All eyes on Jerusalem: Roughly seven million eligible Israeli voters will head to polling stations today to cast their ballot in the country’s first legislative election since the 7 October attacks in 2023. Incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud party has dominated Israeli politics for the last two decades, and another victory would confirm unshakable confidence from his constituents, particularly after three years of war.
A defeat, however, could spell trouble. Netanyahu's main political rivals are led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, whose two sons were killed in combat. “What he is offering is an eternal war,” Eisenkot, the Yashar party leader, said in a radio interview. Although the pair share some policy positions — they both reject a two-state solution and favour a hard-line approach with Iran — Eisenkot is campaigning on a simple premise: he is not Netanyahu.
