It’s Tuesday, October 27. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Christopher Caldwell on David Sacks, Dario Amodei, and the fight for the AI future. Mark Halperin tells anxious Democrats to take a deep breath. Arthur Brooks shares the real lesson of the Stanford Prison Experiment. And much more.
But first: Haviv Rettig Gur, Gadi Taub, and Neria Kraus on election day in Israel.
Earlier today, at 7 a.m. local time, polls across Israel opened, marking the country’s first national elections since before October 7, 2023. They remain open until 10 p.m. local time—but if you think that means we’ll have a winner tonight, think again.
Israel’s coalition system, with dozens of parties competing for 120 seats in the Knesset, means we are likely to wait a while before anyone can negotiate the 61-seat bloc required to form a government. The process can take weeks.
While the proceedings are convoluted, and the polls are tight, one thing is clear: The two leading contenders are Benjamin Netanyahu, the nation’s longest-serving prime minister, and Gadi Eisenkot, a relative unknown. A former IDF chief of staff from a Moroccan family who lost his 25-year-old son in Gaza two months into the war, Eisenkot is, implausibly, leading Netanyahu in the polls.
Israeli journalist Neria Kraus spent the past few weeks speaking with Eisenkot as well as dozens of people who know him well. “A striking theme emerged,” she writes today. “Without exception, each went out of their way to explain just how different Eisenkot is from Netanyahu.”
Read her profile to understand the man challenging Netanyahu for Israel’s highest office—and what his success so far says about the nation he hopes to lead.
And then there is Benjamin Netanyahu. Polished, experienced, and ruthlessly intelligent, he has led Israel for 19 years across three separate periods. He’s a notorious figure overseas, but one who has, time and again, overcome seemingly fatal political and legal hurdles, rising again to the helm of the Jewish state.
How does he do it? And can he do it once more? Israeli historian and author Gadi Taub is a Netanyahu voter, and today he presents the case for Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. “Henry Kissinger once said that great leaders are often misunderstood by their contemporaries, because they have seen a vision of the future that transcends the experience of their societies,” he writes. Read his piece on why he believes Netanyahu is one of those leaders, and why his vision is one Israelis desperately need.
Finally, few people are better suited to make sense of what exactly is going on in the Jewish state than Free Press Middle East analyst Haviv Rettig Gur. This week on School of War, Haviv joins Aaron MacLean to discuss the history behind this election’s deep divisions, and what a country that has long focused on conquering enemies outside its borders owes the citizens within them.
—Jillian Lederman
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