israeli elections policy lab sept2026

With Israelis heading to the polls next month, international attention has mainly focused on whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right coalition can cling to power. Meanwhile, liberal Zionists have cast Israel’s opposition candidates as a more “moderate” alternative to Netanyahu’s government. Yet across the Israeli political spectrum, a broad consensus persists around maintaining the apartheid system, entrenching the occupation, and sustaining the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.

What do the upcoming elections reveal about Israel’s political trajectory? Is there any meaningful alternative to the far right, or has Israel’s political mainstream converged around increasingly violent forms of Jewish supremacy? And what are the implications of this right-wing consolidation for Palestinians?

In this Policy Lab, Al-Shabaka analyst Amjad Iraqi joins host Tariq Kenney-Shawa to examine Israel’s electoral landscape, the limits of its so-called opposition camp, and what the election means for the future of the Palestinian struggle.

Amjad Iraqi is a senior Israel/Palestine analyst at the International Crisis Group. He was previously a senior editor at +972 Magazine, an associate fellow with Chatham House’s MENA Programme, and an advocacy coordinator at Adalah. Among other outlets, he has written for the London Review of Books, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, and The Guardian, and has appeared on various podcasts including “The Ezra Klein Show”. Amjad has an MA in Public Policy from King’s College London, and an Hon. BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Toronto.
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