The Oct. 27 Israeli election will be a referendum on the record of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But according to JNS senior contributing editor Ruthie Blum, voters will also be registering their verdict on whether they believe the promises of his opponents. Blum joins JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin on this week’s episode of Think Twice to analyze the upcoming vote.
According to Blum, many Israelis may be tired of the prime minister, who has now served for 15 of the last 17 years as his country’s premier and for 18 years in total. But the campaign will also test the appeal of the apparent new leader of the opposition bloc, former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot. The general has mainstream appeal and the sympathy of the nation after losing his son during the war with Hamas in Gaza.
As Blum notes, Eisenkot is trying to sound as much like Netanyahu as possible when it comes to issues like the war against Iran and its terrorist proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, while still blaming the prime minister for Oct. 7. Yet the military establishment he embodies is just as, if not more, responsible for Israel being surprised by Hamas.
More than that, his record as chief of staff shows that he is clearly on the left, though not trying to sound like it. And contrary to the promises that have been made, the opposition may well hope to bring in the Muslim Brotherhood-connected United Arab List to help them form a government now that it has one Jewish member on its list of candidates.
Israelis are, states Blum, exhausted by the war and sick of the divisiveness that it engendered.
Still, a key factor in determining the outcome of the election will depend on which of the various smaller parties (38 different lists registered before the deadline) will be able to garner the necessary 3.5% of the vote in order to make it into the Knesset. If the right, left or Arab splinters—and votes are “wasted” by being cast for parties that don’t qualify—that may make the difference in whether Netanyahu or Eisenkot will be able to form a government.
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