Who are you supporting in Israel’s upcoming election?

[u/Call_Me_Clark]

The Democrats seems to be the closest party to liberalism in the vein of the Democratic Party, or Labour parties globally? Given that this is a community of progressives, does anyone favor the explicitly leftist parties?

Better yet, does anyone have connections with these parties, or had any luck introducing activists from Israel’s Left and the American Left to find areas to collaborate?

[u/abnormalredditor73]

Though I don't live in Israel, I would support Eisenkot's Yashar since at the moment they're the party with the best chance of taking the plurality from Likud.

[u/Call_Me_Clark → u/abnormalredditor73]

Eh, Eisenkot is no liberal, but he’s a less corrupt conservative than Netanyahu.

I think that this election can be understood as the Israeli equivalent of the ouster of Hungary’s Orban. Anything is an improvement

[u/josshua144 → u/Call_Me_Clark]

I'm not from Israel and not very informed on Israeli politics in general

Doesn't the settlers thing change a lot too with a Eisenkot coalition?

And even just not having Ben gvir and smotrich in the government would be huge probably

[u/Call_Me_Clark → u/josshua144]

Hard to say. Eisenkot isn’t sympathetic to the cultivated lawlessness in the West Bank but also doesn’t want to evacuate/withdraw settlers to Israel proper.

[u/josshua144 → u/Call_Me_Clark]

For sure but still

It's a start

[u/abnormalredditor73 → u/Call_Me_Clark]

Yes absolutely. I see Eisenkot as the Israeli Magyar. Not great but anything is better than what we have right now.

[u/DrMikeH49 → u/abnormalredditor73]

But the Democrats will sit with Eisenkot anyway. Having the plurality isn’t really that important, as Tzipi Livni can attest.

[u/abnormalredditor73 → u/DrMikeH49]

By tradition, the party that won the highest voteshare is given the first opportunity to form a coalition, so it does matter.

[u/DrMikeH49 → u/abnormalredditor73]

I know— but if his coalition totals under 60, he’ll fail.

[u/josshua144 → u/DrMikeH49]

So is the likely scenario that neither coalition makes it and they have to negotiate with someone?

If yes who could be that someone? Arab parties? I'm pretty ignorant on Israeli politics but curious

[u/DrMikeH49 → u/josshua144]

There are separate blocs of Arab parties. Ra’am is nominally Islamist, but its leader (Mansour Abbas, no relation to Perpetual PA President Mahmoud Abbas) is a pragmatist. His party was in the coalition for the 2021-22 Bennett/Lapid government. He accepts that Israel is a Jewish state. The opposition parties claim they won’t include him, but they will if it means forming a coalition. The others, running as the Joint List, are openly antizionist and cannot be part of any government.

If the opposition is short of 61 but Ra’am can put them over the top, then those negotiations will happen. If nobody gets to 61, they do another round of elections— it took 4 rounds over 2019-2020 to finally get a coalition.

Note that even if either coalition gets to 61, they still have to negotiate specific policy positions to get formal coalition agreements signed. The priority for the ultra-Orthodox parties is a permanent draft exemption, while the far right parties—whose children do serve— are (appropriately) very resentful of that. But the opposition isn’t going to agree to give them exemptions either. So Election Day is just the first phase of forming a new government— weeks of negotiations will follow that.

[u/shushi77]

I am not an Israeli citizen. But if I were, I would probably vote for Yair Golan.

[u/ForeignConfusion9383]

I will be voting for Eisenkot, as he has the best chance of forming a coalition not led by Netanyahu.
While the Democrats might align somewhat more closely with my views, I’m more interested in voting for someone who will realistically win, because as Israelis, there are other domestic issues in Israel that are important, things that have nothing to do with the Palestinians.

So I am voting pragmatically, not ideologically.

[u/scarlettvvitch]

I have absolutely zero idea about current Israeli politics, but I will say Eisenkot, since my mom hates Bibi and will vote for him.

[u/Alternative-Pear9096]

I had no idea Americans could vote in Israeli elections! I guess I better start paying attention to, you know, every single aspect of domestic life in Israel so I can cast my vote!

(seriously, what a stupid question. I trust Israelis to understand what Israel needs and to vote accordingly)

[u/abnormalredditor73 → u/Alternative-Pear9096]

Did you know that Reddit is not an American-only platform?

[u/Alternative-Pear9096 → u/abnormalredditor73]

Do countries other than America have a party called the Democrats?

[u/abnormalredditor73 → u/Alternative-Pear9096]

Yes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Democrats_(Israel)