Election Day in Israel: A Light Unto the Nations   

Every once in a while, although perhaps not often enough, we here in Israel actually live up to our God given mandate to be a “light unto to the nations as it is written in the Book of Isaiah (42:6). It describes a divine calling to reflect God’s righteousness, truth, and salvation to the rest of the world.

Of course, when it comes to biblical text, there is often a dispute as to the true meaning of a phrase. Traditional commentators and scholars have debated whether the servant mentioned in Isaiah refers to the nation of Israel as a collective, the prophet Isaiah himself, or an individual figure. In modern Zionism, the phrase was embraced—most notably by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion—to highlight an ethical mission for the Jewish state to serve as a moral beacon to the world.

Accepting the broader concept, election day here in Israel today is a manifestation of that biblical injunction and a virtual miracle in this region.

Truth be told, no other country in this neighborhood has democratically scheduled regular free and fair elections to decide who will run the government from one election to the next.

For example, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was elected in January 2005 for a scheduled four-year term, which has not been renewed through subsequent elections and is now serving in the 21^st year of his four-year term.  Elections were recently scheduled to be held in 2027 but they have now been delayed to 2028 at the earliest.

Hamas, which runs Gaza,  has not held an election there since the one held in 2006 that brough them to power.

Egypt’s 2025 House of Representatives elections were marred by chaotic procedures, opaque decision-making, and direct interference by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, underscoring the fundamentally sham nature of the process and the lack of independence of the National Elections Authority (NEA). On November 17^th of last year, the NEA abruptly reversed its week-long narrative defending the integrity of the voting process—only hours after President Sisi posted a public message instructing the supposedly independent body to intensify scrutiny of vote-counting, investigate irregularities, and even cancel results where necessary. This extraordinary intervention, followed by the NEA’s immediate compliance laid bare the extent to which Egypt’s electoral process and the entire political field there is beholden to Sisi’s will. Turnout was also incredibly low at 32%.

This is what the world sees in every country in this region except for Israel. Whether it is Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Syria, Lebanon or Turkey, results are generally predetermined and in line with what the current ruler expects and often demands.

It is only Israel in this region, that in the face of three years of war, social unrest, economic stress and religious tensions, the current government has served out is full four-year term and the country today goes to free and fair elections.

I voted earlier today in a senior residence not far from my home even though it was not the official voting location for people who live in my area. That is located in a school which has a flight of stairs going down to the main entrance and another flight up to the voting level. Given that I use crutches to get around that would not have been an option for me.

The law here, however, clearly states that if you have a physical challenge you can go to any voting location in your area that is setup to accommodate such voters and cast your ballot there. In my case I contacted a friend who lives in a senior residence (and whose grandfather, an Atlanta Rabbi, in 1935 gave the original kosher certification to Coca-Cola) and he paved the way for us to vote in his building’s lobby. Thankfully, we are also a society that cares about its disabled.

Given all of the challenges, Israel experienced a miracle today unique to this country in this region…..it held free and fair elections on schedule, at the predicted end of the four-year term of the current government. And it did so relatively smoothly. Truly miraculous.

I hope that at 22:00 tonight when the polls close nationwide and the first results are posted, that my preferred candidate ends up on top. However, whether or not that is the case, the sun will rise tomorrow, the process of assembling a new governing coalition will begin and the country will be on its way to another smooth transition of power. Yet another miracle to be sure.

On days like today, I often think of words once uttered by our first Prime Minster, David Ben Gurion wo said: “Suffering makes a people greater, and we have suffered much. We had a message to give the world, but we were overwhelmed, and the message was cut off in the middle. In time there will be millions of us – becoming stronger and stronger – and we will complete the message.” Today we added a proud sentence to that message.