Why Does the NY Times Pretend There’s an Israeli Opposition?

In a recent article in the New York Times, the self-styled paper of record waxed poetically about a putative split in Israeli society: 

The Oct. 7 attack brought the apotheosis of a long-brewing struggle between two Israels. […] 

The first, a growing Messianic religious movement, now a decisive presence in the government … The second Israel, secular, liberal and committed to safeguarding the nation’s democracy.

This is a false juxtaposition, implying an Israel that is equally divided between left and right, akin to the schism in American politics. Would that it were. 

But it is a useful fable for liberal Zionists unwilling to honestly reckon with the transformed nature of Israeli society in the nearly two decades since Netanyahu returned to power. By pretending that Israel retains an opposition, liberal Zionists came to claim that Israel’s problems are mainly a Netanyahu problem and that the country is just one election away from returning to the peace process. This is a fantasy of Israel and not an actual record of the current state of affairs. 

The Times columnist, M. Gessen, actually got it right when they related the views of Israeli liberal Michael Sfard: 

Sfard has come to consider himself a dissident rather than a member of the opposition: There is no political party that represents his views, and it has grown increasingly difficult to pursue justice through the Israeli court system.

When there is no mobilized opposition to be a part of, one is a dissident, a noble position, but one that reflects being greatly out of touch with the mainstream of the society one lives in, for good or ill. 

The Times, however, is otherwise peddling a comforting fiction to its readers, which — internationally or not — hides the reality of Israel as a revisionist power hell-bent on regional dominion, the interminable displacement and subjugation of Palestinians, and irredentist goals. The failure to see things clearly serves a political purpose: It undermines criticism and attempts at accountability by acting as if Israel is capable of internal self-correction, without the need for international pressure. 

The Israeli right is the majority

The Israeli right-wing absolutely dominates Israeli politics, and most Israelis hold right-wing views. Too often, American views of Israeli Jews are through the lens of the broadly liberal American Jewish community. But the two communities are very different. 

A Pew survey of over 5,600 Israeli adults (2014-2015) found that, “Most Israeli Jews describe their ideology as in the center (55%) or on the right (37%) within the Israeli political spectrum. Just 8% of Israeli Jews say they lean left.”

In contrast, amongst American Jews, self-identification is the polar opposite: “liberal (49%) or moderate (29%) on the American political spectrum, while about one-in-five (19%) say they are politically conservative.” 

But a centrist in Israel still holds very far-right positions in relation to the Palestinians. The same survey found substantial support for ethnic cleansing of Palestinians: “almost half of the Israeli-Jewish public (48%) favors the removal, whether by expulsion or ‘transfer.’” Moreover, nearly 80% of Israeli Jews believe that Jewish citizens should have preferential treatment over Arab citizens.

Whatever differences Israelis may have on, say, audible female prayer at the Western Wall (Pew showed nearly half oppose it), they are united in maintaining Jewish dominion over the stateless Palestinians. On this issue at least, as a Tel Aviv University professor once remarked, “Israel is one of the few countries where the Right is larger than the center and Left combined.”

Israeli public opinion has only shifted even more to the right since the 2015 Pew survey. When asked in 2025 — “In your opinion, do the Palestinian people have or not have the right to their own state?” — 72% of Israelis said no, and only 18.5% said yes. Nowhere is the majority consensus in support of far-right policies more evident than the broad support for genocide in Gaza, including the fact that 68% of Israelis opposed “the transfer of humanitarian aid to Gaza residents.” Additionally, “seven out of ten Israelis support the idea that ‘Arabs from Gaza should relocate to another country [i.e. ethnic cleansing].”

The clear preference for the right is evident in Israeli election results. Israel is a parliamentary democracy, so parties must form coalitions to govern (at least 61 seats in the 120-seat Knesset). The Israeli right has the deck stacked in its favor since it can more easily form coalitions due to its numerous representatives. Even if, against the odds, an Israeli liberal party wins a plurality of seats, it would find itself hard-pressed to form a stable government given the lack of natural partners: The Israeli right would still, collectively, dominate the legislature. 

Consider that in the most recent Israeli election, 2022, the right-wing Likud party, helmed by Prime Minister Netanyahu, took 32 seats. The second largest party, Yesh Atid, with 24 seats, is centrist on a good day, but leans right on Palestine. The third largest party is the far-right RZP–Otzma, led by Bezalel Smotrich, a notorious fascist, with 14 seats. 

The ultra-Orthodox parties (which have aligned with the right for domestic purposes, but are not inherently hostile to a two-state solution), Shas and United Torah Judaism, hold 11 and 7 seats, respectively. The right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu holds 6 seats.

The utterly ineffectual Benny Gantz-led National Unity party, which is nominally part of the opposition but supports annexing the occupied Jordan Valley in the West Bank, holds 12 seats. Yisrael Beiteinu is also part of the opposition, but their disagreement is over Netanyahu’s corruption charges and otherwise ideological. In fact, Yisrael Beiteinu previously joined Netanyahu-led governments, and its leader is the prime minister’s former chief of staff.

The reality of Netanyahu’s corruption trial has split the Israeli right, preventing otherwise natural partners from teaming up. But this should not be mistaken for any opposition to policies as they relate to Palestinians. This is akin to former Congresswoman Liz Cheney opposing Donald Trump. She was no less of a conservative. 

The two Arab parties hold a combined 10 seats, and the erstwhile legendary Labor party, the only left-of-center Jewish party, has only 4 seats. Labor ruled Israel for the first 30 years of the country’s existence, but as the nation has shifted right, the party has become marginal. Meretz, a Jewish leftist party that used to be part of Labor-led governments, did not even get enough votes to cross that roughly 3% threshold for Knesset seats. 

This Israeli election had a more than 70% turnout, and the verdict is clear: The Israeli public votes right-wing. 

Likud and its partners got 64 seats (out of 120). But the right-wing vote is also represented by Yisrael Beiteinu’s 6 seats. Pro-annexation National Unity has 12 seats. 

One should not mistake the fault line over Netanyahu as reflective of any big division over the future of peace. Parties like National Unity and Yesh Atid refuse to articulate any peace proposals, and often adopt nationalist talking points, as they have rightly read the room and recognize that a liberal approach to the Palestinians does not play well with the electorate.

In Israel, when it comes to Palestinian human rights, the opposition is not an opposition. So the Times should stop pretending that the Israeli public is divided on this issue. The right wing has consolidated power.