TEL AVIV, Israel — Israelis are convinced that elections scheduled for Tuesday are the most pivotal in their nation's history. Will they vote out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — and his coalition of far-right, ultranationalist and religious political parties — because he failed to prevent the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust? Or will they reelect him to continue his campaign of retaliation, waging wars that aim to reshape the Middle East?
His main challenger, former military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, leads a center-right opposition promising more diplomacy and less extremism. It is Israel's first vote after these years of battle and bloodshed. Israelis are so concerned about their country's future that tens of thousands of expats are expected to fly back to cast ballots, since Israel does not allow absentee voting.
"We almost could have been destroyed on Oct. 7," said Israeli lawyer Shoula Romano-Horing, who flew in from Kansas City, Mo., to vote. "This is why I'm voting for Netanyahu, to make Israel so secure and so safe." In the opposite corner are those Israelis distressed by the global backlash to the wars Netanyahu's government has waged. "The actions of this government cause Israelis in general and Jews in general to be tagged as, you know, mass killers," said Yochai Ben-Haim, who works in renewable energy in California and is flying home to Israel for 36 hours just to vote.
"This government is led by extremists that do not represent who we are, and we need to change it." In conversations with dozens of Israelis over the last few weeks, a portrait has emerged of who Israelis are today. They are a people defiant, but also weary after three years of incessant war. They are enraged at their enemies, but also at their leaders.
Many are impervious to the pain of their Palestinian neighbors, but traumatized from the war they have wrought. They are resistant to Palestinian independence, but also revolted by the Israeli settlers pushing Palestinians off their land. They are fed up with the world's rebuke over the Gaza war, but also fearful of their growing global isolation.
They are a people in a tug-of-war with themselves. "Israelis want to be feared and to be loved," said Israeli author Micah Goodman. "The problem is that you have two reputations you need to protect, but you can't." As elections near, Israelis are learning more about what led up to Oct. 7, 2023.
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