Israelis head to elections with Netanyahu’s legacy on the line

Israelis are voting in a pivotal election Tuesday as their country wrestles with unresolved wars, continues to reel from Hamas’ 2023 attack and is deeply divided over the character of the state and the right person to lead it.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who voted just after midday, faces an array of parties seeking to oust Israel’s longest-serving premier from power. Opinion polls have suggested a tight race with his main rival, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot. Over 7 million people are eligible to vote, and tens of thousands have reportedly arrived from overseas.

“This is a very moving and fateful moment,” Netanyahu said. He told journalists after voting that he believes the Arab parties that could make or break the election “are receiving massive, truly massive, support. They are heading to the polls in unprecedented numbers.” He urged supporters to forget about the beach or the barbecue and vote.

More than 31 per cent of Israelis voted by noon, the highest voter turnout by midday since 1977, according to figures by the Central Elections Committee.

Inside Israel, the race is largely about security and who should serve to defend the country. Outside Israel, it’s mainly about the country’s reputation — and the security of Jewish people worldwide — after growing criticism over the war in Gaza and Jewish settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

In Israel’s fragmented parliamentary politics, no single party has ever won an outright parliamentary majority. There is a chance that neither Netanyahu’s religious and ultranationalist coalition nor the group of parties hoping to remove him has enough support for a majority. That could set off weeks of negotiations before a leader is declared.

Israel’s Arab-led parties could emerge as kingmakers — if other parties agree to join forces with them.

“Our vote will change the government,” Mansour Abbas, head of the Islamist Ra’am party, said while voting, adding that he hoped turnout would surpass 70 per cent in Arab communities. Arabs in Israel make up about 20% of the population.

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, known for taunting Palestinian detainees and saying some Palestinians in Gaza are “not even people,” warned that “it will be Mansour Abbas’ government” if Netanyahu and his allies don’t win.

Some emotions were high. In Kiryat Shmona, a Netanyahu stronghold near the border with Lebanon, one man kicked and tore down a poster of Eisenkot.

The election is Israel’s first national vote since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war in Gaza and related conflicts. In Tel Aviv, families of some killed on Oct. 7 or former hostages held a moment of silence. “Remember all those whose voices are no more,” said Yona Adam, whose daughter Mapal Adam was killed.

Around 330,000 young Israelis, many facing compulsory military service under the shadow of war, are eligible to vote for the first time.

Eisenkot started the day by visiting communities attacked on Oct. 7. “If someone in the government had a shred of responsibility, they would start the morning here” in the communities near Gaza, he said.

After voting, standing in a cheering crowd, Eisenkot called on all Israelis to vote to get rid of “the worst government Israel has known.” He noted that victory wasn’t certain, adding that “we are on perhaps the most critical day since the founding of the state.”

Eisenkot’s Yashar party said it filed an urgent complaint over nine incidents in which its ballot slips were missing, damaged or turned over inside voting booths, and suggested a “systematic and deliberate” sabotage attempt.

Overall, the acting director-general of the elections committee, Dean Livne, said the number of reports about irregularities or issues at polling stations was much lower than in previous elections.

The vote serves not only as a referendum on Netanyahu’s leadership but also on what kind of country Israel should be — heavily influenced by religious and nationalist forces, or more firmly anchored in liberal and secular values.

Israel has found itself increasingly isolated over its conduct in Gaza and the West Bank. Public support among Americans has plummeted, and partners in Europe and elsewhere have slapped sanctions on Israel.

Also hanging over the election are lingering tensions with Iran. Netanyahu ramped up threats ahead of the vote, warning Tehran it would face “a devastating blow” if it attacked Israel.

Netanyahu’s supporters see him as a steady hand and a consummate statesman who they believe has triumphantly guided Israel through multiple wars. They think he is protecting Israel’s Jewish identity while keeping in check what they see as an interventionist judiciary.

His Israeli detractors see him as a polarizing leader who, beset by an ongoing corruption trial, dragged out the war in Gaza and its hostage crisis for political reasons. They say he is undermining Israel’s independent judiciary and weakening its democratic underpinnings. And they accuse him of abetting a system that has allowed ultra-Orthodox religious Jews to avoid enlistment in Israel’s compulsory military.

“The present government is driving the country into the ground,” voter Angela Bengur said in Jerusalem.

Eisenkot is viewed by supporters as a capable leader with sterling security credentials who, along with his likely governing partners, could act as a bulwark against creeping illiberalism. As someone personally touched by the conflict — his son and two nephews were killed in Gaza — his backers believe that he feels deeply the pain that still courses through Israel.

Parties that likely would support Eisenkot have vowed to improve Israel’s international standing and work to conscript ultra-Orthodox men while bolstering the independence of the judiciary.

The elections are about “who serves and who evades service — who takes an active part in building this country and who doesn’t,” said voter Nisso Shitrit in Jaffa.