Israeli voters went to the polls on Tuesday in the first legislative election since October 7, 2023, in a vote widely viewed as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Below are the main parties competing for seats in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. Their number has fallen to 36 after two parties withdrew from the race.
Likud
A right-wing party led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Current Knesset seats: 32 out of 120.
Likud has held power almost continuously since 2009 and combines nationalism with economic liberalism.
According to opinion polls, Netanyahu is the party’s most popular candidate.
Netanyahu, 77, grew up in the United States and is known for his political maneuvering and coalition-building skills. However, several polls have placed Likud slightly behind its main rivals.
Netanyahu faces strong criticism for failing to prevent the October 7 Hamas attack, considered the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.
Since then, he has led major military operations across the region, first in the Gaza Strip, followed by campaigns against Hezbollah and Iran in coordination with the United States.
Yashar
A centrist party led by former military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, who served as a minister without portfolio in Netanyahu’s government from October 2023 to June 2024.
The newly established party holds no seats in the Knesset.
Eisenkot, known for his calm manner and measured speech, has emerged as the main challenger seeking to unseat Netanyahu.
He founded the party in 2025, focusing on Israel’s “Jewish and democratic” identity and on bringing Israelis together after the deep divisions seen during Netanyahu’s tenure.
Eisenkot has surrounded himself with former lawmakers from both the left and right, as well as figures including former Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen and former Netanyahu bureau chief Yoav Horowitz.
Eisenkot has pledged to end the military-service exemption granted to ultra-Orthodox Jews, a policy supported by Netanyahu and opposed by many secular Israelis.
Yahad
A centrist-right alliance led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who served from 2021 to 2022 and is a businessman and the son of American immigrants.
Bennett has joined forces with opposition leader Yair Lapid, who heads the centrist Yesh Atid party, which currently holds 24 Knesset seats.
The two politicians previously worked together to form a government between 2021 and 2022 and decided to contest the election on a joint list, united by their opposition to Netanyahu.
Bennett describes himself as right-wing and was previously associated with the settlement movement in the West Bank. In the current election, however, he presents himself as a secular centrist, while Lapid also identifies as a centrist and secular politician.
The Democrats
A left-wing party led by former deputy military chief of staff Yair Golan.
Current Knesset seats: Four, under the Labor Party banner.
Golan brought together the Labor Party, historically Israel’s leading left-wing party, with Meretz, which failed to cross the electoral threshold for entering the Knesset in 2022.
The Democrats are the only non-Arab party that supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Shas
A religiously conservative party led by former minister Aryeh Deri.
Current Knesset seats: 11.
Founded in 1984, the party represents Sephardic Jews whose origins lie in the Middle East and North Africa.
Shas says it represents the poorer segments of Israeli society and has traditionally been one of Netanyahu’s preferred coalition partners.
The party strongly opposes the military enlistment of ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Otzma Yehudit — Jewish Power
A far-right party led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Current Knesset seats: Six.
Netanyahu brought the far-right party into his government after it had previously been excluded because of its extremist positions.
Ben-Gvir has repeatedly drawn international condemnation over calls for violence. Most recently, he called for the killing of between 30 and 40 Palestinians every night in the Gaza Strip.
The party places security at the top of its agenda and advocates annexing the West Bank.
Under Ben-Gvir’s leadership, the party has pushed for legislation allowing the death penalty to be imposed on Palestinians from the occupied West Bank convicted of deadly attacks classified by Israel as “terrorism.”
Religious Zionism
A far-right party led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Current Knesset seats: Seven.
The party is part of the far-right bloc in Israel’s government and calls for the full annexation of the occupied West Bank to Israel, along with strengthening the state’s Jewish religious character.
Smotrich has used his position as finance minister to promote settlement expansion and withhold tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority.
United Torah Judaism
A religiously conservative party led by Yaakov Asher.
Current Knesset seats: Seven.
The party represents ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi Jews whose origins lie in Europe. It also seeks to prevent the imposition of military service on students at Jewish religious institutions.
Yisrael Beiteinu
Led by former defense, foreign and finance minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Current Knesset seats: Six.
Lieberman, a former Netanyahu bureau chief, founded the secular nationalist party in 1999. It is currently in opposition and advocates separating religion from the state.
The party takes hard-line positions on the Palestinians while maintaining its secular orientation.
Joint List Alliance
A left-wing nationalist alliance comprising three parties: the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash), the Balad party, and the Arab Movement for Change, led by Yousef Jabareen.
Current Knesset seats: Five.
The alliance focuses on defending Israel’s Arab minority and supporting a two-state solution.
United Arab List — Ra’am
An Arab party with a religious orientation linked to the Islamic movement, led by Mansour Abbas.
Current Knesset seats: Five.
Abbas advocates equal rights for Israel’s Arab minority.
Former National Security Council deputy director Yoav Segalovich ranks second on the party’s list and seeks to combat crime in Arab society.
Mansour Abbas calls for equal rights for Israel’s Arab minority, which accounts for around 20% of the population.
Source: AFP
