ByGIL HOFFMAN

JULY 4, 2026 15:50

A classic African safari features its Big Five wildlife attractions worth capturing on camera, preferably with children beaming in the foreground: the elephant, rhinoceros, lion, leopard, and buffalo.

Trips to Israel bring their own distinctive encounters. Foreign correspondents and diplomats, who usually stay for four to five years, have shared with me that their personal list for the assignment here covers a war, a peace deal, and an election.

The correspondents and diplomats who arrived in 2019 were particularly lucky. They experienced five elections, three wars, Abraham Accords signings with three Muslim nations, and one worldwide pandemic.

Those stationed here now have seen more than enough wars plus an unexpected peace deal with Lebanon last weekend. Yet they have waited patiently to finally witness Israelis head to the ballot box.

No one expected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to endure four years, but in our imperfect parliamentary setup, a coalition's duration often stems from its lack of popularity. If a prime minister performed strongly in surveys, he might call an early vote for a fresh four-year term. Since Oct. 7, the present coalition has relied on poll fears to stay largely united.

Formally, the election has not begun. It starts only when the Knesset recesses on Wednesday night, July 15, or likely the next day after outgoing members hold their final overnight session to pass last bills.

For me, however, the campaign begins once foreign media focus on it, and that shift occurred this past week, for better or worse.

International media coverage of the Israeli election

Israel's Netanyahu confronts election test from hawkish ex-general, Reuters informed readers worldwide, in a headline that signals trouble for coverage ahead.

The leading international multimedia news service has already settled the result: Israelis count as too right-wing, whatever candidate they pick. None of our prime ministerial hopefuls qualifies as acceptable.

If Yashar candidate Gadi Eisenkot counts as hawkish, then Netanyahu becomes snakish, former prime minister Naftali Bennett crocodilish, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir Tyrannosaurus rexish?

No better headline could have emerged for Eisenkot. He needs to attract right-wing and centrist voters who supported current coalition parties last time to reach the 61-mandate blocking majority required.

With that goal, Eisenkot criticized Netanyahu from the right this week after the Lebanon agreement, and he plans to repeat such moves often.

When I forwarded the Reuters headline to a Yashar candidate, the reply came back Wonderful!!! with three exclamation points. Netanyahu's team, holding clips to portray Eisenkot as dovish, reacted differently.

A source close to Netanyahu noted that Reuters is not alone among outlets favoring Eisenkot.

CNN's headline this week proved more precise: Netanyahu's emerging challenger represents his polar opposite, and that may be his appeal.

Prepare for repeated headlines that reduce the race to the tired Shakespearean line To Bibi or not to Bibi.

Foreign media will again overlook the complexity of Israeli voters, who extend far beyond personality contests. They must grasp the national mindset shaped by the varied traumas of Oct. 7.

The contest will center on layered topics such as accountability, revised security approaches, and frustration over unequal national service amid wartime shortages. Recent haredi and anti-haredi demonstrations plus the confrontation with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich by a bereaved father near Gaza offer early signs of tensions that will rise before the October vote.

Even if the election again becomes a referendum on Netanyahu, CNN should avoid citing only two analysts known to oppose the prime minister, Anshel Pfeffer and Nahum Barnea, without including a right-wing or neutral voice.

Echoing Reuters, Pfeffer described Eisenkot as similar to Netanyahu in applying overwhelming force against civilian infrastructure, while Barnea told CNN that Eisenkot is someone people want to hug.

The Christian Science Monitor ran an analysis headlined as another boost for Eisenkot: Gadi Eisenkot, the straight-talking Israeli former general taking on Netanyahu.

Like CNN, the piece quoted two left-leaning analysts: Haaretz's Amos Harel and former Labor Knesset member Ronen Tzur, plus Tal Schneider of The Times of Israel, a colleague I value and choose not to critique.

The observations may hold merit. Schneider termed Eisenkot unpolished and down to earth. Tzur noted Israelis seek a healer, someone who will calm things down, put on a bandage, put on ointment, and lower tones of hatred, rift, and division.

Yet the viewpoint from the opposing side remains absent.

Fortunately, Al Jazeera supplies its own angle in an analysis headlined Could Israel's coming election see an end to Netanyahu's political career?

Following its subsequent genocidal war in Gaza, Israel has faced growing international scrutiny over its actions, sliding into pariah status with some countries and more vocal criticism within the US political establishment, the article states.

It cites political analyst Ori Goldberg, who has charged Israel with carpet bombing Gaza, claiming Netanyahu promised Israelis a morning when they could wake up, look out of their window and never have to see an Arab.

What Netanyahu actually pledged were peace accords with Arab states, which advanced until Hamas's attack on Israeli civilians from Gaza, yet Al Jazeera omitted that detail.

These pieces foreshadow an election in a political thicket that international outlets are set to misread and misreport at a critical moment.

The writer served as the chief political correspondent and analyst of The Jerusalem Post and executive director of HonestReporting and has lectured about Israel in all 50 US states.