Israelis went to the polls on Tuesday at the fastest pace in 45 years, subjecting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a test amid a period of war — in what voters described as the most decisive election in his history.
In this first election since the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, voters are deeply involved with the trauma of the bloodiest day in the country and with the wars that followed in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran.
Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition policies have generated divisions in the country and deepened Israel’s international isolation, but he defends his record as the only leader with the courage to confront Israel’s enemies.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, with 19 years in office, is an unparalleled political survivor, and his nationalist policy is increasingly entrenched. Israel’s fragmented system makes it difficult for a set of opponents to topple his coalition of right-wing, far-right, and ultra-Orthodox parties.
His main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces and a hard-line advocate on security issues, intends to depose him with the support of right- and center-wing parties, as well as the remnants of a left that is becoming increasingly marginalized. Polls show a tight race, with neither leader having an easy path to power.
Voters began casting ballots after polling stations opened at 7 a.m. (2 a.m. Brasília time). Polls close at 10 p.m. local time.
The Central Election Commission said that 16.7% of eligible voters had already voted in the first three hours — the fastest early turnout since 1981.
“I think these elections are the most important of all the ones I’ve witnessed,” said Ruth Epstein, an 81-year-old longtime left-leaning voter in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, who voted for the opposition Democrats.
“I am really afraid of what will happen here.”
Louis Lipsky, of Jerusalem, a Netanyahu supporter, said he was voting to keep the prime minister in power, recognizing his achievement in normalizing relations with several Arab countries through the Abraham Accords of 2020.
Netanyahu campaigned on the basis of his wartime leadership and the support of U.S. President Donald Trump, his ally in the fight against Iran, who said they should “finish the job”.
If neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot manage to form a government in the 120-seat Parliament, Netanyahu could remain as interim until another election. His opponents have managed to remove him from the position of prime minister only once since 2009, and that required four inconclusive elections in two years. He returned 18 months later.
EISENKOT SEES A “NEW SPIRIT”
For many of Netanyahu’s opponents, the election centers on accountability for the security failures of October 7, the bloodiest day in Israel. Opposition groups have promised to conduct a national investigation, which the Netanyahu government has opposed.
“I am convinced that, by the end of today, we will see a change — a new spirit for the State of Israel — which will serve as a correction for the last three years and for that terrible day,” Eisenkot said during a visit to the Nir Oz kibbutz in southern Israel, a target of the October 7 attacks.
He went to the polls with Gadi Mozes, one of the 251 people abducted by Hamas and taken to Gaza during the attack that killed 1,200 people.
Eisenkot says Israel’s response — a war that, according to health authorities, killed more than 74,000 Palestinians — was a failure, as Hamas remains in power. He reiterated his commitment to dismantling or destroying Hamas’s military and governmental power in Gaza within 18 months after the government’s formation.
In his first public comment on Election Day, Netanyahu shared an article on X about an incident in which police said three people were arrested in an attempt to bribe voters.
“Right-wing voters, dear Likud voters, in the face of attempts to undermine the integrity of the elections, we must go out and vote in large numbers, vote for the Likud for the sake of our country,” he said.
