All articles tagged with #israel elections
On the third anniversary of the October 7 attack, Israel holds memorials amid deep political division, while Gaza faces ongoing humanitarian crisis and media outlets reflect on unreported stories.
Balad party leader Sami Abu Shehadeh has withdrawn his candidacy for the October 27 Knesset election after the Israeli Supreme Court recommended he step aside to avoid a formal disqualification ruling. The court’s nine-justice panel, presided over by Yitzhak Amit, unanimously deemed his 2023 statements 'repugnant' but split on the legal outcome, giving him until Friday morning to withdraw. While the Attorney-General opposed the ban, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir argued for a formal ruling. The move follows the Central Elections Committee’s recent disqualification of major Arab lists Ra’am and the Joint List, raising concerns that approximately 20% of Arab citizens may lack parliamentary representation. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the remaining cases by Sunday.
Benjamin Netanyahu is addressing the UN General Assembly on Thursday, but analysts suggest his primary audience is Israeli voters ahead of the October 27 election. The visit is marked by diplomatic isolation, including a lack of meetings with President Trump and protests from New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Netanyahu aims to project strength against international criticism, though his domestic support faces challenges from the right wing and recent electoral disqualifications.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced fierce political backlash after Haaretz reported the UAE’s president warned him of Hamas planning a major attack days before October 7, 2023; Netanyahu’s office denied the claim as an absolute lie, while opposition leaders called for a full investigation into warnings and security failures as Israel nears elections and accountability for the October 7 massacre remains a campaign issue.
Likud will hold primaries to determine its 120-seat Knesset list for Israel’s looming general election, with Netanyahu securing eight top spots and several post-hoc deals shaping the top 30; potential nominees include Israel Katz, Gideon Saar, Haim Katz, and tech entrepreneur Oren Dobronsky, reflecting a high-stakes, hardline stance on Gaza and West Bank settlements within the party.
Former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot has emerged as Netanyahu’s main challenger in Israel’s October election with a calm, policy‑driven style and his Yashar party; poll momentum places him close to Likud, but coalition math remains uncertain as Netanyahu’s camp emphasizes contrast and Eisenkot’s background resonates with Mizrahi voters.
A Walla-published poll shows Bennett and Lapid’s Together party would win 27 seats today, four fewer than Bennett+Lapid previously, while Likud would have 28 and the opposition bloc 59 seats—still short of a 61-seat majority. Netanyahu’s coalition would hold 51 seats, with Arab parties at 10. The result suggests the merger creates a larger party but not a larger anti-Netanyahu bloc; Eisenkot’s potential entry could boost the merged list to about 41 seats, though not enough to flip the balance without Arab party alignment. The poll surveyed 500 people with a 4.4% margin of error.
Former PMs Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid announced a merger of their parties into a new bloc called Together, aiming to unite the opposition against Benjamin Netanyahu in elections due later this year. Bennett would lead the alliance, Lapid stressed trust between the partners, and the plan includes a national inquiry into the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023 (a move Netanyahu’s government has rejected). The alliance follows past collaborations that briefly toppled Netanyahu and polls have shown Bennett as a leading challenger, though seat projections vary (an April N12 poll put Bennett at 21 seats to Netanyahu’s 25).
A Maariv poll of 500 Israelis shows the opposition holding a 61-seat majority against Netanyahu’s 49-seat coalition for a third straight week, with Likud at 25 and Bennett’s bloc at 24; Netanyahu leads Bennett 43–41 and Eisenkot 45–38 in head-to-head PM matchups, and 46% oppose Supreme Court intervention in minister appointments, while most respondents expect Iran and Lebanon tensions to continue; margin of error 4.4%.