Majority of Israelis Say Iran War Halt Damaged Their Security One Week Before Election

Israelis enter their legislative elections scheduled for October 27 with Iran at the center of the political landscape, amid polls showing that 65 to 70 percent of Israeli Jews believe the halt to the war has not served their country's security interests.

According to the Israeli Democracy Institute, this rejection came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted the ceasefire announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, following the broad Israeli military attack on Iran.

The opposition dominates the electoral scene with harder-line positions against Tehran than Netanyahu's stance. Leading opposition candidate Gadi Eisenkot says the conflict with Iran remains unresolved. While describing regime change in Iran as an unrealistic goal, he and the major Zionist opposition parties pledge to redraw security and foreign policy if they win.

Opposition parties had supported the military attack on Iran when it was launched, but are now using Netanyahu's decision to accept the ceasefire as a weapon against him, describing it as a security failure.

Most parties in the Zionist center do not point to a fundamental disagreement over hostility toward Tehran, but rather competitors are vying to articulate the hardest line in dealing with the Iran file.