Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking re-election in Israel, with voters due to go to the polls on October 27. Analysts and supporters alike describe him as the defining figure of modern Israel, and one commentator argues that his most lasting legacy may be the political opposition he has helped create.
The vote comes as Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes in Gaza. Earlier this year, during a speech at the UN General Assembly in September, delegates walked out as he spoke. He responded by telling those who left that they were “moral cowards”, a remark that drew cheers from supporters watching at home.
Supporters see a leader who stands his ground
Mitchell Barak, a former aide to Netanyahu, said in an interview that the prime minister’s willingness to confront critics at the United Nations was exactly what his backers wanted. He argued that many Israelis find it hard to picture anyone else doing the same.
Barak added that, for many in Israel though not all, Netanyahu is the only figure who can truly lead the country. In his view, the prime minister makes them proud to be Jewish.
Israelis face a choice between Netanyahu and a group of rivals. According to the report, those rivals have little in common beyond their firm opposition to Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.
A political career shaped by division and the far right
Netanyahu was born in Tel Aviv in 1949 and spent his early years between Israel and the United States. The report links his outlook to his father, Benzion Netanyahu, a right-wing historian whose views were deeply pessimistic about Jewish existence. It also notes the military legacy of his brother, Yonatan, who was killed in 1976 while leading a raid to rescue hijacked Israeli hostages in Entebbe, Uganda.
Netanyahu held a series of diplomatic and political posts before reaching the top job. He became Israel’s youngest prime minister in 1996, and later served a record 12-year tenure from 2009 to 2021. He returned to power for a sixth term the following year, leading what the report describes as the most far-right government in Israel’s history.
From the start of his career, he faced growing accusations that he had deliberately deepened divisions to serve his political and personal interests. Political analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg described him as the perfect example of Israel’s political polarisation. He said Netanyahu is always in campaign mode and is skilled at building coalitions that reflect public opinion while steering that opinion in his own direction.
Under his leadership, Israel has continued to move to the right and has moved away from the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The report notes that large parts of the electorate have grown used to settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, and have accepted the conflict in Gaza following the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023. Many still blame Netanyahu for what they describe as security failures before that attack.
The report also points to the Nation-State Law, which his coalition passed in July 2018. The law declared the right to national self-determination “unique to the Jewish people”, removed Arabic’s status as an official language and made the development of Jewish settlements a national value. Since then, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), settler attacks in the West Bank rose from 1,291 in 2023 to 1,835 in 2025. OCHA also said at least 1,071 Palestinians, including 233 children, have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since October 7, 2023. A senior UN official described the situation as “virtually no accountability”.
His current coalition includes figures who have drawn strong criticism. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was convicted of incitement to racism and of supporting a group designated as terrorist, while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is openly pro-settlement.
Court battles and a weakening Likud
The report says Netanyahu has repeatedly clashed with the courts. He faces corruption cases dating back to 2019, which could lead to a prison term if he is convicted. In January 2023, he and his right-wing allies pushed to overhaul the judiciary, a move that would have removed much of the courts’ oversight of government action. The proposals drew protests on an unprecedented scale, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets.
Opinion polls show Netanyahu’s Likud party and its allies roughly level with the broad anti-Netanyahu bloc, which is made up of similarly right-wing and militaristic parties. Even so, his support appears to have weakened. Likud won 32 seats in the 2022 election, but the most recent polls project a gain of about 20 to 22 seats. Some former supporters appear to have moved either to the opposition or to harder-line right-wing parties.
The opposition alliance has not yet named an official leader. Former army chief Gadi Eisenkot is widely seen as its most likely candidate for prime minister. Barak said Netanyahu is effectively running unopposed, describing the contest as Netanyahu against a coalition of opponents.
Aida Touma-Sliman, an outgoing parliamentarian from the left-wing Hadash party, said Netanyahu had helped create a system in which Arab MK Sami Abu Shehadeh was barred from running, after he was forced to withdraw over remarks about the Gaza war. She contrasted that with Netanyahu’s own position, saying he is a war criminal who has led his country through a genocide and is not barred.
Analysts debate what Netanyahu’s legacy will be
For his supporters, Flaschenberg said, Netanyahu remains Israel’s only possible leader. For his opponents, he is the devil, corruption personified and responsible for everything that led up to October 7 and everything after it.
Flaschenberg suggested that his ultimate legacy may still be ahead. He recalled that former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher once cited the rightward shift of the opposition as her greatest legacy. Flaschenberg said the main contenders in the current race are all right-wing, militaristic and ultimately racist, and concluded that this is Netanyahu’s legacy.
