What Will Israel’s Elections Mean for Palestine? |
Israeli election banners on the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 22, 2026. Israel’s upcoming elections will force international donors to re-examine their prior beliefs about Israel-Palestine peacemaking, write Joshua Yaphe and Mohammed Baharoon. (Shutterstock/Poznansun)
What Will Israel’s Elections Mean for Palestine?
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Even if most Israelis and Palestinians have abandoned the basic principles underlying the Oslo Accords, most international donors still cling to a vague and ill-defined notion of a “land for peace” solution.
Sometime this winter, after the US midterms and Israel’s elections, the Trump administration will probably return to its vision of Peace to Prosperity, soliciting donor funds for modernizing the Palestinian economy in the hope that political transformation follows. One of the White House’s objectives will be to shift focus away from the impossible task of transforming Gaza and redirect attention to new possibilities in the West Bank, thereby salvaging the Board of Peace’s image and preserving its mandate.
None of the opposition leaders in the change camp are warm to the idea of peace talks that might lead to Palestinian statehood. Still, they are not as vehemently opposed to the project as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Most importantly, Netanyahu’s challenger Gadi Eisenkot appears to be more amenable to reining in settler violence by reinstating administrative........