Israelis choose a new Knesset on Tuesday, 27 October, the sixth parliamentary election since 2019 and the first since the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023.
Polls show neither Benjamin Netanyahu nor Gadi Eisenkot ahead, and both rule out coalitions with Arab parties, which complicates forming a stable majority.
At 77, Netanyahu is already Israel's longest-serving prime minister and could extend that tenure by up to another four years.
Netanyahu has fought Israel's longest war on several fronts, including against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and, with the United States, Iran.
Of 251 people taken on 7 October 2023, 105 were freed in an early exchange, and 87 died in captivity before two deals in 2025 freed all remaining hostages.
Israelis go to the polls on Tuesday, 27 October, in the sixth parliamentary election since 2019 and the first since the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023. Polls show neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor his challenger Gadi Eisenkot ahead, and the race is neck-and-neck. Neither could easily form a stable majority, because both rule out coalitions with Arab parties. The vote is being framed as a referendum on Netanyahu, who is 77 and already Israel's longest-serving prime minister. A new term would give him up to another four years in office.
The 7 October attacks badly damaged Netanyahu's image as Israel's security guarantor. Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages into Gaza. Netanyahu, who had long avoided military confrontations, has since fought what is described as Israel's longest war on several fronts: against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthi militia in Yemen and, together with the United States, Iran. He has also expanded the occupation of the West Bank, allowing settlements to grow and settler violence against Palestinians to escalate. Now he is presenting a more hawkish version of himself to voters at shopping centres and television studios. Israeli commentator and Netanyahu biographer Mazal Mualem says he had to change if he wanted to survive politically.
“He killed off the old Bibi and delivered a new one into the world.”
Spiegel correspondent Thore Schröder says the campaign is shaped by the question of how the 7 October attack could happen at all. In a podcast episode he explains what makes Eisenkot the 'Anti-Bibi' candidate, the alternative to Netanyahu in the eyes of many voters. Schröder describes Israel as a country still deeply marked by the attack.
“Israel remains a traumatized country.”
He also says Israelis simply no longer trust the Palestinians, a sentiment that pushes the campaign toward security and away from a peace agenda. Netanyahu and Eisenkot both rule out working with Arab parties, which narrows the paths to a governing majority even if one of them leads in the final count.
The election is also a referendum on how the government handled the hostage crisis. Of the 251 people taken, 105 were freed in an early exchange six weeks after the abduction. For more than a year after that, no further deal was agreed, despite daily protests at a Tel Aviv square renamed Hostage Square and moral pressure from hostage families. Two more deals in 2025 freed all hostages still alive, but 87 had died in captivity. Many Israelis hold the Islamist killers responsible for those deaths, and the campaign has revived that debate.
Data from the article text
Süddeutsche Zeitung notes that the campaign is dominated by security, while the economy, housing and crime, which need political attention, receive less space. The Iran war is central to the campaign, and opponents of the war are a minority in the debate. Economic data give some context: the International Monetary Fund expects gross domestic product per person of roughly $63,700 in Israel this year, compared with just under $57,000 in Germany. Israeli voters will therefore decide not only on security but on the country's economic and social direction.
Israelis vote on Tuesday, 27 October, and the result will determine whether Netanyahu stays in office for a further term. Coalition negotiations are expected to follow, since neither leading candidate is in a position to command a stable majority on their own. Whether Eisenkot can turn a close race into a change of government will depend on the final count and the arithmetic of partners willing to join him.
Pollar is free and carries no ads in the text. Its members keep it going.
Support PollarElections · Jerusalem and Tel Aviv
Polls put neither Benjamin Netanyahu nor challenger Gadi Eisenkot ahead before the vote, the first in Israel since the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023. Neither is seen as able to easily build a stable majority.
AI text based on reports by Berliner Zeitung, N-tv, Spiegel Online and other publishers. Published .