There’s a lot of racism, a lot of hatred’: Far right gains predicted as Israel heads to the polls
More than 500,000 Israelis have reached voting age since the last election in 2022, and three-quarters of first-time Jewish voters define themselves as right or centre-right, a recent poll for Channel 12 television found (it did not survey Palestinian citizens of Israel).
“All Israelis, and particularly younger people, have been living in a political environment where not only is the government rightwing but the general terms of debate are really populist and ultra-nationalist. That’s all they know. They’re socialised into it,” Scheindlin said.
“There’s been a real downplaying of anything to do with democracy, universal values or human rights. Those are seen as weak, if they’re discussed at all, possibly as bad as betrayal. And very few politicians talk about peace, concessions, negotiations, Palestinian self-determination, or even Palestinian wellbeing.”
The man leading the field to replace Netanyahu, Gadi Eisenkot, is a former head of the Israeli military who formulated the notorious Dahiya doctrine of using “disproportionate force” to cause damage and destruction.
On The Democrats:
The Democrats, the only remaining political home for Israel’s Zionist left, are led by Golan, a former general and deputy head of Israel’s military who personally rushed to border communities under the Hamas attack on the morning of 7 October to rescue civilians.
No Jewish-led party backed a future Palestinian state and only the Democrats opposed settlement expansion
Golan rejects a two-state solution and is campaigning on a policy platform that would be solidly centrist in much of Europe. Yet even so, Israel’s political shift to the right is so pronounced that the party’s campaigners have been repeatedly attacked – physically and verbally – as a radical fringe.
Last week, rightwing thugs assaulted Democrats volunteers manning a stand at Jerusalem’s historic Mahane Yehuda market, kicking, hitting and spitting at the group and stealing a phone while police stood by and watched.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/18/theres-a-lot-of-racism-a-lot-of-hatred-far-right-gains-predicted-as-israel-heads-to-the-pollsOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
10 replies
So basically, it sounds to me like we have a country so far gone that genocide seems like the right thing to do, and children are growing up indoctrinated to believe this.
The centrist "keep things as they are and don't genocide" party (which doesn't even advocate for a 2 state solution) is viewed as a fringe left wing group, and are attacked frequently with no protection from the state.
Sounds a lot like Nazi Germany and Hitlers Youth to me. Unlike that, it may have a semblance of democracy, but the voter base is so far gone that it pretty much cannot be saved from the inside.
Netanyahu isn't genocidal enough for many Israeli voters.
I say there's about a 60% chance of this post or one of my comments being deleted, as a lot of things covering Zionism and Israel are.
This community is anti genocide and colonization
Yes, though oddly the only posts I have had deleted were around Zionism, so you'd be surprised.
Do you have an alt? I only see one post related to Zionism that was removed for being duplicate
That one I'm still unsure if that claim made sense, as it was for a duplicate across another community and its the first time it has happened to me after years of posting. There was another I had removed for "civility", though I cannot tell which one because deleted posts don't show for me on the app I use.
I'm probably overthinking it though.
There was only far rights in term of maintaining the colonization of Palestine
to add to this, I was reading this article this morning
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/israel-election-will-not-bring-radical-change-to-foreign-policy-by-shlomo-ben-ami-2026-10
https://archive.li/6fR82
It gets overshadowed by the fascism and genocide, but now that I think about it Israel's military-political pipeline should be very concerning all on its own.