Israeli election unlikely to shift Palestinian policy

Summarised from Al Jazeera's report · Updated 25 Oct, 07:57 · Archive

Israeli voters go to the polls in an election that polls suggest could remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power.

Israeli voters are going to the polls in what many regard as one of the country's most consequential elections. Polls suggest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right and ultra-Orthodox coalition partners will fall short of a parliamentary majority. If the opposition can overcome obstacles to forming a governing coalition, a new government could emerge led by retired Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot, a former Israeli military chief of staff from the centre right.

Analysts are divided on what a change of government would mean for policy. One view holds that a new government could rein in the far right and ease tensions across the region, though it would not end the occupation. Another perspective argues that fundamental change is unlikely, suggesting that regardless of electoral outcomes, Israeli policy toward Palestinians will remain substantially unchanged, with the vast majority of Israeli voters supporting continued restrictions on Palestinian freedom and settlement expansion in the West Bank.

Read the report

• Elections cannot produce change in IsraelPolitical change cannot come from within Israeli society. It can only come from the outside.Al Jazeera · 25 Oct, 06:54
• Who Israel elects matters, and not just for IsraelisA new government would not end the occupation, but it could rein in the far right and ease tensions across the region.Al Jazeera · 25 Oct, 06:41

In this story: Benjamin Netanyahu · Gadi Eisenkot · Israel · Palestinians · West Bank · Gaza

This summary was written by AI from the headlines and standfirsts above, and states as fact only what at least two outlets report. How we use AI · Report a problem