Recent polls show that the electoral coalition of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still running behind his opposition, as the long-awaited October 27 election approaches. Netanyahu has retained power for years with a slim 60-59 lead in the Knesset, obtained by his unholy alliance in December, 2022 with the aggressively racist pro-war parties of Itamar ben-Gvir (“Jewish Power”) and Bezalel Smotrich (“Religious Zionist”). Now, the opposition, led by former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot, holds a 59-51 lead (with the remaining 10 seats going to Arab parties) in the 120-member Knesset, according to the recent Channel 12 news survey.
Individually, Eisenkot is preferred to Netanyahu at 43% to 34%, with Netanyahu’s Likud party projected to lose 10 seats, dropping to 22 seats. Eisenkot pulled out of Netanyahu’s 2023 “War Cabinet” over the running of the Gaza military campaign. His Yashar (“Upright”) party includes former Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen.
Nimrod Novik’s opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post entitled “How a New Government Could Change Israel’s Course” says that the possible new government “would represent a profound departure from the current government trajectory. Externally, it would change course from force alone on all fronts to strength-based diplomacy; change dynamics on the West Bank; uncork the Gaza plan; and facilitate a new chapter with Lebanon and possibly Syria.”
Novik, a former policy advisor and special envoy to the late Shimon Peres, who served twice as prime minister, wrote that while the five opposition parties may have diverse political positions, they could form a government under “two banners: democracy at home; diplomacy abroad”—as Netanyahu’s destruction of both, is at the root of the opposition.
First, domestically, all five opposition parties state that they are determined to restore the “institutional pillars of Israeli democracy.” Topping the list of their tasks is the formation of a National Commission of Inquiry to investigate the events and security failures that led up to Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. (Netanyahu has aggressively opposed such an inquiry, and many Israelis directly blame him for what occurred.) They also agree on reversing the considerable weakening of Israel’s judicial system, after Netanyahu’s four-year drive to strip its independence and undermine its powers.
Second, in foreign policy the priority must be “restoring diplomacy as an indispensable complement to military power.” This includes taking the “diplomatic initiative” to implement an eventual withdrawal from Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria, in coordination with Washington. While agreement on restoring peace talks with the Palestinians is problematic with some of the opposition parties, there is agreement to strengthen the Palestinian Authority and crack down on the radical fascistic settlers.
