Don’t expect Israel’s elections to mean improvements, let alone justice

JVL Introduction

The move to the right – indeed the far right – in Israel is well documented. As this article also highlights, unusually in the world, young people, looking to vote for the first time are more likely to be right wing than their parents. However, it is unclear whether left and right wing have much meaning in this context. For example none of the Jewish Party leaders will entertain the idea of a Palestinian State or accept that Israel has been carrying out a genocide in Gaza or form any agreement with Parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel.  (see, eg  here) Also a key opposition leader, Gadi Eisenkot while critical of Ben Gvir still said that he:  “probably did some good things in the prisons…”

No-one is considering “solving the conflict” and so many, especially young people expect to always be at war.  Of course this is largely about the way “the conflict” is viewed and (not) addressed.  As this article notes that for some time, “There’s been a real downplaying of anything to do with democracy, universal values or human rights. Those are seen as weak, if they’re discussed at all, possibly as bad as betrayal. And very few politicians talk about peace, concessions, negotiations, Palestinian self-determination, or even Palestinian wellbeing.”

This article gives a small glimpse of what is happening on the ground: it makes for sobering if not depressing reading as a change in Prime Minister does not offer hope for any improvements for Palestinians or chances of peace for all.

This article was originally published by The Guardian on Sun 18 Oct 2026. Read the original here.