EXPLAINER: Israel Elections Briefing July 2026

With elections required by October, Israel faces its most consequential vote in decades.

On the surface, Israel’s general election race looks remarkably stable. With less than four months to go until an election must be held on 27 October, polls show the two big blocs – Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition of right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties and the more ideologically eclectic opposition – both short of a majority in the Knesset – but with the long-serving prime minister’s opponents much closer to the 61-seat finishing line.

Those numbers come as little surprise. Nearly three-quarters of Israelis say they’ve decided who they will vote for in the elections. At the same time, barely one in five (and under half of Netanyahu’s own voters) rate the government’s performance since it took office in December 2022 as good, with 52 percent deeming it “bad”.

But that apparent stasis hides dramatic shifts: Netanyahu’s Likud party is shedding support, while a new centre-left party, Yashar, is emerging as leader of the opposition bloc.