Kushmaro Says 2026 Israeli Vote Is Not a Struggle for National Survival

Israeli voters heading to the polls on Tuesday, October 27, are being told by commentators that the contest decides whether the country survives. Danny Kushmaro, who opens his election segment each night with that framing, argues the language itself creates a problem. He writes that casting the vote as an existential matter turns a contest between the pro-Netanyahu and anti-Netanyahu blocs into something a country cannot lose. Accepting the result then becomes harder for the side that finishes second.

Kushmaro points to a pattern that began after Naftali Bennett formed his government in 2021. Before Bennett was sworn in, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the government's formation "the greatest election fraud," referring to broken campaign promises rather than stolen ballots. Opposition lawmakers then worked to bring the coalition down from its first day in office. In recordings published in May 2022, Likud MK Miri Regev defended voting against measures benefiting soldiers and vulnerable groups because the coalition's defeat was the objective. The government spent its term fighting for survival.

After Netanyahu won in 2022 and formed a hard-right government, the roles reversed. Yair Lapid conceded and arranged an orderly handover. As demonstrations against the judicial overhaul filled the streets, though, the language of illegitimacy returned. At a large Tel Aviv demonstration in April 2023, former Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin said the government had been elected legally but was morally illegitimate because of its "appalling composition and reprehensible actions."

Kushmaro's argument asks voters to treat Tuesday's outcome as a normal transfer of power rather than a verdict on the state itself.

Israel holds its vote on Tuesday, October 27.