In Israel, the Election Comes Down to Who Serves and What Life Costs

Israelis are voting for the first time since Hamas attacked in the fall of 2023, and the fighting that came afterward in Gaza and on other fronts. Turnout is expected to top 70% of voting age Israelis, with some flying home to cast ballots in a race polls show as very close.

From abroad, the campaign can look like a referendum on Gaza. At a voting site just outside Tel Aviv, the conversation sounds closer to home.

One question is who serves. Voters are debating whether Orthodox Jews, a religious minority whose men have long avoided conscription, should join the military. After three years of war, that question is about fairness as much as security, about who bears the risk when families have lost sons, brothers, and nephews.

The other question is what life costs. A young man voting for the first time said he wants less war and action on the cost of living crisis. His grandfather, standing with him, said he wants change.

That pair backs Gadi Eisenkot, the main challenger to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest serving prime minister. Eisenkot is a former head of the armed forces who sat in Netanyahu's war cabinet, and who lost a son and two nephews fighting in Gaza. He now leads a center right opposition pledging a shift toward talks, moderation, and an end to Israel's growing isolation. The grandfather called him a straight and honest man.

Netanyahu is still making a security case. He posted an AI generated image of a nuclear blast above Israel's biggest city to warn about what he described as danger from Tehran's nuclear program. One voter at the polling station called the image sick, and said Netanyahu was trying to win by scaring Israelis. Others say Netanyahu should be voted out over the security failures that allowed October 7 to happen, failures they say he has refused to fully investigate, and because they are tired of the wars he has championed. His supporter Itamar Ariel answers that, problems aside, nobody can replace Netanyahu on security.

The count will give a clearer picture of seats in Parliament by Wednesday morning, but the next prime minister will emerge later, from days or weeks of coalition bargaining. That is where the home front issues will matter most, because any coalition will have to answer who serves, and how ordinary families afford life after war.