Israelis cast their ballots at a polling station in Jerusalem, during Election Day in Israel, October 27, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)
It’s Tuesday, October 27, and election day has finally arrived. As some five million Israelis enter the voting booth today and survey their three dozen options, they will be thinking about one thing: October 7.
Polls opened at 7 a.m., but, like so much of contemporary Israel, it began at 6:29 a.m. three years ago. Roughly half the country will cast its ballot on the conviction that such an event must never happen again, and they see the hawkish national camp as the best guarantor. The other half remembers who was in power on October 7 and cannot tolerate them staying in office. Those two approaches have defined the last three years of Israeli public discourse and are likely to continue to define the next four years as well.