Israelis head to the polls tomorrow, Tuesday, October 27, in an election that could leave the nation without a settled government for weeks, with recent polls showing neither of the two leading blocs on track to win a majority in the Knesset.

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From The Times of Israel:

On October 27, Israelis will cast their votes in a process that will determine who is prime minister and who sits in the 120-seat parliament, the Knesset. Since the country’s founding in 1948, there have been 14 prime ministers and 25 parliaments. The process from the ballot box to determining the next premier is complicated.

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Heading into the home stretch of the election, Netanyahu’s bloc of right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties slightly trailed Eisenkot’s bloc, which ranges from right-wing to left-wing and includes parties that are more or less in the center of the ideological spectrum – one that has swung sharply right in the decades following the Second Intifada and Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack.

But polls show neither bloc over 61, so the direction of the next government will likely be determined by a handful of smaller parties that are struggling to pass the 3.25% vote threshold or Arab parties that Zionist parties usually have not been willing to include in governing coalitions. The government led by Naftali Bennett in 2021-2022 included an Arab party in the coalition, but not among its ministers. The Rabin-Peres 1993-1996 governments had the support of Arab parties outside the coalition.

Israelis vote for parties rather than individual candidates, and a party must win at least 3.25% of the vote, the equivalent of four seats, to enter the Knesset. Of the 38 registered parties, recent polls suggest only 11 will clear that bar, with four more hovering near it. That makes every vote a strategic calculation, since ballots cast for a party that falls short effectively count for nothing. Roughly 7.3 million Israelis are eligible to vote, and turnout in the 2022 election topped 70%.

The vote itself is only the beginning. Official results are due by November 4, after which President Isaac Herzog will meet with party leaders and, within seven days, choose the Knesset member he believes is most likely to assemble a coalition. That candidate gets 28 days, plus a possible 14-day extension, to win over enough partners, often by trading ministerial posts and policy commitments. If that effort fails, a second candidate gets 28 days with no extension. Should that also fail and 61 lawmakers cannot agree on an alternative, the Knesset dissolves and Israel faces yet another election. In the meantime, the newly elected Knesset will be sworn in and Netanyahu’s government will continue in a caretaker role.

The source notes that Netanyahu’s long tenure as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister has turned recent campaigns into referendums on him personally, producing alliances across the right and left that once would have seemed unlikely.

Let’s pray for Israel as voters head to the polls, that the Lord would raise up leaders who will defend the nation against the enemies sworn to destroy it and who will govern with integrity and courage. Let’s pray for President Herzog as he weighs the recommendations of party leaders, and for every party head entering coalition talks, that bargaining over ministries and personal ambition would not override the security and good of the nation. Let’s pray against a prolonged deadlock that leaves Israel divided and distracted while Hamas and its allies look for weakness. And as Scripture calls us to do, let’s pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Share your prayers for Israel’s election and its next government in the comments.

(Excerpt from The Times of Israel. Photo Credit: Amir Levy/Getty Images)