A Look at the Day After

Akiva Lam writes about the true test of Israeli society on the day after the elections on October 27, 2026. He compares the political division that preceded October 7, 2023, to the unity that emerged after the massacre, and warns against a return to mutual defamation habits. Lam calls on politicians not to disqualify each other and to turn the concrete wall of boycotts into a thin fabric partition.

Akiva Lam writes an opinion column about the true test of Israeli society, which he says will not be on election day, October 27, 2026, but on the day after. He compares the deep political division that preceded October 7, 2023, when 'Israel was only concerned with itself and subduing the other half of the people,' to the unity that emerged after the massacre, when 'citizens took the wheel' and mobilized together. Lam describes how the partitions slowly returned to their place through daily erosion, and politicians remembered that their survival depends on division. He warns of an election campaign that polarizes and divides, and tempts a return to the destructive habit of attributing malicious intentions to political rivals. Lam calls on politicians not to disqualify their colleagues outright, and to turn the impenetrable concrete wall of boycotts and personal disqualifications into a thin fabric partition that one can argue over but also see through.

A Look at the Day After