Bibi or Anti-Bibi: The upcoming elections will boil down to one question - about one man

The upcoming elections in Israel are not about policy, economics, or security, but about identity: Bibi vs. Anti-Bibi. Prof. Moshe Cohen-Eliya argues that emotional polarization and negative partisanship have returned politics to its old structure, and that even the October 7 disaster did not break this pattern. Both camps interpret every event through the prism of Netanyahu, and the center is eroding.

The upcoming elections in Israel are not, in the deep sense, elections about policy, economics, or security. They are elections about identity: Bibi vs. Anti-Bibi. Prof. Moshe Cohen-Eliya, an expert in constitutional law, argues in an opinion piece on Walla! that emotional polarization and negative partisanship have returned politics to its old structure, and that even the October 7 disaster did not break this pattern. According to him, the candidate lists illustrated how quickly we have returned to the old political structure: Erdan and Edelstein dropped out after falling below the electoral threshold, Tropper joined Eisenkot, Winter was required to pledge allegiance to Netanyahu, and Netanyahu crafted a list that sharpens the identity of his camp. Both camps interpret every event through the prism of Netanyahu: in one camp the emphasis is on the security establishment's concept, in the other camp responsibility converges on the person who stood at the head of the state. The center is eroding, because it is impossible to be in the middle of a referendum. The article argues that even a security incident or an economic crisis will not replace the central axis, but will provide additional ammunition for the existing debate.