Analysts, sociologists and pollsters all seem to agree that the forthcoming Israeli general elections, due to be held on October 27, are critical. In the past, a typical fault line between Israel’s right and liberal wings during the election season was future dealings with the Palestinians. Today, there is near-universal animosity towards the Palestinians and the prospect of a two-state solution.
Israel’s Jewish voters in this legislative election will likely be confronted with fundamental questions about the nature of Israeli democracy, the legitimacy of governing coalitions and very different visions of what the state represents. Palestinian citizens of Israel, at least those who are allowed to vote, are left to hope for a coalition that might curb some of the violence and lawlessness that continues to plague their neighbourhoods. Social-political psychologist Daniel Bar-Tal believes some of the main concerns for Jewish Israeli voters this election will be the far-right coalition government’s attempts to bypass democratic norms and to halt the de facto exemption of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox minority from conscription.
Overshadowing all is October 7, 2023, when 1,139 people were killed in Hamas-led raids and an Israeli military counteroffensive. Amplified through endless recycling on the country’s television news networks, October 7 continues to dominate the Israeli popular consciousness, while the 73,387 Palestinians in Gaza killed since then are mostly ignored. Questions over how Israelis and Palestinians might live together, or even the potential of an independent Palestinian state, as agreed to in the 1990s Oslo Accords, have been completely sidelined.
Instead, Israelis are calling for an inquiry into how that attack was allowed to happen and, specifically, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s role in the security breach. Netanyahu has repeatedly used the multiple wars he has embarked on since then to argue against holding an inquiry. He has also used these wars to call for a deferment of his trials over alleged corruption.
He said that the Israeli opposition, while often almost as right wing as the governing Likud party, is seen simply as the “Anti-Netanyahu bloc”. I get the sense we’ve reached the stage where even [Netanyahu’s party] Likud’s members are reluctant to vote for him.” There are also wider questions over the fundamental nature of governance and democracy in Israel. Many Israelis have criticised Netanyahu for overstepping the country’s political norms, such as attempting to sideline the judiciary, which still has the power to hold his government to account.
The 2023 judicial overhaul, which sought to free the government from much of this judicial oversight, is part of an assault upon the institutions of the state, critics say. Other attacks on these norms include placing loyalists to oversee different branches of the security services, and a sustained campaign by the far right to oust Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. Baharav-Miara is the official responsible for policing the legality of the coalition’s conduct, and right-wing National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has made her dismissal a condition of joining any future government coalition after the election.
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