Israel Election Debate Puts West Bank Land at Issue

Daniel Goldman wrote that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich a free hand in the West Bank to pursue a “decisive plan.” He argued that settlement expansion helped create conditions for vigilante violence against Palestinians, aimed at driving them off their land and too often left unchecked and unpunished. The October 27 election has also become a contest over accountability, coalition bargaining and the government’s response to the October 7 invasion.

West Bank and accountability

In an opinion article, Goldman connected settlement expansion and violence in the West Bank to the responsibility voters must weigh. He wrote that Netanyahu and his partners hadn't accepted responsibility for October 7 and had sought to blame the army, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), protesters, the legal system and the previous government. Goldman said the government had resisted calls for a state commission of inquiry.

He also cited Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s agenda to reshape democratic institutions, the burden of military service and criticism from the Right that Netanyahu had been too soft on Hamas. Goldman asked how Hamas still controlled large parts of Gaza after repeated promises of “total victory,” while fronts with Hezbollah, Iran and in Syria remained open.

Goldman named Be'eri, Kfar Aza, Nir Oz and Ofakim, along with dozens of other communities and bases across southern Israel, where Hamas terrorists inflicted violence unopposed for hours. If Netanyahu remained prime minister, Goldman wrote, society would have declared that collective responsibility meant nothing and “the buck stops nowhere.” Goldman said Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Liberman deserved a chance to form a government.

Voters mobilize from abroad

Thousands of Israelis living in the United States are arranging trips to vote. Israel allows citizens aged 18 and older who live overseas to vote only if they're in Israel on Election Day; absentee voting is limited to diplomats and emissaries posted abroad.

AID Coalition estimated that 53,000 Israelis living abroad would travel to vote. The nonprofit surveyed 17,500 respondents in August and extrapolated the result. Its CEO, Batell Vallentine Blaish-Sultanik, said there wasn't comparable data for previous elections. The coalition’s Fly&Vote initiative provides information about polling locations and voting requirements and has helped arrange travel, including from Lisbon, Portugal.

Organizing networks grew among Israelis in the United States who protested the government’s planned judicial overhaul. After Hamas's October 2023 invasion, some networks shifted to raising funds, sending supplies to soldiers and civilians, and advocating for hostages abducted to Gaza. Since the final hostages were released last year, activists have again focused on Israeli politics, organizing phone-banking calls, voter surveys and election information sessions.

Maya Ben-Meir, an Israeli musician who moved to the United States 13 years ago, said people in her circles were discussing travel to vote. “It's absolutely because of Netanyahu,” she said, citing his opposition to a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 invasion and his failure to take personal responsibility for the attack. American-Israeli Josh Drill said the earlier protests “enabled this broader movement to understand that we have power over what happens.”

Coalition pressure before the vote

Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich met Rabbi Eli Sadan on Tuesday to press him to persuade Ofer Winter’s People of Israel party to withdraw, amid concern that it could cost their bloc votes. Winter said he would remain in the race and support only a government that drafted Haredim and didn't submit to the sector’s demands.

Netanyahu also met Moti Leitner, head of the Charedi Public party, one week before the election. Reports by Ynet and Haaretz said Netanyahu offered to advance policies important to the party and appoint Leitner special adviser for ultra-Orthodox affairs in the next government if he withdrew. Leitner said he would stay in the race and that he didn't have the “moral right” to quit.

A separate dispute concerned Itamar Ben Gvir’s place in a future coalition. His Otzma Yehudit party accused Likud of seeking to exclude him; Likud replied that Ben Gvir would remain a senior minister if the pro-Netanyahu bloc won. The competing statements came as parties and activists sought to influence which blocs could form the next government.