Israel votes today; seen as referendum on Netanyahu

Israelis are voting on Tuesday in a national election that many see as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and as the most consequential vote in the country’s history.

The election is the first since Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that ignited three years of war. Voters have a choice between two blocs offering starkly different visions for their country’s future.

Netanyahu is seeking reelection at the helm of a coalition of nationalists — the most far-right government in Israeli history. His coalition faces a fractious group of opposition parties loosely led by Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff whose son was killed in the in the Gaza Strip.

Both sides are framing the election as a make-or-break moment for the country. Netanyahu’s opponents are casting the vote as the last chance to preserve democracy and pull Israel back from the brink of becoming a pariah state under international sanctions.

The voting will close at 10 p.m., but the election is unlikely to deliver an immediate verdict on who will be the next prime minister. Opinion polls suggest that Netanyahu’s allies and rivals are roughly tied, and assembling a governing coalition in Israel’s parliamentary system could take weeks or months.

Opposition leaders led by Eisenkot have called for a reckoning over what they call Netanyahu’s failure to prevent the catastrophic Oct. 7 attacks. They also have pledged to repair Israel’s shattered image abroad, including by cracking down on extremist violence against Palestinians.