All the Candidates Running in Israel’s September Do-over Election
Since the election in April, which saw parties like the Joint List and Habayit Hayehudi break down into factions, the September 17 repeat election seems to be having the opposite effect. Like-minded parties are forging alliances and merging with ideological allies, on the right and left alike.
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While most of the parties' lists have remained mostly the same between the two elections, there have been some notable surprises: Ehud Barak's return to politics and merger with Meretz and Labor's Stav Shaffir, Labor's union with the center-right Gesher party and Kahanist Otzma Yehudit deciding to run alone, among others.
LIKUD, HEADED BY PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU
Likud champions tough security policies when it comes to Iran, Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Many of its members oppose the creation of a Palestinian state. Benjamin Netanyahu, in a last-minute election promise, said he would annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins another term. Likud has rallied around Netanyahu, who is facing possible indictment in three corruption cases in which he has denied any wrongdoing. The party absorbed Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon's socio-economically-minded Kulanu party.
1 Benjamin Netanyahu
2 Yuli Edelstein
3 Yisrael Katz
4 Gilad Erdan
5 Moshe Kahlon
6 Gideon Sa'ar
7 Miri Regev
8 Yariv Levin
9 Yoav Gallant
10 Nir Barkat
11 Gila Gamliel
12 Avi Dichter
13 Zeev Elkin
14 Haim Katz
15 Eli Cohen
16 Tzachi Hanegbi
17 Ofir Akunis
18 Yuval Steinitz
19 Tzipi Hotovely
20 David Amsalem
21 Amir Ohana
22 Ofir Katz
23 Eti Atiya
24 Yoav Kish
25 David Bitan
26 Keren Barak
27 Shlomo Karhi
28 Miki Zohar
29 Ifat Shasha-Biton
30 Sharren Haskel
31 Michal Shir
32 Kathy Sheetrit
33 Patin Mula
34 May Golan
35 Tali Ploskov
36 Uzi Dayan
37 Ariel Kallner
38 Osnat Mark
39 Amit Halevy
40 Nissim Vaturi
41 Shevach Stern
42 Ayoub Kara
43 Moti Yogev
44 Yehuda Glick
45 Nurit Koren
KAHOL LAVAN, HEADED BY BENNY GANTZ
Former military chief Gantz emerged last election as a serious rival to Netanyahu. Gantz, a popular former IDF chief of staff and political newcomer, joined forces with the right-wing Moshe Yaalon, a former defense minister, and center-left former finance minister Yair Lapid to form the centrist Kahol Lavan party. Many predicted that the three-way marriage wouldn’t last past the April election, but the parties are still together, surviving rumblings of dissatisfaction about the rotation arrangement in which Gantz and Lapid would each serve as prime minister for two years. Gantz has called for pursuing peace with the Palestinians while maintaining Israeli security interests. He has signalled he would make territorial concessions toward the Palestinians but has also sidestepped the question of Palestinian statehood.
1 Benny Gantz
2 Yair Lapid
3 Moshe Ya'alon
4 Gabi Ashkenazi
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5 Avi Nissenkorn
6 Meir Cohen
7 Miki Haimovich
8 Ofer Shelah
9 Yoaz Hendel
10 Orna Barbivai
11 Michael Biton
12 Chili Tropper
13 Yael German
14 Zvi Hauser
15 Orit Farkash-Hacohen
16 Karin Elharrar
17 Meirav Cohen
18 Yoel Razvozov
19 Asaf Zamir
20 Izhar Shay
21 Elazar Stern
22 Mickey Levy
23 Omer Yankelevich
24 Pnina Tamano-Shata
25 Gadeer Mreeh
26 Ram Ben Barak
27 Alon Shuster
28 Yoav Segalovitz
29 Ram Shefa
30 Boaz Toporovsky
31 Orly Fruman
32 Eitan Ginzburg
33 Gadi Yevarkan
34 Idan Roll
35 Yorai Lahav Hertzanu
UNITED RIGHT, HEADED BY AYELET SHAKED
The newly formed United Right slate is essentially a restoration of the alliance Ayelet Shaked helped dismantle, with disastrous results, after she and Naftali Bennett broke away to form Hayamin Hehadash last December (Their new party failed to cross the electoral threshold). After a weak showing in the election, the religious parties they left behind — Habayit Hayehudi and Bezalel Smotrich's National Union, realized that the whole of the “right of Netanyahu” camp is greater than the sum of its parts, and have fallen in line behind Shaked — to the astonishment of men who did not believe male Orthodox political leaders could ever bow to the leadership of a secular woman.
1 Ayelet Shaked
2 Rafi Peretz
3 Bezalel Smotrich
4 Naftali Bennett
5 Moti Yogev
6 Ofir Sofer
7 Matan Kahana
8 Idit Salman
9 Roni Sassover
10 Orit Strok
11 Shai Maimon
12 Shuli Moalem-Refaeli
13 Eli Ben-Dahan
14 Yossi Cohen
15 Shirley Pinto
THE JOINT LIST, HEADED BY AYMAN ODEH
After a powerful debut showing in the 2015 election, in which it won an impressive 13 seats, the alliance of four predominantly Arab parties broke into two separate slates for the April race — and the results were bad. Now they're back, with the socialist Jewish-Arab Hadash-Ta'al party and Arab nationalist and Islamist United Arab List-Balad linking up once again. Disheartened and unhappy with the Joint List’s ugly breakup earlier this year, voter turnout in the Arab community dropped dramatically — from 63 percent down to just 50 percent. The slate’s leader, Ayman Odeh, has expressed hope that the move will help “overthrow the right-wing government,” as well as “preventing racism, annexation and the destruction of democracy.” Arab parties have never joined governing coalitions in Israel.
1 Ayman Odeh
2 Mtanes Shehadeh
3 Ahmad Tibi
4 Mansour Abbas
5 Aida Touma-Sliman
6 Walid Taha
7 Ofer Cassif
8 Hiba Yazbek
9 Osama Saadi
10 Yousef Jabareen
11 Said al-Harumi
12 Jaber Asakila
13 Sami Abu Shehadeh
14 Sondos Saleh
15 Iman Khatib
16 Youssef Atauna
YISRAEL BEITEINU, HEADED BY AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN
Yisrael Beiteinu's leader, Moldovan-born Lieberman, played his political cards cleverly when he refused to join Netanyahu’s coalition after April’s election, thus triggering the September ballot. His refusal to budge on drafting the ultra-Orthodox to the IDF was a popular move with right-wing voters, pushing him ahead in the polls. The former defense minister's policies include trading Arab towns in Israel to any future Palestinian state for territory in the West Bank where Jewish settlements have been built. The right-wing party counts on the support of immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
1 Avigdor Lieberman
2 Oded Forer
3 Evgeny Sova
4 Eli Avidar
5 Yulia Malinovsky
6 Hamad Amar
7 Alex Kushnir
8 Mark Ifraimov
9 Limor Magen Telem
10 Elina Bardach-Yalov
11 Shadi Halul
12 Alex Friedman
13 David Davidian
14 Shahar Alon
15 Ilana Kartish
DEMOCRATIC UNION, HEADED BY NITZAN HOROWITZ
This new center-left joint slate is one of the election's surprise alliances. There had been talks of a Labor-Meretz merger, but these rumors were disrupted when former prime minister Ehud Barak thundered back onto the political scene in May. Barak was joined by the left-wing Zionist Meretz party and renegade Labor lawmaker Stav Shaffir, who expected other Labor members to jump ship alongside her (they didn't). Barak, marred by his connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, forfeited a leadership role in the party, placing himself low on the party's slate – some polls project that he may not enter the Knesset at all.
1 Nitzan Horowitz
2 Stav Shaffir
3 Yair Golan
4 Tamar Zandberg
5 Ilan Gilon
6 Esawi Freige
7 Ifat Biton
8 Yael Cohen-Paran
9 Noa Rotman
10 Ehud Barak
11 Gilad Kariv
12 Mossi Raz
13 Michal Rozin
14 Yaya Fink
15 Smadar Shmueli
16 Zeinab Abu Sweid
17 Malka Armon
18 Avi Buskila
19 Gaby Lasky
20 Ali Salalha
UNITED TORAH JUDAISM, HEADED BY DEPUTY HEALTH MINISTER YAAKOV LITZMAN
United Torah Judaism represents ultra-Orthodox Jews, or Haredim, of European origin. Successive coalition governments have had to rely on support from ultra-Orthodox parties, which traditionally put their sectoral demands above larger issues like security and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. UTJ is primarily concerned with safeguarding state benefits for Haredi men who devote themselves to full-time religious study and do not serve in the conscript military or work.
1 Yaakov Litzman
2 Moshe Gafni
3 Meir Porush
4 Uri Maklev
5 Yaakov Tessler
6 Yakov Asher
7 Israel Eichler
8 Yitzhak Pindrus
9 Eliyahu Hasid
10 Eilyahu Baruchi
SHAS, HEADED BY INTERIOR MINISTER ARYE DERY
Allied with UTJ, Shas (an acronym for Union of Sephardic Torah Observers) has like UTJ been an almost permanent fixture in successive governments and represents Haredi Jews of Middle Eastern origin. Its chairman Arye Deri, has previously served two years in prison for bribery.
1 Arye Dery
2 Yitzhak Cohen
3 Meshulam Nahari
4 Yaakov Margi
5 Yoav Ben-Tzur
6 Michael Malkieli
7 Moshe Arbel
8 Yinon Azoulay
9 Moshe Abutbul
10 Oriel Bosso
LABOR-GESHER, HEADED BY AMIR PERETZ
After Labor's weak performance in the previous election, the historic social-democratic party ousted leader Avi Gabbay and reinstated former leader Amir Peretz. This has not significantly helped the party's downward slope in popularity, nor did its refusal to join in an alliance with Meretz or Ehud Barak's party. Peretz's link-up with Orli Levi-Abekasis' center-right Gesher party, which failed to cross the electoral threshold in April also marred its chances, as did the exit of two of the party's most influential members: Stav Shaffir, who left for the new Democratic Union party, and Shelly Yacimovich, who is taking a break from politics.
1 Amir Peretz
2 Orli Levi-Abekasis
3 Itzik Shmuli
4 Meirav Michaeli
5 Omer Bar Lev
6 Revital Swid
7 Haggai Reznik
8 Eran Hermoni
9 Saad Saleh
10 Carmen Elmakayes-Amos
OTZMA YEHUDIT, HEADED BY ITAMAR BEN-GVIR
The extreme-right Kahanist party ran in the last election at the behest of Netanyahu as part of the Union of Right-Wing Parties, led by Ben-Gvir after its leader, Michael Ben Ari was barred from running by the Supreme Court due to his history of racist, anti-Arab statements. The party, which was widely denounced within Israel and by Jewish leaders internationally, Otzma Yehudit, which means "Jewish Strength," is the spiritual successor of parties that had been previously banned from Knesset due to racism and incitement. It was expected to run with the nationalist ultra-Orthodox Noam party, which is campaigning on an anti-LGBT platform, but the parties ultimately decided they would run separately.
1 Itamar Ben-Gvir
2 Baruch Marzel
3 Adva Biton
4 Yitzhak Wasserlauf
5 Benzi Gopstein
ZEHUT, HEADED BY MOSHE FEIGLIN
The far-right, quasi-libertarian party was initially branded as the last election's dark horse and likely kingmaker before failing to pass the electoral threshold. The pro-marijuana, pro-annexation, free-market party aspires to build the Third Temple and turn the IDF into a volunteer force.
1 Moshe Feiglin
2 Gilad Alper
3 Ronit Dror
4 Arkady Mutar