The Key Election Issues Dividing Israelis as They Vote

The Key Election Issues Dividing Israelis as They Vote - The New York Times

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The Issues Dividing Israelis as They Vote

The question of accountability for the government’s failures in the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, looms over the election.

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!Men in dark hats and suits gather on a street. A small group in white button-up shirts and dark trousers poses for a selfie. One of them holds and red and black sign with Hebrew lettering on it.

*Ultra-Orthodox Israelis protesting military conscription for members of their community in Jerusalem last year.Credit...David Guttenfelder/The New York Times*

By Aaron Boxerman

Reporting from Jerusalem

Oct. 27, 2026Updated 7:07 a.m. ET

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Four years of internal turmoil, war and growing global isolation have left Israelis bitterly divided over their country’s future as they vote in national elections on Tuesday. Opinion polls suggest it will be a close race with the possibility that neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party nor his opponents will secure a majority.

Many Israelis see the election as choice over whether to continue the rule of the country’s most hard-line, right-wing government ever, and the dominant fault line is Mr. Netanyahu himself. Critics say he has steered Israel to the lowest point in its history, while his supporters see him as an indispensable leader who has tried to destroy Israel’s enemies in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

Beyond Mr. Netanyahu’s leadership, however, there are plenty of issues polarizing the country.

Accountability for the Oct. 7 attacks

The Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, loom over the vote. About 1,200 Israelis were killed in the assault and 250 were seized as hostages, according to the Israeli authorities, making it the deadliest day in Israeli history.

Israel’s military response in Gaza leveled much of the enclave and killed more than 70,000 people, according to local officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Most of the enclave’s two million residents were displaced, often multiple times.

Three years later, Israelis still have no official answer about why Mr. Netanyahu’s government and the Israeli military failed to foresee the attacks and then struggled to respond even as Hamas fighters invaded villages and a music festival, killing civilians.

Mr. Netanyahu’s opponents — a bloc of opposition parties and their leaders — have said they would establish an independent inquiry with broad authority, appointed by the president of the Supreme Court. Mr. Netanyahu has called for a “democratic and equitable” commission that would be made of an equal number of representatives of the coalition and the opposition.

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