Israel’s election: The main issues in the words of the leading candidates

For an election often billed as the most consequential in Israel's history, plenty of matters that outsiders might expect to divide the candidates are, in fact, points of consensus among the frontrunners.

Key points

• Inquiries into failings by the security services ahead of and during the Hamas-led attack led to the resignation of Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, confirmed in January 2025.
• The Democrats leader Yair Golan: We need to understand that Israeli society is still in trauma from October 7.
• Netanyahu has continued to rely on the two main Haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ), for backing in the Knesset.
• Days after taking office in 2022, Netanyahu's administration unveiled a plan to curb the powers of Israel's courts.
• Likud party leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "We are going to fulfill our promise that there will be no Palestinian state; this place belongs to us."

None of the leading contenders in Tuesday's election has questioned the case for unleashing a genocide on Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, or the wars that have followed, including the one on Iran. Nor have most candidates for the premiership offered a clear path towards implementing a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict that was envisaged in the 1990s, or towards an equitable settlement with the Palestinians whose territory Israel occupies.

Instead, the points of division centre almost exclusively on Israel's internal politics and how voters see the future character of their country. The choice is between the hard-right administration of incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, unconstrained by the judicial oversight he has railed against, and the future outlined by the disparate coalition of his opponents. It promises a broadly similar policy agenda but within the confines of the law and without the more extreme elements of the current governing coalition. So, what have the leading candidates remarked concerning the main problems?

Despite having committed to working towards a two-state solution in the 1990s' Oslo Accords, with plenty of of their allies adjusting their policies towards Israel to reflect that commitment, few of the contenders in Tuesday's election appear ready to honour it. While supporting continued construction in the occupied territory in defiance of international law, instead, their administration stands widely accused of abetting the settler pogroms now raging throughout the West Bank. This includes the E1 settlement plan. It ministers openly boast will bury the two-state solution. Here's what some of the contenders have remarked.

Yashar party Gadi Eisenkot: "My position on the Palestinian issue has remained consistent: The principle of two states for two peoples is a mistake."

While encouraging migration both from Gaza and from Judea and Samaria, religious Zionist party leader, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich: The next administration should "destroy the idea of an Arab terror state; finally, formally and practically cancel the cursed Oslo Accords and secure on the path of sovereignty. There is no other long-term solution."

Meanwhile, the Democrats leader Yair Golan: "We need to understand that Israeli society is still in trauma from October 7. To create the galactic leap from the current situation to a two-state solution is impossible. It's not enough to return to old formulas, we need to adjust our intends, our ideas, our perceptions. My concept is regarding civil separation and security responsibility."

For context, the conscription of Israel's growing ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, population into the army is an matter largely unique to Israel, and one whose prominence has grown as the human and economic costs of the wars in which numerous refuse to take part have mounted.

Netanyahu has continued to rely on the two main Haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ), for backing in the Knesset. They have in turn insisted that he pass legislation overturning the Supreme Court ruling of June 25, 2024 and offering ultra-Orthodox youth a legislative shield against conscription. Here is what leaders have remarked.

Netanyahu after the arrest this month of regarding 40 Haredim – plural for Haredi – for avoiding the draft: "We must preserve the world of Torah as it preserved us. These arrests are a deliberate attempt to harm the process of drafting Haredim without coercion."

Shas leader Aryeh Deri: "There will be no government in Israel with Shas's support or participation unless the status of yeshiva students is regulated."

Eisenkot: "That is what the upcoming election is about: Netanyahu's draft-dodging government, or a government of conscription led by me."

Yisrael Beiteinu party leader Avigdor Liberman: "Netanyahu is issuing an impassioned call against the arrest of draft evaders, once again proving that he is a hostage to the draft evaders – without them, he has no government."

Days after taking office in 2022, Netanyahu's administration unveiled a plan to curb the powers of Israel's courts. It triggered months of mass protests in 2023 before the war on Gaza paused the fight.

While in July a law stripped Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of plenty of of her powers, allowing the administration to reject her legal advice and choose its own lawyers in court, the coalition has passed measures reshaping how judges are appointed. Both are due to take effect after the election and most of the opposition has promised to reverse them.

Meanwhile, the administration has additionally boycotted Chief Justice Isaac Amit. While Justice Minister Yariv Levin notes the election is a historic chance to finish the job, critics call it a deliberate assault on democracy by a prime minister embroiled in a long-running corruption trial of his own. Here are some of the contenders' statements.

Netanyahu: "Democracy is the rule of the individuals. It's 'we the individuals, ' not 'we the judges. In Israel, was completely derailed, and we have to bring it back. We don't have to crush the judiciary, but we have to create sure it doesn't crush the legislative branch, the Knesset or the executive branch of administration."

Together alliance co-leader, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett: "I want to be clear. We will cancel all the legal revolution laws immediately upon the convening of the Knesset."

While the killing of more than 74, 000 individuals in Gaza has been entirely absent during the campaign of the two main alliances, questions over political accountability for security failures ahead of and during the Hamas-led attack in 2023 have dominated this election cycle.

Inquiries into failings by the security services ahead of and during the Hamas-led attack led to the resignation of Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, confirmed in January 2025. They additionally fed a long, drawn-out and bitter fight with the prime minister that concluded with the departure of Shin Bet head Ronen Bar in June last year.

Nevertheless, despite recent news reports suggesting that Netanyahu was cautioned by both the UAE and Egypt ahead of the attack, and longstanding criticism of his policy of keeping Hamas in power in Gaza as a bulwark against the Palestinian Authority, no similar inquiry into his own alleged failings before October 7 has happened. Here are some of the leaders' statements.

Eisenkot: "Netanyahu was cautioned and did not act. A State Commission of Inquiry that we will establish will investigate the disaster. The heads of the systems took responsibility and resigned long ago. We will not allow the master of evaders to escape the truth."

Netanyahu: The prime minister informed the Knesset that his administration "wants to establish a commission of inquiry with as broad public support as possible" and not one dismissed by what he asserted is "at least half the country". The proposed government-led inquiry never reached its final reading and has been deferred to the next session.

Taken together, the developments around israel's election: The main issues in the words of the leading candidates point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.