93 Days to Election Day

In 93 days, Israel will conduct an election which is probably one of the most, if not the most, consequential in the country’s 78-year history.

Those of us living here, along with the many Israelis living abroad who will travel here to participate in the October 27^th balloting (there is no absentee voting in Israeli elections), will need to make a choice that will most likely dictate whether Israel will continue to grow and thrive successfully as it has these past 78 years or, heaven forbid, sink further into the morass in which we find ourselves today.

We can, of course, make a mistake and choose more of the same and vote for the current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu along with his Likud sycophants and allies in order to experience a continuation of the failed policies of the recent past.

Netanyahu, who has served as Pime Minister for a cumulative total of 19 years across three separate eras (1996 to 1999, 2009 to 2021, and from December 2022 to the present) offers voters simply more of the same — continuing attacks on the judiciary, fear-mongering over Arab citizens voting, continual war on multiple fronts, a deeper dependence on his religious and far-right partners along with Israel’s continuing descent to becoming a pariah state among the nations of the world.

Yet even if life here was perfect and the country faced no problems of any kind, no leader should remain at the helm of a democracy for 19 years.  That length of service alone is prima facie evidence that it is time for a change…..add the associated problems with his leadership and the demand for change becomes ever more logical.

The concern is serious enough that a growing number of centrist Israelis have concluded that a Netanyahu win this year would put Israel’s very future at risk.

The alternative is to seek not only new leadership, but also a new vision of how this country should operate, concomitant with realistic solutions to the challenges that face us in a world where the balance of global leadership has also seen dramatic shifts, not all of which are in our favor.

We can and must, at this juncture in Israel’s history, make a decision to choose hope.   But to have hope Israel also needs a different leader who is not tainted by failed past efforts, someone who resigned from the government in 2024 so as not to be part of the current government majority complicit in supporting the mistakes that have been made in the last few years, and is seen by the local population as a man of the people who remembers and honors his roots with respect and reverence.

Today, 93 days before the elections, it seems to me that these qualifications are met by only one person, Gadi Eisenkot — the former IDF chief of staff who broke with the Netanyahu government over the Gaza War — and now leads a new party, Yashar.

Amazingly, Eisenkot has actually articulated the principles on which, if elected, he would build a coalition and govern.  Sadly, Israel does not have a stellar history of its office seekers being up front with their plans and objectives.

Eisenkot’s 10-point policy plan includes a commitment to convene a comprehensive state commission of inquiry into the October 7th attacks; a move Netanyahu has stonewalled with one excuse after another.  He also wants all Israelis to serve their country, whether in the IDF or in the civilian national service and this includes the Haredi community and the Israeli Arab population.  His potential coalition partners must also recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, as well as accept the principles of Israel’s Declaration of Independence.  All else is negotiable.

93 days is, of course, an eternity in Israeli politics.  However, current projections suggest his bloc would win 59 seats if the election were held today, compared to 51 for Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, according to the latest poll.

More significantly, Eisenkot also beats Netanyahu head-to-head as the preferred prime minister, 43% to 37%.

If Eisenkot joins with Arab parties his coalition would receive 69 seats, substantially more than the 61 seats needed to govern. Though Eisenkot has not said yet whether he would link up with Arab parties, a plurality of Eisenkot’s potential voters (44%) said they would support such a move, in a country where Arab parties have only one been part of a governing coalition, but represent 20% of the electorate.

Eisenkot is no dove. He is someone who has concluded, rightly, that the threats Israel faces include the ones it’s inflicting on itself.  He has vowed to strengthen Israeli democracy and pursue diplomacy with Israel’s neighbors.

His likely coalition partners will include the Democrats, a smaller party expected to win 10 to 11 seats, for whom resolving the Israeli-Palestinian issue is a defining issue. “I see the conflict and the continued occupation as the greatest tragedy of our lives,” Emilie Moatti of the Democrats said at a party rally last month. “The most moral and patriotic act is to end it.”

Personally, I would hope that a party like Al HaDegel, which is generating a lot of interest and is led by a large group of young adults in their 30s, most of whom have served lengthy reserve duty assignments in Gaza during the past three years and are committed to creating a new Israel. The involvement of such individuals, many of whom had run successful high-tech companies before the war broke out in 2023, would bring a much-needed level of reality to the less-than-hallowed halls of the Knesset.

In my opinion, the winds of change that seem to be blowing through Israel right now are probably the closest we have come to real, structural change in years.   We need to do all we can to capitalize on that strength.

I will blog on this topic every day from now until the election, hoping that this will encourage a great deal of thought before the vote and with it, an understanding of the meaning this election has for all of us who have chosen to live here.

 Carthago substituenda est!