JERUSALEM: A deeply divided Israel headed to the polls on Tuesday for the first time since Hamas’s Oct 7, 2023, attack, with voters delivering their verdict on veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s rightward shift.
Israelis are casting their ballots against the backdrop of three years of multi-front regional wars triggered by the Oct 7 attack, with the trauma still fresh and questions over accountability and security central to the campaign.
The closely fought election comes as Israel looks increasingly isolated on the world stage, amid a devastating military campaign in Gaza, soaring settlement construction and violence in the occupied West Bank, as well as a shift towards hard-right religious nationalism.
The last opinion polls published showed Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, running neck and neck with his main centrist rival, Gadi Eisenkot, a political newcomer and former military chief whose mild manner is seen as the antithesis of the incumbent.
“I want change in our country. I want a good democratic centrist government,” Alexandra, 65, told AFP at a polling station in Jerusalem, where a few dozen people waited to vote early in the morning.
About 7.3 million people are eligible to vote, with hundreds of thousands of young people due to cast their ballots for the first time. Surveys show that they overwhelmingly identify as centre-right or right-wing.
Tens of thousands of Israelis are estimated to have flown in from abroad to vote in an election seen as crucial to determining the future character of their country.
“I think this is one of the most important election days in the history of the state of Israel,” Uriel Brandler, a 58-year-old estate agent, told AFP in Jerusalem on Monday, saying he hoped for change.
Netanyahu, 77, has served as Israel’s prime minister for more than 19 years, across several terms.
The seasoned political operator focused heavily on his security credentials during the campaign, emphasising his relationship with US President Donald Trump and insisting he was the only leader capable of keeping Israelis safe.
In the years since Oct 7, Netanyahu has led multiple wars that have seen Israeli forces reduce Gaza to rubble, occupy southern Lebanon and, for the first time, bombard arch-foe Iran with US support.
At home, Israelis have faced attacks from Iran, Hamas, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Not afraid to take action
Zipporah Bennett, an 85-year-old retiree, said she was voting for Netanyahu “because he has had the experience of navigating the country through a lot of difficult seasons”.
She praised his support from the United States, adding: “He’s a man who’s not afraid to take action.”
Netanyahu returned to power in December 2022, bringing far-right ultranationalists into his coalition. Their political influence has since grown significantly.
Wearing his trademark noose-shaped lapel pin, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir cast his ballot in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, where his supporters had put up banners and loudspeakers.
The opposition has criticised Netanyahu for backing ultra-Orthodox parties seeking to preserve exemptions from military service for religious Jewish students, as the armed forces face personnel shortages.
But one of the biggest criticisms levelled at the prime minister is his failure to accept responsibility for the Oct 7 attack, the deadliest day in Israel’s history.
Eisenkot, 66, has pledged to establish an independent state commission of inquiry into the security failures that led to the attack, a move Netanyahu’s government has resisted.
Seeking to unseat the prime minister is an informal bloc of parties led by Eisenkot’s Yashar party and spanning the political spectrum from the right to the centre-left.
Eisenkot has vowed to oppose the creation of a Palestinian state and expressed support for Israeli settlements, but has promised to crack down on violent settlers.
Neither Eisenkot nor Netanyahu has publicly said they would form a partnership with the predominantly Arab lists, which represent about 21 per cent of Israel’s population and could become kingmakers if the results are as close as expected.
Yousef Jabareen, who heads one of the Arab-majority lists, told AFP he hoped for a high turnout among his community to help topple Netanyahu’s coalition. He spoke after voting in the northern town of Umm al-Fahm.
Most polling stations will close at 10pm (2000 GMT).
Final results could take days to emerge, and it is highly unlikely that any single party will come close to securing the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-member parliament.
Forming a coalition could take weeks or months, with fresh elections possible if negotiations fail.
