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu arrives with his wife Sara to cast his vote at a voting station in Jerusalem, on November 1, 2022, in the Israeli general elections.

Israel Elections: Why did Yair Lapid's campaign fail? - opinion

Lapid asked them politely to unite, then slinked away when they refused. Can anyone imagine Netanyahu not bashing together whatever heads needed bashing to get past this reckless idiocy?

NOVEMBER 4, 2022ByDAN PERRY
Prime Minister and leader of the Yesh Atid party Yair Lapid speaks to supporters in Tel Aviv late Tuesday night, after preliminary election results were announced.

With Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, Israel exits Lapid's intolerant gov't - opinion

The outgoing government painted Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters as insidious and dangerous, and that was just the beginning.

NOVEMBER 4, 2022ByODED REVIVI
Israeli foreign minister and Head of the Yesh Atid party Yair Lapid walks next to Head of opposition and head of the Likud party Benjamin Netanyahu at the assembly hall for a special session in memory of Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, on November 8, 2021.

Will Israel's Netanyahu lead or be led by Ben-Gvir, coalition partners?

NATIONAL AFFAIRS: The question is whether Netanyahu will be able to keep his coalition partners – the Religious Zionist Party, Shas and UTJ – in order.

NOVEMBER 4, 2022ByHERB KEINON
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU waves to well-wishers Tuesday night at his campaign victory celebration.

These US Jewish groups are silent on Israeli far-right’s election success

Several American Jewish organizations issued statements focused only on expressing gratitude for Israel’s robust democracy.

NOVEMBER 4, 2022ByRON KAMPEAS/JTA
Leader of Israel's Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) far-right party Itamar Ben Gvir makes a speech following the Israel's general elections in eastern Jerusalem, Nov. 02, 2022.

Lack of women in next gov't fails to represent Israeli society - editorial

Israelis will have a chance to go to the polls eventually. But for now, the coalition that looks set to rule will be a male coalition that lacks women. 

NOVEMBER 3, 2022ByJPOST EDITORIAL
An empty Knesset Plenum