Israel Votes: Security, Sovereignty and the Search for a New Consensus

AN online panel discussion, 19 October 2026 at 18:00 Bst. More details to follow.

On 27 October 2026, Israelis go to the polls for the first time since the October 7 attacks – closing out the only full Knesset term in nearly four decades. The vote comes at an extraordinary juncture: a Gaza ceasefire that remains only partially implemented, contested questions over Hamas’s disarmament and Israeli withdrawal, the aftermath of the 2026 Iran war, a changed relationship with a post-Assad Syria, and a US administration under Trump pushing its own regional peace framework. The region itself is also realigning – Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan’s new Mecca Joint Defence Agreement signals a shifting balance of power that Israel’s next government will have to navigate. Domestically, Netanyahu faces the most serious challenge to his leadership in years, with new centrist alternatives emerging and the country more polarised than at almost any point in its history.

This panel brings together experts to examine what’s actually at stake on 27 October – for Israeli politics, for the future of Gaza and the wider ceasefire process, and for Israel’s relationships with Washington and its neighbours, old and new. What would a change of government mean in practice? What happens to the peace process regardless of who wins? And how does Israel position itself in a region where new blocs are forming around it?