The hardline rhetoric of radical right-wing politicians toward Palestinians ahead of Israel’s 27 October elections is raising concerns that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition could fall apart. Jewish Power Party leader and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir advocates imposing harsher conditions on Palestinian prisoners and expanding the death penalty. Ben-Gvir’s post, in which he was shown destroying prisoners’ dreams in an election video created with artificial intelligence, was removed from his X account after 4 million views. Religious Zionism Party leader and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich promises to expand illegal settlements and change the demographics of the Negev and Galilee. Israeli People leader Ofer Winter says that a Palestinian state will not be established and that the solution in Gaza is migration, while Yoseph Haddad disparaged the Arab community. Netanyahu is concerned that radical right-wing parties may fail to cross the 3.25% threshold; his call for a merger was rejected. In polls by Kantar and KAN, the Netanyahu bloc remained in the minority. While 61 seats are needed to secure a majority in the 120-seat Knesset, the governing parties are projected to win 52 seats. Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar Party is leading with 24 lawmakers.
Background
Israel is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: over the past 90 days, we have published 4 reports mentioning it; the latest is dated 31 August 2026.