Israel Election: Rival Leaders, Same Anti-Palestinian Line

Gadi Eisenkot, the leading challenger in Israel’s Oct. 27 election, has vowed to prevent a Palestinian state and end Hamas rule in Gaza within 18 months. He supports Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, while promising to crack down on settlers who attack Palestinians. A change at the top is on the ballot; whether it changes the policies imposed on Palestinians is another question.

Eisenkot, 66, leads Yashar, a party he founded in 2025, and polls put him neck and neck with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the final days before the vote. The former army chief resigned from Netanyahu’s war cabinet in 2024 and became a sharp critic of the prime minister. His son Gal and two nephews died in combat during the Gaza war, bringing him public sympathy. He is described as center-right.

A change in tone, not necessarily policy

Arab commentators cited in opinion coverage describe two competing readings of the election. One sees Netanyahu as a symptom of broader political and social changes: Israeli society has shifted right since Oct. 7 and adopted a hard-line security doctrine. From that perspective, an Eisenkot government might bring a different tone, closer relations with Washington and more diplomatic pragmatism, without fundamentally changing policy toward Palestinians.

Jordanian journalist Osama al-Sharif made the sharper case in a Saudi publication, under the title “Netanyahu, Eisenkot, Lapid: Three Names, One Anti-Palestinian Policy.” He argued that leading candidates share security-oriented positions and offer no new approach to resolving the Palestinian issue. Palestinian observers and journalists also questioned whether the election would meaningfully change policy, pointing to coalition politics and an electorate described as predominantly right-wing.

Other candidates offer variations within that political field. Naftali Bennett, 54, leads the center-right Beyahad party, which was polling third. A former prime minister and technology entrepreneur, he was prominent in the nationalist right and settler movement before presenting himself as a secular centrist. In 2021, he formed a coalition spanning Israel’s political spectrum with unprecedented support from an Arab party, ending Netanyahu’s 12 uninterrupted years in power. The government lasted a year. Bennett has criticized Netanyahu but said he was open to including him in an opposition-led coalition.

Yair Lapid founded the centrist Yesh Atid party in 2012 and briefly became prime minister in 2022 under a power-sharing agreement with Bennett. Avigdor Lieberman, who has led the foreign affairs, defense and finance ministries, now calls Netanyahu a security failure. Yair Golan, a former senior military officer, is the only major Israeli political leader explicitly supporting a two-state solution. These differences matter to the parties and voters. They don’t erase the limited scope Arab commentators see for a shift in policy toward Palestinians.

Arab voters and the limits of the ballot

Mansour Abbas, leader of the conservative Islamic Ra’am party, has sought to mobilize Arab Israeli voters, who make up 20 percent of the population, to prevent Netanyahu’s return to power. In an AFP interview, Abbas vowed to turn out voters to replace Netanyahu’s “racist, fascist right-wing government.” Ra’am became the first Arab party to join an Israeli government in Bennett’s 2021 coalition. Abbas could again be a kingmaker, but commentators questioned whether Jewish opposition parties would rely on Arab parties to form a government. Arab citizens might help change the government without becoming partners in its policies.

Haviva Ner-David urged Arab Israeli voters to participate, recalling Netanyahu’s statement during the 2015 Knesset election: “The Arabs are flocking to the voting booths! Go out and vote!” She said 52% of Arab Israelis voted in the 2022 Knesset election and argued that turnout could help remove the current government. Her account also points beyond party politics: she described her children’s Hand in Hand bilingual Arab-Jewish school, her involvement in the grassroots movement Standing Together and the interfaith group Spirit of the Galilee, which were starting a youth program that year.

Ner-David said that Arab Israelis helped clear shelters, treat wounded people, gather supplies and house displaced people after Hamas tried to incite them to rise against Israel. She also said some people who spoke against the Gaza war were arrested, humiliated and released without charges. Her account described Arab-Jewish cooperation alongside violence against Arab residents, including attacks on bus drivers and high school senior Khalil Sabach. Sabach told her the assault had not broken his belief in Arab-Jewish partnership.

The debate has its own name. Elie Podeh called it “pessoptimistic,” borrowing a term coined by Palestinian writer Emile Habibi: hope for political change combined with doubt about strategic transformation. That tension runs through the election coverage. The ballot may reshuffle officeholders and reopen regional diplomacy; the candidates’ positions and the concerns voiced by Arab commentators leave the deeper question unresolved.