With Israel's general election set for Oct. 27, the question of whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can extend his long hold on power is coming to a head. [Getty Images]
With Israel's general election set for Oct. 27, the question of whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can extend his long hold on power is coming to a head. [Getty Images]

Israel has set Oct. 27 as the date for its general election, putting the question of whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can extend his grip on power to a decisive test.

According to AFP, the Israeli Knesset voted Sunday to serve out the remainder of its current term through Friday before holding the election on Oct. 27 in accordance with the legally mandated schedule. Netanyahu's coalition government, anchored by the right-wing Likud party, will complete its full four-year term without a separate dissolution vote before heading into the election. It is the first time in decades that Israel has held a general election without dissolving parliament early.

The election will be the first held since the Gaza war and the war with Iran. Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister with a cumulative 19 years in office, has formally declared his bid for reelection and expressed confidence in victory. Israel has long been governed by coalition arrangements, and Netanyahu has recently floated the idea of forming a broad national unity government spanning both the right and left of the political spectrum.

Despite Netanyahu's confidence, the objective landscape is far from favorable. Criticism has spread that Israel gained little from the war with Iran, fueled by analysis that the United States — contrary to Israel's wishes — entered end-of-war negotiations and effectively sidelined Israel in the process. Netanyahu had also delayed his corruption trial on the grounds that he was a wartime leader, but accusations that he failed even to prosecute the war effectively sent his approval rating plummeting. A recent poll by Hebrew University of Jerusalem found that more than 92 percent of respondents believed Iran had won the recent Middle East war. Netanyahu's approval rating fell sharply, from 40.5 percent in early March to 29.4 percent last month.

Hamas's surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023, is also a factor in the accountability narrative surrounding Netanyahu. Critics argue that his failure to protect the country triggered more than three years of war.

A centrist politician and former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Gadi Eisenkot, has recently emerged as the leading candidate to challenge Netanyahu's long hold on power. Local polling shows Eisenkot edging ahead of Netanyahu in suitability for prime minister within the margin of error. The centrist party he founded, Yasar, is also polling at levels comparable to Netanyahu's Likud.

Meanwhile, the election is expected to center on several major issues: mandatory military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews who contribute neither to national defense nor to the economy, judicial reform, Netanyahu's corruption trial, and plans for governing Gaza after the war.


kate01@heraldcorp.com