38 Parties, Last-Minute Deals and Political Drama: Israel’s 26th Knesset Election Takes Shape

 Israel's political map for the 26th Knesset was formally drawn into sharper focus late Tuesday night, as the deadline for submitting candidate lists expired after two days of political bargaining, last-minute changes and attempts to secure every possible vote.

A total of 38 candidate lists were submitted to the Central Elections Committee ahead of the October 27 election. The submissions were overseen by the committee's chairman, Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg.

The final lists, however, are not yet formally approved. The Central Elections Committee stressed that submitting a list does not constitute authorization to participate in the election. The lists, party names, descriptions and requested ballot letters will now undergo a legal review.

The two-day process offered an unusually revealing snapshot of the Israeli political system: established parties protecting their traditional bases, new movements challenging the political establishment, former allies refusing to unite and several parties fighting until the last hours over candidate placement and ballot symbols.

Netanyahu's right-wing unity strategy partly succeeds

Perhaps the most consequential story behind the filing process was the failure to fully consolidate the right.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had repeatedly urged smaller right-wing parties to unite, warning that fragmentation could cause votes to be wasted below Israel's 3.25% electoral threshold.

His message — "when we unite, we win; when we splinter, we lose" — was aimed particularly at parties competing for the same nationalist and religious electorate.

One important merger did take place: Religious Zionism and Moshe Feiglin's Zehut submitted a joint list headed by Bezalel Smotrich and Feiglin.

But the arrangement is unusual. It is essentially a technical electoral alliance: according to the agreement between the two parties, the joint parliamentary faction is expected to split into two separate parties after the election.

The merger therefore prevents a potentially damaging division of votes before election day while preserving the two parties' separate political identities afterward.

At the same time, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir rejected calls to repeat the previous election's alliance between Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism.

That leaves Netanyahu facing a familiar but potentially dangerous problem: several parties are competing for overlapping right-wing voters, while polls suggest that some of the smaller factions are close to the electoral threshold.

Ofer Winter refuses to merge 

One of the most closely watched decisions was made by retired Brigadier General Ofer Winter, who entered the election under the "Amech Yisrael" banner.

Winter rejected repeated attempts to bring him into a broader right-wing alliance and ultimately submitted his own list.

His decision has generated considerable concern within the Netanyahu camp and sharp criticism from Smotrich, who argued that an independent Winter campaign could result in votes being wasted.

Winter's response was essentially that he did not want to run alongside politicians he holds responsible for the security failures preceding the October 7 Hamas attack.

His party's position has made him an important test of whether voters on the national-religious right are prepared to abandon established political alliances in favor of a new political alternative.

The significance goes beyond Winter himself. If his party crosses the threshold, it could reshape coalition arithmetic. If it falls short, the votes it receives could effectively disappear from the distribution of Knesset seats.

Netanyahu's personal slate of political reinforcements

The Likud arrived relatively late on Tuesday evening, after 8:30 p.m., reflecting the intense maneuvering surrounding the party's final candidate list.

Netanyahu used reserved positions to bring several new figures into the party's slate, including wounded Gaza veteran Elisha Madan, bereaved mother Talik Guiley, Brigadier General (res.) Amir Avivi, lawyer David Peter and journalist and political commentator Yaakov Bardugo, according to Israeli reports.

The prime minister had sought a major political "game changer" for the upper part of the list, with several prominent names reportedly considered before ultimately declining.

The reserved slots generated criticism inside the Likud, with some lawmakers questioning both the process and the political judgment behind several of the choices.

The controversy was compounded by a dispute over the party's internal procedures. Netanyahu had been under pressure to comply with a Likud internal court ruling concerning the reserved positions, but the issue remained contentious as the filing deadline approached.

The final Likud list therefore reflected not only the party's attempt to win the election, but Netanyahu's effort to reshape the parliamentary group around figures he believes can strengthen his campaign.

A dramatic generational change in United Torah Judaism

Few lists underwent a more dramatic transformation than that of United Torah Judaism.

The party submitted its list only shortly before the deadline, with Yaakov Asher at the top.

The most striking development was the disappearance of veteran lawmakers Moshe Gafni and Uri Maklev from the Degel HaTorah component of the list.

The two long-serving politicians had been removed from the party's slate following an internal decision by the movement's rabbinical leadership.

The change was widely linked to frustration over the failure to secure legislation providing broad exemptions from military service for ultra-Orthodox men, as well as an internal struggle over the future direction of the Lithuanian Haredi faction.

The new list combines senior figures such as Asher, Yitzhak Goldknopf, Yitzhak Pindrus and Meir Porush with a substantial number of newer names.

It represents one of the clearest signs of generational change in the Haredi political establishment in years.

Shas: Aryeh Deri retains control

Shas, headed by Aryeh Deri, submitted its list earlier on Tuesday.

The party's slate contains both experienced lawmakers and younger figures, with Yinon Azulay rising sharply to second place.

A significant internal drama surrounded Yoav Ben-Tzur, who retained the fourth position despite reported efforts by Deri to remove him.

According to reporting cited by The Times of Israel, the Shas Council of Torah Sages overruled Deri on the issue, underscoring the continuing importance of the party's rabbinical leadership alongside Deri's political authority.

The final Shas list therefore reflects both continuity and an attempt to inject younger candidates into the party's parliamentary leadership.

The Joint List returns

Another major development was the formal return of the Joint List, bringing together Hadash, Ta'al and Balad.

The alliance had previously fragmented, but the three parties have now reunited for the 2026 election in an attempt to maximize Arab representation in the Knesset.

Yousef Jabareen was placed first, followed by Ahmad Tibi and Balad chairman Sami Abou Shahadeh.

The list underwent a last-minute change when Hadash replaced Jafar Farah with Faten Ghattas in the fourth position.

The renewed alliance could prove strategically important. Recent polling cited by Israeli media has placed the Joint List in the range of roughly seven to nine seats, although the final result will depend heavily on turnout among Arab voters.

Benny Gantz takes another political gamble

Former defense minister and former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz also submitted the Blue and White list — despite the party's continuing difficulty in crossing the electoral threshold in recent polling.

Gantz placed Pnine Tamano-Shata second and former Beit Shemesh mayor Aliza Bloch third.

The decision to run independently leaves Blue and White facing a major electoral test: whether Gantz can revive a political brand that once appeared capable of challenging Netanyahu for power but has since lost much of its electoral strength.

For Gantz, the filing represents both persistence and risk. A failure to cross the threshold could eliminate another centrist option from the Knesset.

Eisenkot enters as one of the central challengers

The filing process also confirmed the emergence of former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot as one of the central figures in the election.

His Yashar party submitted its list during the first day of the process.

Eisenkot's political rise has transformed the campaign. Recent polling has placed Yashar around the same level as, and in some surveys ahead of, Likud.

The former military chief is presenting himself as a broad national alternative rather than simply the leader of another opposition faction. Reuters reported that Netanyahu is facing one of the most serious electoral challenges of his political career, with the right-wing camp divided and Eisenkot gaining ground.

The filing of the lists therefore marks an important transition: the election is no longer primarily about which parties might run. The basic battlefield has now been established.

Ben-Gvir chooses separation — and a bigger political gamble

Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit submitted its own list rather than joining Smotrich's Religious Zionism-Zehut alliance.

The decision gives Ben-Gvir greater independence but also increases the risk of vote fragmentation on the right.

Otzma Yehudit currently has a substantial parliamentary base, and Ben-Gvir has argued that his party is stronger on its own.

Netanyahu, however, has been pressing for maximum consolidation of the right, precisely because the difference between a party winning four seats and falling just below the threshold can affect the entire coalition map.

38 lists, but far fewer likely to enter

The sheer number of lists — 38 in total — does not mean that Israel is facing a 38-party Knesset.

The electoral threshold of 3.25% makes survival difficult for small parties. Several of the lists submitted this week have little or no realistic chance of crossing it according to current polling.

The result is a familiar Israeli phenomenon: a ballot paper crowded with political alternatives, while the actual parliamentary contest remains concentrated among a much smaller number of parties.

The battle over ballot letters has also become a political contest in its own right, with parties seeking recognizable symbols and, in some cases, attempting to secure letters associated with previous political movements.

From filing day to campaign day

The filing of the lists marks the end of one phase of the election and the beginning of another.

During the next stage, the Central Elections Committee will examine the submitted lists, candidate eligibility, party names, descriptions and requested ballot letters. The fact that a party submitted a list does not itself guarantee final approval.

What is already clear, however, is that the October 27 election will be fought on a fragmented political landscape.

The right has failed to achieve full unity. The center remains divided. The Haredi parties are undergoing significant internal change. The Arab parties have rebuilt a broader alliance. And new candidates — most notably Winter — are challenging the established political leadership.

For Netanyahu, the central question is whether the fragmented right can nevertheless assemble a parliamentary majority.

For Eisenkot and the opposition, the challenge is different: whether they can translate the public's apparent appetite for change into a sufficiently broad coalition capable of governing.

With the lists now submitted, the political chessboard is set.

The campaign for Israel's 26th Knesset has officially entered its decisive stage.