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Campaign billboards across Israel warn voters that choosing the opposition could lead to a Palestinian state, a claim Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing allies are using to rally support ahead of the Oct. 27 election.
However, Palestinian statehood is largely absent from the main opposition parties’ platforms. They broadly agree that a political settlement with the Palestinians is currently unattainable, though their positions range from maintaining the status quo while offering some relief to Palestinians to restoring ties with the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Yisrael Beiteinu, led by opposition figure Avigdor Lieberman, has called for the PA to be dissolved. Polls indicate that neither Netanyahu’s bloc nor the opposition can currently reach the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-member Knesset.
Although most opposition leaders say they will not seek support from Arab parties to form a government, Netanyahu and his allies argue they could eventually do so. Arab citizens account for more than 20% of Israel’s population of more than 10 million. If neither bloc forms a government, another election could follow within months, with the current government remaining in a caretaker role.
Yousef Jabareen, head of the Joint List alliance of three Arab parties, said Tuesday that any support for an opposition candidate seeking to form a government would come with conditions. Speaking at a conference organized by the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, he said the alliance could provide a parliamentary “safety net” for a “real and substantive alternative” to Netanyahu’s government.
“We do not give anyone a blank check, and we are in no one’s pocket,” Jabareen said, adding that negotiations would begin if other options for cooperation were exhausted. He said the Joint List’s demands would reflect its position as part of the Palestinian people, and voiced support for a Palestinian state alongside Israel on the 1967 borders.
Netanyahu and his partners presented Jabareen’s remarks as evidence that Palestinian parties would demand statehood in exchange for backing the opposition. Netanyahu wrote Tuesday on X that Gadi Eisenkot and Lieberman’s partner wanted to establish a Palestinian state, and said a vote for Likud was the only way to prevent an opposition government from doing so.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who leads the far-right Religious Zionism party, also accused Jabareen of seeking to establish what he called a “terrorist state” in Israel’s heartland.
Eisenkot, leader of the opposition Yashar party, has rejected the two-state formula. In an interview with Israel’s Channel 7 podcast on Sunday, he said “the principle of two states for two peoples is a mistake.” He also opposed a single binational state, saying that incorporating 2.8 million Palestinians in the West Bank and another 2 million in the Gaza Strip would be a disaster for Israel.
He said he wanted Israel to remain the homeland of the Jewish people with a strong Jewish majority. Eisenkot also rejected Lieberman’s proposal to dissolve the PA, establish an Israeli-Jordanian confederation across roughly half of the occupied West Bank and annex the rest to Israel. He said security responsibility should remain with the Israeli army, while a Palestinian police force could handle civilian affairs.
On Gaza, Eisenkot said Israel should dismantle Hamas’ military and governing capabilities, establish a different governing authority in the enclave and pursue a long-term process to prevent a repeat of the Oct. 7, 2023 events. He criticized Netanyahu’s government over Iran, Gaza and Lebanon, but said he would be bound by any agreement it reached with Washington and would insist on its implementation.
Eisenkot also set out four principles as conditions for joining a government he leads, including recognition of Israel as “a Jewish, democratic and liberal state,” mandatory military, national or civilian service for all citizens, and support for dismantling Hamas’ military and governing capabilities. He said Arab parties did not accept those principles and ruled out both Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas and the Joint List as coalition partners on that basis.
Rejecting claims that he is a left-wing politician who supports evacuating settlements and establishing a Palestinian state, Eisenkot called himself an Israeli patriot. He said he supported Jewish settlement if it aligned with Israel’s national interests and complied with the law.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967. Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian territory are considered illegal under international law.
