Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sometimes referred to as “the magician” for his perennial ability to manifest an electoral victory out of thin air.
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Netanyahu → refer → air
That reputation will be put to the test next month when Israel holds its elections for the Knesset, where the premier’s bloc is jostling with an opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff.
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bloc → put → staff
Netanyahu is plagued by accusations of blame for the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks; opposition to his judicial reforms; unpopular ideological allies within his coalition; and a seemingly never-ending corruption trial.
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Netanyahu → plague → coalition
The smaller parties of his coalition have threatened to go elsewhere, and the U.S. government is publicly distancing itself from Israel.
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government → threaten → Israel
The Oct. 27 ballot box is shaping up to be a referendum on the prime minister, who has been fighting a knockdown, drag-out war to convince the public he is still needed.
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he → shape → public
“The knives are out for Bibi,” Jonathan Schanzer, the executive director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Examiner, using the prime minister’s common nickname.
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Schanzer → tell → nickname
“He is the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history, and there is a sense of frustration that he remains in that role for as long as he has — it’s been essentially two decades.
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it → serve → role
“It’s a tight one for him.
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It → ’ → him
It’s tighter than I think anything that he’s experienced since the 2021 election that unseated him for a year, and I think it’s a reflection of the razor-thin margins.
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it → ’ → margins
Unlike the two-party system of the United States, the Knesset is composed of a wide field of parties representing various factions’ granular interests.
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Knesset → compose → interests
These parties are usually forced to build Frankenstein-esque governments that combine parties totally at odds with one another on key issues.
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that → force → issues
Netanyahu’s old coalition loaded with baggage
Netanyahu is the leader of the Likud party, the most powerful right-wing party that emphasizes nationalism and hawkish defense policy, which struck a deal with a smattering of other right-wing groups to establish their most recent government.
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which → load → government
This included Zionist settler parties such as Jewish Power, led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the Religious Zionist party, led by Bezalel Smotrich.
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This → include → Smotrich
These parties aggressively advocate settler expansion into the West Bank to seize control over the Palestinian territories — a project that is deeply unpopular abroad and politically volatile domestically.
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that → advocate → territories
Smotrich said Friday that he would like to expand the Israeli settlement movement into the north and south of the country in a “settlement revolution.”
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he → say → revolution
“It’s time to bring the revolution in Judea and Samaria to the Galilee and the Negev, in order to save the State of Israel from the next October 7,” the Religious Zionist leader wrote on social media.
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leader → ’ → media
Netanyahu has also previously banked on support from the ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism, which advocate special accommodations for Torah students.
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which → bank → students
Ultra-Orthodox communities, traditionally exempt from the nation’s compulsory military service, have made maintaining that privilege the central issue of their voter base.
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maintaining → make → base
The push to force these religious communities into conscription has become so great, even from within the last government, that Shas and UTJ withdrew their allegiance and stood independent from Netanyahu’s Cabinet.
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Shas → force → Cabinet
Domestic issues such as the policing of settlers in the West Bank and the conscription of ultra-Orthodox are key areas for differentiation between candidates, as foreign policy remains largely a distinction without a difference amid the ongoing demilitarization of Gaza and defense against Iran.
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policy → remain → Iran
Oct. 7 blame game, corruption trials, and cooling US relations
Netanyahu has been dogged by accusations that he is indirectly responsible for the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.
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he → cool → attacks
An opinion poll released this month by the Israel Democracy Institute found that a significant majority of Israeli voters consider the events of Oct. 7 to be “very central or fairly central element in their decision on who to vote for.”
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events → release → who
Schanzer told the Washington Examiner that if the election is a referendum on Netanyahu, it is, on a deeper level, ultimately a referendum on his handling of Oct. 7.
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it → tell → Oct.
“On the one hand, he was the prime minister when the Oct. 7 slaughter took place, and it was arguably the greatest failure in Israeli intelligence and military history, and he was at the helm, and he has not taken responsibility for it in any real way,” Schanzer said.
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Schanzer → take → way
“On the other hand, since that time, he has battled back, and Israel now has the advantage in all seven of the fronts where it had been fighting.
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it → battle → fronts
A report published this month by Haaretz, citing the newly released book Kidnapped: 843 Days of Abandonment by Israeli journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, claims that Yahya Sinwar, then the leader of Hamas, instructed Emirati President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan to warn Netanyahu of an impending attack.
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Sinwar → publish → attack
Bin Zayed allegedly passed this message to the Israeli premier in late September 2023.
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Zayed → pass → September
That report, which Netanyahu denied, was seized by critics as the latest piece of evidence that the Likud-led government’s irresponsibility led to the massacre.
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irresponsibility → deny → massacre
The prime minister and his Likud party then demanded an investigation into Haaretz and the reporter who wrote the piece for “blatant foreign interference in Israel’s elections.
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who → demand → elections
But Netanyahu and his family have also thrown accusations about Oct. 7 at his opponents, which have at times blown up in their faces.
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which → throw → faces
Yair Golan, the chairman of the left-wing Democrats party, announced this month that he has filed a $843,000 defamation lawsuit against Sara Netanyahu after the prime minister’s wife implied that he intentionally withheld information from her husband about the terrorist attacks as they unfolded.
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they → announce → attacks
The prime minister has also been embroiled in a corruption trial since 2020 on charges related to fraud, bribery, and breach of trust — split into three separate cases.
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minister → embroil → cases
Case 1000 alleges that Netanyahu and his family illicitly received copious amounts of luxury goods from businessmen in foreign countries.
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Netanyahu → allege → countries
Case 2000 alleges that the prime minister breached the public trust by discussing a tit-for-tat agreement with media mogul Arnon Mozes in which he would advance media regulations favorable to the publisher in exchange for better coverage.
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he → allege → coverage
Case 4000, similar to Case 2000, alleges Netanyahu offered regulatory favors to telecom titan Shaul Elovitch in exchange for politically advantageous editorial decisions.
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Netanyahu → allege → decisions
The prime minister has dismissed it all as a “witch hunt,” and President Donald Trump defended his ally in 2025 when addressing the corruption trials, joking, “Cigars and champagne, who the hell cares about that?”
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Trump → dismiss → that
But the relationship between Washington and Jerusalem seems to have soured since last year, or at least gotten a little more uncomfortable.
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relationship → seem → year
Public perception of Israel among American voters has plummeted in recent years, with a Pew Research Center study in April reporting a whopping 60% of U.S. adults have an unfavorable view of the country.
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% → plummet → country
Conflicting interests and a perceived asymmetry in commitment have led the Trump administration to rein in the U.S.’s usual uncompromising support for Israel, with Vice President JD Vance clarifying the White House’s thought process this week during a conference organized by the All-In Podcast.
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Vance → perceive → Podcast
“Donald Trump is the one president of the last 40 years who’s been willing to say ‘You know what, yeah, Bibi’s a good partner, but also Bibi and I have a different opinion on this,’ or ‘Bibi’s wrong about this,’ or maybe ‘Bibi’s right about this from the perspective of Israel, but the American people need us to go in a different direction,'” Vance said at the event.
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Vance → say → event
…and 34 more, not listed.
The Aporia
