Elections 2026 24 hours before Israeli polls open: Eisenkot strives to become largest party, Netanyahu launches last-minute blitz

PELONI:  This report covers an important telling of the last minute strategies between the parties, but I still challenge that the preference to ignore what I see as the likely more accurate polling as reported on Channel 14 will lead to the same post election surprises as was found to be remarkable by one and all in 2022, all but Channel 14 of course whose polling did establish that Bibi would win the election prior to the election.  Time will tell of course.

All Israel News Staff | Published: October 26, 2026

The day before Israel’s Tuesday elections, party campaigns went into overdrive in a last-ditch effort to persuade undecided voters and maximize turnout among their respective bases.

In a Jerusalem Post interview published last week, Channel 13 election pollster Shmuel Rosner argued that last-minute shifts would probably occur among the two major polls, not between them, as most Israelis have long made up their mind about the general direction of the country.

The anchors: Likud and Yashar

This leaves the two largest parties and leaders of their respective blocs, the right-wing Likud and the center-left Yashar, to duke it out in their campaigns.

Although both are projected to miss out on the 61-seat majority, the leader of the largest party will have stronger arguments to be the first to try to form a government, or to lead potential unity or minority governments.

Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party has been engaging in what Israelis call a “largest party campaign” for days now, directly appealing to voters of its ostensibly allied parties in the bloc.

The Democrats leader Yair Golan on Monday criticized this as a “mistake” and “a dangerous lie intended to weaken us. I call on people not to be tempted by the idea of the largest party.”

Nevertheless, Eisenkot repeated the message that “Yashar! must be significantly larger than Likud” in a major rally in the Port of Tel Aviv on Monday. “Netanyahu wants a tie – Israel needs a knockout,” he said.

“Netanyahu is aiming for a tie, a deadlock, and another election. In 90% of cases, the mandate goes to the largest party. If Yashar! is not significantly larger than Likud, Netanyahu will receive the mandate to form a government first,” he warned.

Turning to Likud supporters “and all coalition voters who serve their country and work hard,” Eisenkot appealed: “I know how difficult it is to vote differently, but this time, it is not you who are choosing a different path – it is Likud that has strayed from its path… Israel needs change. Look me in the eye. You can trust me.”

Meanwhile, the Likud has again launched what critics call its “fear campaign,” including Netanyahu’s use of a social media message featuring an AI-generated image of a nuclear explosion over Tel Aviv. The Likud’s messaging has also claimed that Israel’s enemies, including the Palestinian Authority or the Iranian regime, want Netanyahu to lose.

Likud has long specialized in an intense pressure campaign in the final hours of the election, focusing on raising voter turnout.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu is scheduled to cast his own ballot before visiting a slew of major cities, particularly those seen as Likud strongholds, before phoning mayors, campaign headquarters, and local branches to encourage them to get supporters to the polls.

The party has also specialized in mass messaging and targeted video clips or AI-generated posters across online platforms.

According to Rosner, the Likud’s late blitz this time isn’t meant to lift it over the 61-seat hurdle, which it knows is unlikely. However, a Likud rally could prevent the opposition from achieving a viable coalition, granting the prime minister time to work his political magic, or a second attempt in another election in six months.

The populists: Democrats and Jewish Power

The two political extremes in their respective blocs, Yair Golan’s The Democrats and Itamar Ben Gvir’s Jewish Power, emphasized their ideological purity and status as gatekeepers in their final messages.

The Democrats party claims that it is the only one not in danger of being beguiled by Netanyahu’s powers of persuasion and will never join a government led by him, nor have lawmakers who would defect to him.

In recent days, Golan has also seized on Netanyahu’s controversial remark about cryptocurrency to circumvent potential sanctions and combined it with the long-standing accusation that the prime minister is in bed with Qatar. A Democrats billboard asked, “What happened, Bibi? Has Qatar started paying in crypto?”

On the other end of the political spectrum, Ben Gvir is campaigning on the promise of keeping Netanyahu honest: “The State of Israel needs a strong Ben Gvir, and Bibi needs a strong Ben Gvir.”

A strong showing for Jewish Power will make it impossible for Netanyahu to join Eisenkot in a unity government, Ben Gvir is claiming. He has also doubled down on highly controversial statements that provoke an international backlash but endear him to his voter base.

Last week, Ben Gvir published an AI-created video showing him as a genie in a bottle, transporting poor Gazans to France. On Monday, he told The Jerusalem Post that the Gazan population should be sent to France or other countries in Europe.

“If you ask me what should be done in Gaza, we should conquer the entire territory. All of it. It is our land, the Jewish people’s land. And we should encourage emigration,” Ben Gvir said.

The swing parties, Reservists/Economic Party and People of Israel

The two newly created parties that have the best chances to cross the threshold are campaigning desperately, after most recent major polls gave both of them a toss-up chance of making it into the next Knesset.

Yoaz Hendel and Yaron Zelekha, the leaders of the Reservists/Economic Party, have doubled down on their appeal to reserve troops by publishing announcements of support by reservists, first among them the popular singer and actor, Idan Amedi.

Hendel has also used recent footage from the United Torah Judaism rally as ammunition: “Whoever, at his election rally, has people singing ‘We do not believe in the rule of the infidels’ – must not take part in the government of the State of Israel. Only a Zionist government without the ultra-Orthodox and Arab parties will be able to dismantle the autonomous enclaves.”

Ofer Winter, leader of the People of Israel (Amcha Yisrael) party, has resisted enormous political pressure, particularly from the Likud, to drop out of the race. He has portrayed his party as a movement to renew the ideological right wing from within.

On Sunday, Channel 12 aired a recording of Rabbi Eli Sadan, Winter’s spiritual mentor, saying “I hope for Ofer Winter to pass the electoral threshold. Only then will Bibi have a fully right-wing government.” Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich met with Sadan last week to ask him to pressure Winter to drop out.

At the final campaign rally on Sunday, Winter vowed the elections “will see the largest protest vote in Israel’s history! It is in your hands to make history with us. It is in your hands not to surrender to the old, ugly politics. It is in your hands to show and prove – to everyone who tried to hurt us – that their scheme has failed.”

“Tens of millions of shekels have been spent targeting Amcha Yisrael. Not to explain what the existing parties have to offer, but solely to try to crush Amcha Yisrael. Established forces in the political system that don’t want new people entering the arena… it wasn’t us they tried to crush. They tried to crush the hope of the people of Israel.”

The party’s No. 2, Arab-Israeli Yosef Haddad added: “We in Amcha Yisrael have come to lead our country – the Jewish and democratic state – to a safer place. A country that respects the rights of every citizen; a country that defeats every enemy on its way to becoming a Middle Eastern powerhouse; a country that says unequivocally that Judea and Samaria are ours, and that we will not support the establishment of a Palestinian state here.”

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