Knesset dissolves: How will Israel vote in October’s general election?
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- The Knesset dissolved Friday ahead of national elections on October 27, 2026, marking the first time the body has served its full term since 1988.
- Channel 12 polling projects Gadi Eizenkot's newly formed Yashar party at 23 seats versus 22 for Netanyahu's Likud, though neither side reaches the 61-seat majority needed to govern.
- Former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid are campaigning jointly on the Together ticket, projected by Channel 12 to win 16 seats.
- The leading opposition candidates — Eizenkot, Bennett, and Lapid — have criticized Netanyahu's management of regional wars but have not urged significant restraint in Gaza or broken from the wars on Iran and Lebanon themselves.
- Ultra-Orthodox conscription has emerged as a central campaign issue, with Eizenkot, Lapid, and Bennett all ruling out Netanyahu's approach of softening enforcement to retain ultra-Orthodox coalition support.
- Anti-Netanyahu parties are projected to win 59 of the 120 Knesset seats — two short of a governing majority — while the pro-Netanyahu bloc including ultra-Orthodox parties takes 51 seats and Arab parties 10.
Why it matters: With the anti-Netanyahu bloc projected at 59 seats — two short of the 61 needed — Arab parties (10 projected seats) could become the deciding factor in coalition arithmetic. Every major challenger has matched Netanyahu's posture on Gaza, Iran, and Lebanon, meaning Israeli voters face a choice between Netanyahu and rivals who offer stylistic change without a foreign-policy break.
