In a lengthy statement, Liberman brands Eisenkot “Gantz 2,” after Blue and White party head Benny Gantz, who was the main Netanyahu rival in successive elections before deciding twice to join Netanyahu-led governments.
Eisenkot had been Gantz’s No. 2 before quitting last year to form his own party, Yashar, which has become the biggest party in most opinion polls, making Eisenkot the main challenger to Netanyahu.
These are the main candidates and their parties.
Published Sep 25, 2026 · 32 days before the election
120 seats
Right-religious bloc 49
Center-opposition bloc 55
Non-aligned 4
Arab parties 12
Yashar (Eisenkot) 22
Likud 18
Together (Bennett-Lapid) 13
The Democrats 11
Otzma Yehudit 9
Yisrael Beytenu 9
Joint List (Hadash-Ta‘al-Balad) 7
Shas 6
United Torah Judaism 6
Religious Zionism-Zehut 6
Ra‘am 5
People of Israel (Winter) 4
Reservists-Economic (Hendel-Zelekha) 4
(September 10, 2026)
The Tuesday trifecta – sanctions, weird party slate and the Haaretz Oct. 7 bombshell – could have more impact later.
After the submission of party lists ahead of the Knesset elections, the coalition bloc has strengthened by three seats to 50, following People of Israel’s crossing of the electoral threshold. This is according to a Maariv poll conducted by Lazar Research, headed by Dr. Menachem Lazar, in cooperation with Panel4ALL.
However, Likud has lost one seat, falling to just 19, its lowest figure since May 29, 2025.
Netanyahu has faced a tumultuous term since returning to power in December 2022 at the helm of the most right-wing coalition in Israeli history. He faced mass anti-government protests before the wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
Polls have repeatedly indicated that his coalition would fail to win a majority at the next election. A poll published by the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute think tank on June 9 said that 61% of the Israeli public believe he should not run.
The Joint List would become the third largest faction in the Knesset if elections were held today, according to the results of a poll broadcast last night (Monday, May 25) on Channel 13 News. According to the poll, the Joint List would win 16 seats, while Likud drops to 23 seats and “Beyachad” falls to 21 seats. In this scenario, Netanyahu’s extremist right-wing bloc drops to 53 seats, while the Zionist opposition bloc falls to 51 seats. To form an alternative government, the opposition parties would need the Joint List to secure a majority of 67 Knesset members.
(October 16, 2024)
“A year after the pogroms (of October 7), we will stand together — Likud members, regional [Likud] branch chairs, MKs and ministers — to jointly declare that ‘Gaza is ours. Forever,‘” a poster advertising the October 21 event read.
“Victory is settlement. It is doable” added a message on a Gaza settlement WhatsApp channel where it announced the participation of nearly one-third of the Likud faction Knesset members
The Israeli Likud Party Knesset Member Revital Gotliv requested the death sentence or life imprisonment for Yuli Novak, the executive director of the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, for what she labeled as “the suspected serious crime of assistance to the enemy in war,” the Anadolu news agency reported.
Gotliv reportedly made her request in a letter addressed to the Israeli Chief Police Commissioner Daniel Levy, in which she demanded the detention and interrogation of Novak.
The move followed a speech delivered by Novak on September 4 at the United Nations Security Council.
(today)
And therefore, as was the case when he insisted on continuing to run the country while in the midst of a corruption trial, and as was the case when he pressed on with his assault on Israeli democracy and briefly fired that defense minister, so too, now, it falls to a potential few good men and women within his own coalition base to tell him that his presence is harming Israel, that his policies empowered and emboldened Hamas, and that far from being uniquely capable of ensuring Israel has the practical and diplomatic room to destroy Hamas, he is almost uniquely incapable of doing so.
(09.04.2024)
Israel must destroy Hamas as a military and political force in the territory while minimizing harm to civilians. It must do what it can to rescue its hostages without jeopardizing the overriding goal of destroying Hamas. It must, by diplomacy or force, push Hezbollah back from Lebanon’s southern border, so that 60,000 Israelis can return safely to their homes in the north. It must take the battle directly, as it did last week in Damascus, to Hamas’s and Hezbollah’s patrons, whether in Syria, Qatar or Iran.
And for all of that to happen effectively, Benjamin Netanyahu must go.
(23.01.2024)
The conference, under the heading “Only settlement will bring security,” is organized by a group of movements that want to resettle Gaza, led by Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan and the Nachala Settlement Movement. It is scheduled for Sunday at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem.
So far, Zohar and Katz, and Likud MKs Hanoch Milwidsky, Nissim Vaturi, Amit Halevi, Tally Gotliv, Etty Hava Atia, Moshe Passal and Ariel Kallner have all said they will attend, according to the report.
Nissim Vaturi, an Israeli lawmaker belonging to the ruling Likud party, has announced he is joining an Israeli group that is planning to create illegal settlements in northern Gaza.
He made the announced on X on Tuesday, accompanied by a picture of a poster which states „only settlement will bring security„.
With the government’s popularity plummeting, a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nevertheless garnered only 18 votes in the Knesset on Monday evening, falling far short of the necessary majority to pass in the 120-strong Knesset plenum.
The vote was boycotted by the coalition, whose heads stated earlier in the day that they would “not take part in political theater during wartime.”
In exchange, Israel has agreed to a ceasefire for at least four days for the first time since the outbreak of the war.
He is the only ultra-Orthodox journalist in the country who considers non-Jews to be human, hence he must be silenced
That sentiment was echoed by Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel, also of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party: “Of course.”
Interior and Health Minister Moshe Arbel of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party took a similar tone. “Yes, unequivocally,” he responded when asked if High Court rulings need to be followed.
Israel‘s Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana warned Supreme Court justices on Wednesday that the parliament „will not acquiesce to its trampling,“ less than a week before the court is set to hear petitions against a key law in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s judicial coup.
“Israel is democratic, and in a democracy, the sovereign is the people. In a democratic state, the justice system respects the sovereign, the people and its elected officials, and this respect is mutual. There is no debate, and there cannot be one, over the question of whether the Knesset has authorized the court to nullify Basic Laws,” he says, arguing that the court possesses no such power.
Gotliv, speaking about a dispute between the Prime Minister’s Office and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir regarding visits allowed for Palestinian security prisoners, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “it’s good to know the IDF and Shin Bet work for terrorists and security prisoners.
“The entire deep state is against Ben-Gvir,” she alleged. “Bravo, Ben-Gvir, on displaying right-wing authority,” the MK wrote after it was reported by media that Ben-Gvir had blocked visits for prisoners, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu releasing a statement denying that was so.
When cabinet ministers, under the leadership and guidance of the prime minister and justice minister, two human demons who have taken over the state, insult and denounce the High Court of Justice merely for hearing petitions (which it could end up rejecting), Israel can no longer be seen as a democratic, liberal state. Nor is it Jewish, because what Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir and Eliyahu and Strock represent is not Judaism. It is messianism, racism and degradation.