Story perspectives

Opposition delays prime-minister candidate selection ahead of Oct. 27 election

By Drooid · Oct 14, 2026, 6:13 PM UTC · How we work

Center

Yashar leads polls

Ahead of Israel’s Oct 27 election, opposition leaders met at Yair Lapid’s home and postponed picking a prime-minister candidate.
Yashar launched a campaign to overtake Likud and become party, polling below majority and drawing 54 % for a debate between Benjamin Netanyahu and Gadi Eisenkot.
Likud urged parties to withdraw, opposition signing a document pledging to replace government.
Oct 11-12 Maariv, Channel 13 and KAN polls showed Yashar leading Likud, both under 61 seats.

Left

Likud pressure tactics

Opposition leaders met at Yair Lapid’s Tel Aviv home and agreed to postpone selecting a prime-minister candidate two weeks before Israel’s Oct 27 election.
The postponement was framed as a shield against Likud’s aggressive defections-prevention campaign targeting vulnerable lawmakers.
Likud formed a team to pressure Yashar! party members, conducting background checks on Eisenkot candidates.
Kan poll shows Eisenkot’s bloc at 50 seats, Likud at 53, and pledges deemed symbolic.

Blindspot

Likud assembled a team of lawmakers and advisers to pressure Yashar! party members into defecting after the election, conducting detailed background checks on each Eisenkot candidate and asking them to sign symbolic non-defection pledges.
Within this story's sources, this angle appears mainly in Left-leaning coverage and receives less attention in Center-leaning coverage.

History

Historical Context

In the 1996 election, Netanyahu won the premiership despite Likud’s alliance holding only 32 of 120 Knesset seats—just two fewer than Labor’s 34—by securing a direct vote victory. That narrow win forced him into a coalition with ultra-Orthodox parties, illustrating how Israel’s proportional system lets small factions shape government, a pattern echoed in today’s opposition gatherings at Yair Lapid’s home.

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Yashar leads polls

Ahead of Israel’s Oct 27 election, opposition leaders met at Yair Lapid’s home and postponed picking a prime-minister candidate.
Yashar launched a campaign to overtake Likud and become party, polling below majority and drawing 54 % for a debate between Benjamin Netanyahu and Gadi Eisenkot.
Likud urged parties to withdraw, opposition signing a document pledging to replace government.
Oct 11-12 Maariv, Channel 13 and KAN polls showed Yashar leading Likud, both under 61 seats.

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