Israel’s election: A case for continuity
Israelis will decide their country’s future, but the outcome will resonate deeply with Australian Jews.
Israel’s election is for Israelis to decide but has profound consequences for Australian Jews.
October 7, the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, will shadow the Netanyahu government. Yet any assessment must also recognise the strategic transformation that followed. While October 7 could have happened under any government, no leader could have handled the aftermath with Netanyahu’s combination of experience, resolve and international relationships.
Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s network have been devastated. Sinwar, Nasrallah and Khamenei are gone. Gaza has not fired a rocket in over a year. The successful pager operation has Lebanon now discussing Hezbollah’s disarmament and possible peace. Assad’s fall transformed Syria. Iran’s military and nuclear infrastructure is crippled. Most significantly, every Israeli hostage, living or deceased, has returned.
Netanyahu was laser-focused on Iran and masterfully escalated the confrontation to its source, despite extraordinary international pressure. He defied Biden’s opposition to entering Rafah where Sinwar was hiding and hostages were held. It’s hard to imagine less-experienced leadership withstanding this pressure. Many opposition figures wanted to stop the war at every turn and sign premature ceasefires. Nasrallah and Sinwar would still be alive, and Iran’s nuclear program would be hanging over Israel’s head.
The left blames Netanyahu for October 7, citing his failure to launch pre-emptive war and permission for Qatari aid. That hardly justifies electing opposition parties which advocated even greater appeasement. The opposition’s only viable path requires cooperation with Islamist party Ra’am, a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot. Democrats leader Yair Golan accused Israel of “killing babies as a hobby” and compared developments in Israel to Nazi Germany.
The war is not over. Iran is wounded but not defeated, a jihadist army grows in Syria and Erdogan’s Turkey looms on the horizon. Israel faces surging antisemitism, sanctions, boycotts and further International Criminal Court (ICC) warrants. Diaspora Jews expecting antisemitism to decline after Netanyahu leaves face a rude awakening. Israel’s next leader must confront the wrath of the Europeans, United Nations and the Democrat Party in America.
Not everything is bleak. Despite prolonged war, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has kept the economy pumping. GDP growth is projected at 4 per cent in 2026 and 5.5 per cent in 2027. Unemployment is low; inflation within target. Smotrich also led a revolution in Judea and Samaria, Israel’s heartland, approving tens of thousands of Jewish homes, including the critical E1 area protecting Jerusalem, promised by Israeli leaders since Yitzhak Rabin in 1994. Meanwhile, an unprecedented government campaign has demolished thousands of illegal Arab buildings that threatened security and sovereignty in areas like Jerusalem and the Negev.
The Abraham Accords, signed under Netanyahu, endure despite years of war. Israel is strengthening ties globally from Latin America to the Pacific. Colombia just became the 10th country to open a Jerusalem embassy.
Netanyahu’s relationship with President Trump has delivered recognition of Israel’s capital and its sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Netanyahu has addressed Congress and met with Trump more often than any other foreign leader. With two years remaining in Trump’s term, can a newcomer start from scratch?
The governing bloc is diverse. Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana is Israel’s highest-ranking gay politician ever, serving alongside Orthodox rabbis. Secular Likud voters, Religious Zionists, Ashkenazi and Sephardi Charedim, and Israelis from the periphery coexist in the first government to complete a full term since 1988.
Charedi military service remains a serious national challenge. Few Israelis want the status quo established under Labor to continue but opposition rhetoric describing fellow Jews as parasites verges on antisemitism. Enlistment has been rising. A sensible, practical approach is needed.
For the first time, for Australian Jews, there is another consideration: a government that will confront a hostile Albanese government when it fails our community. Australian aliyah is rising and Labor is planning further hostile sanctions. Through my role at the Australian Jewish Association, I have witnessed this government’s concern for the welfare of Australian Jews. After the Bondi attack, Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli contacted us as he was boarding a flight to Australia. AJA hosted him at Chabad Bondi. From Smotrich’s Party, MK Simcha Rothman planned a solidarity visit before Tony Burke revoked his visa.
Israelis must decide who should navigate the unfinished war and the opportunities ahead. With so much at stake, is now the moment to change experienced hands at the wheel?
Robert Gregory is president of the Australian Jewish Association (AJA). The AJA does not endorse political parties or candidates, in Australia or overseas.