Israel Election: Netanyahu vs Eisenkot in Tight Race — SkimNews
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- Israel holds its general election on Tuesday 27 October — the first since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks, which killed nearly 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage, and subsequent wars in Gaza and against Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.
- Gadi Eisenkot, a former IDF chief who formed the Yashar Party last year, is polling in a tight race with Netanyahu; he lost a son in the Gaza war's early months and resigned from the war cabinet in 2024 over strategic disagreements.
- Netanyahu's likely coalition partners include far-right parties calling for West Bank annexation and Palestinian "migration" from Gaza, with some Likud members also endorsing forced displacement.
- Israel's 120-seat Knesset uses proportional representation, often producing coalition talks that last weeks or months — between 2019 and 2022, Israel went through five elections without producing stable governments.
- Two Arab party blocs representing roughly one-fifth of Israel's population could prove kingmakers, but all but one leading Jewish party have ruled out working with them.
- On Gaza, both Netanyahu and Eisenkot support Trump's peace plan — Hamas disarms in exchange for a phased Israeli withdrawal — but on the West Bank, Eisenkot opposes the controversial E1 settlement project and wants unauthorized settler outposts dismantled.
- More than 74,000 people have been killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023 per the Hamas-run health ministry (figures the UN considers reliable), while West Bank settler attacks have hit an all-time high according to UN records.
Why it matters: With Netanyahu's coalition leaning on far-right partners who push for West Bank annexation and Palestinian displacement, the election outcome directly shapes whether settlement expansion continues unchecked or faces new constraints under Eisenkot, who opposes the E1 project and wants unauthorized outposts removed. For Palestinians in Gaza — facing near-daily Israeli strikes — and in the West Bank — confronting record-high settler violence — the government formed will determine the trajectory of both territories.
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