‘There’s a sense of energy and urgency that this time it really matters, that the very soul of the nation is on the line.’ Published in The Canadian Jewish News.
Campaign posters are plastered across street corners and buses in my neighbourhood. Ads are bombarding my inbox and social media feeds. My cellphone is dinging with text messages and ringing several times a day with pleading robocalls from candidates across the political spectrum. It’s a fight for every vote.
After four long years, an Israeli national election is finally upon us. After a tumultuous term that has fundamentally altered the country, it can’t come soon enough.
It has long since become a cliché to call this election the most consequential in Israeli history. But, at the risk of “crying wolf,” it truly feels like it. It’s all people are talking about. It’s the opening salvo of nearly every conversation. There’s a sense of energy and urgency that this time it really matters, that the very soul of the nation is on the line.
It wasn’t always this way. Before this government took office in late 2022, Israel was enduring an election epidemic. We had had five elections in less than four years. It felt like the campaign was the norm and governing was the exception. Israelis were clamoring for a conclusive result, any result, for a sense of stability.
This was merely the extension of an existing trend. As a journalist, I personally covered 10 Israeli elections over the course of 21 years. For those doing the math, that works out to an average of an election every 2.4 years between 1996 and 2022, placing Israel first (or last, if you will) in such frequency among parliamentary democracies.
With Israelis repeatedly being summoned back to the ballot box, many naturally began to develop malaise. Another election? Not again. Instead of Election Day being a celebration of democracy, it became a tedious chore that offered little hope of renewal, especially since Benjamin Netanyahu usually somehow figured out a way to emerge victorious.
This time is different. Not only is this Israeli Knesset the first to serve out its full four-year term since 1988, but it has been perhaps the most turbulent one ever.
From the judicial overhaul attempt that brought the country to the brink of civil war, through the negligence that led to the calamity of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, to the prolonged wars, hostage crisis, civic division, global isolation and subsequent rise in antisemitism worldwide, it was one unprecedented upheaval after another.
The massacre and everything that followed it has transformed the country in ways we still can’t quite fully comprehend. Israelis buried loved ones, spent months in grueling reserve military duty and lived through extended spates of intense rocket attacks. Families of hostages experienced an ordeal few can even begin to imagine.
While the country has exhibited extraordinary resilience, that should not be mistaken for recovery. Now our moment of reckoning has finally arrived, and this election is part of that recovery.
At such a critical juncture, this election carries a weight that goes well beyond the usual calculations of parties and candidates. Still, one thing is clear: All those responsible for the Oct. 7 catastrophe must be held politically accountable. And that starts at the top.
This is a sentiment permeating across various segments of society. But it’s more than just swapping out personnel. This seems like the type of watershed moment when Israel needs an honest assessment of where it is as a country and where it is going.
Do we want to remain a functioning liberal democracy or creep closer to becoming a rigid rabbinical theocracy?
Do we want to remain a valued member among nations, or slide toward becoming an international pariah?
Most importantly, do we want Israel to be a place our children want to call home, or risk a mass exodus of our best and brightest?
A new government won’t immediately resolve these questions. Far from it. Whoever takes over will have to face formidable security threats, a deeply fractured society, an economy under strain and a world in which hostility toward Israel has become increasingly difficult to separate from the wider resurgence of antisemitism.
But it could be a start toward restoring public trust, confronting the failures that led to Oct. 7, addressing the unequal burden of taxation and military service and trying to repair Israel’s standing in the world. It could also contribute to healing a growing rift with the Jewish diaspora, particularly with a younger generation who have become disillusioned with Israel.
I have spent much of my career reporting on Israel, chronicling both its successes and shortcomings. However, it’s been the experience of living in Israel through these past few years – and publishing a book called Zaidy’s Band about Jewish servicemen in the Second World War, some of whom also played a pivotal role in Israel’s establishment – that has truly reinforced for me the necessity of a Jewish homeland. Indeed, the world has a pesky way of reminding us why we need one.
But necessity alone is not enough. We need not just to survive, but to thrive.
The generation that fought to establish Israel would hardly have imagined that their descendants would be asking whether it remained a place they wanted to live. We owe them not only a debt of gratitude but a pledge to keep the enterprise going.
These are also days of crucial elections in the United States and Canada that could have far-reaching implications for Jews. Still, in Israel, elections feel far more personal. The results truly do impact your daily life and your family’s future.
With so much at stake amid this existential angst, it is easy to get overwhelmed. Hopefully, we’ll have more clarity soon. In the meantime, amid this tense anticipation, all we can do is stay positive, maybe meditate on it, and focus on the one thing within our control – and that is to go out and vote on Tuesday.
Aron Heller is a Canadian/American/Israeli journalist, a former longtime AP correspondent and author of Zaidy’s Band, The Untold Stories of a Jewish Band of Brothers in World War II.You can follow him on X/Twitter, and read a selection of his work at aronheller.com