Israelis went to the polls on Tuesday in what many inside the country describe as the most consequential election in its nearly 80-year history, according to The Irish Times. By 2pm local time, turnout had reached 44.7 per cent — the highest recorded at that hour on any election day since 1973, with queues reported at some polling stations.
The vote is the first since Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023. It sets Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's far-right coalition, in power for four years, against a bloc of Jewish opposition parties built around Yashar, the party of former general Gadi Eisenkot.
Why it matters
The two camps offer sharply different directions for the country, and the result will shape policy on Gaza, the occupied West Bank, the judiciary and military conscription. The Irish Times reports that opinion surveys put the race on a knife-edge, with neither Netanyahu's coalition nor the Jewish opposition on course for an outright majority in the 120-seat parliament. That means the outcome is likely to hinge on post-election negotiations overseen by President Isaac Herzog, which could stretch over several weeks.
Shmuel Rosner, an Israeli pollster quoted by The Irish Times, framed the choice as fundamental rather than incremental: the election is not about a single settlement, economic policy or specific issue, but about "the core identity of this place."
Competing agendas
Members of Netanyahu's coalition, described by The Irish Times as the most right-wing in the country's history, have proposed measures including removing Palestinians from Gaza, annexing the occupied West Bank, and resuming a judicial overhaul that triggered months of protests when it was launched in 2023.
The opposition has said it would roll back the parts of that overhaul already written into law, establish a state inquiry into the failures around October 7th, and end the long-standing exemption from military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews — a grievance that has fuelled tension among other Jewish Israelis. Netanyahu's Likud party and its allies, who held power on October 7th, have declined to back a state inquiry, and their coalition, which includes two ultra-Orthodox parties, has repeatedly delayed legislation on ultra-Orthodox conscription.
As voting began, several parties alleged irregularities, though the electoral commission said it had found no sign of systematic interference with ballots, The Irish Times reported.
A heated final stretch
The closing days of the campaign were marked by escalating rhetoric. Netanyahu has presented himself as the only leader capable of shielding Israel from Iran, which he says is pursuing nuclear weapons, and other external threats. In a television interview on Sunday he promised to renew the US-Israeli campaign against Iran, and he shared an article by a right-wing activist warning of a "second Holocaust" if he were not returned to office, illustrated with a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv.
Opposition figures accused the prime minister of using national security for political advantage. Eisenkot wrote on X on Sunday that the man in charge when the worst disaster in the state's history occurred refuses to accept that security is not a bargaining chip, adding that Israel is not his personal property, according to The Irish Times.
Voters interviewed by the newspaper were divided. Moti, a start-up founder who voted in the West Bank settlement of Efrat and gave only his first name, said the most important thing was that Netanyahu would win, calling him a strong diplomat with what it takes to lead. Sharon, an English teacher from Gedera who also withheld her surname, said she had always backed Netanyahu but that October 7th was the tipping point, describing the situation as 25 years in the making. She said she would vote for B'Yachad, part of Eisenkot's bloc, and argued the country needs a change.
Netanyahu, after casting his ballot in Jerusalem, urged right-wing supporters to turn out in force, saying Arab political leaders were reporting high turnout among their voters and that the battle could not be left to the left and Arab parties, which he said wanted to end the Jewish state. Arab citizens make up about a fifth of Israel's population, The Irish Times notes, and the prime minister has a record of using divisive language against his opponents. RTE.ie reported his claim that Arab parties were trying to "steal election."
Final polls last week suggested Eisenkot's bloc would take roughly 54 seats and Netanyahu's coalition about 50, with Arab and unaligned parties holding the rest. The actual result could differ depending on how many small parties clear the 3.25 per cent threshold.
Herzog has said he will do everything in his power to prevent another run of inconclusive elections like the cycle between 2019 and 2021, raising the possibility that he could press Eisenkot and Netanyahu into a national unity government if neither can assemble a majority. If no candidate can command the Knesset, the country would return to the polls.
Watch for the threshold results and Herzog's consultations with party leaders, which will determine whether Israel gets a stable coalition or another election.
