Israel's 2026 vote faces a label problem

Every election in Israel history has been called the most important one.

Danny Kushmaro, a political commentator, introduces his nightly segment by calling the upcoming vote the most fateful in the country's history. He is not the only voice using this description. The phrase "Israel's most important elections" has become a common refrain in the current campaign.

Kohelet, a political analyst, advises against romanticizing past periods or assuming the current contest is uniquely critical. He notes that every vote feels decisive to those involved. However, he argues that perspective is needed to avoid an unwise assumption.

The labeling of this election as historically unique changes how political battles are fought. It transforms the competition between pro-Netanyahu and anti-Netanyahu blocs into an existential matter. When defeat is framed as a national crisis, it becomes harder to view as a simple setback that can be corrected in the next cycle. Instead, the loss sounds like an event the country cannot survive.

This dynamic makes it more difficult for the losing side to accept the outcome. Since Naftali Bennett formed his government in 2021, Israel has struggled with whether the losing side will grant the winner a chance to govern. Before Bennett was sworn in, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branded the government's formation as the greatest election fraud. He referred to broken campaign promises rather than stolen ballots, yet the message cast a legitimately formed government as fraudulent.

The opposition worked to bring down Bennett's administration from the start. In the Knesset, the coalition's slim majority made every vote consequential. Opposition members sometimes voted against legislation they supported to weaken the government. In recordings published in May 2022, Likud MK Miri Regev defended voting against measures benefiting soldiers and vulnerable groups because the primary goal was to topple the coalition.

Netanyahu won the 2022 election and formed a hard-right government. Yair Lapid conceded the result and arranged an orderly handover. However, as opposition to the judicial overhaul grew, the language of illegitimacy returned. In April 2023, former Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin told a massive demonstration in Tel Aviv that the government was morally illegitimate due to its composition and actions, despite being elected legally.