For years, the standard analysis of Israeli elections has focused almost exclusively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the future of the West Bank, and regional security threats. But as Israel heads into yet another crucial election, the world is missing a major part of the real story. This election is not just about borders or defense; it is a fateful referendum on the internal disintegration of Israeli society. It is the most critical election in our history because we are choosing between the continuation of a cynical political illusion and the very survival of our social fabric.
I do not write this as a detached political scientist or a commentator from an air-conditioned studio in Tel Aviv. I write this as an Ethiopian Israeli woman who made Aliyah from Ethiopia, and as someone who has lived and breathed Israel’s socio-economic fractures every single day. I grew up in the neglected neighborhoods and peripheral towns of this country, where discrimination is not an academic theory but a lived reality. Throughout my professional life, I have worked on the front lines of social advocacy, with at-risk youth, with families trapped in a cycle of systemic poverty, and in communities that the state machinery left behind long ago.
From the streets where I grew up to the welfare and rehabilitation frameworks where I have served, I have watched the gaps widen into chasms. Yet, over the last few years, a terrifying phenomenon has taken hold: the legitimate pain, historic marginalization, and economic suffering of Israel’s periphery have been weaponized. They have been transformed from an urgent social crisis into a cheap marketing campaign designed to secure the survival of one man: Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
To understand why this election is a point of no return, one must understand the toxic political myth that has come to dominate Israeli discourse: the concept of “The Second Israel.” Coined and popularized by pro-Netanyahu pundits, the term historically referred to Mizrahi Jews (of Middle Eastern and North African descent) and those living in the socio-economic periphery. Let me be absolutely clear: I fundamentally reject the “Second Israel” theory and refuse to believe in this dangerous division of our country. It is a fabricated binary designed to fragment us rather than heal us, and it doesn’t serve us. True social justice cannot be achieved by locking citizens into rigid, weaponized boxes.
But under Netanyahu’s long reign, the definition underwent a radical, Orwellian manipulation. Today, actual socio-economic status, geographical location, or ethnic origin no longer matter. The sole litmus test for belonging to “The Second Israel” is whether or not you support Netanyahu. Supporting him automatically crowns you a victim of the elites; opposing him turns you into a “privileged oppressor,” even if you were born in a transit camp in a remote town, lived your whole life in poverty and remain deeply traditional.
Through this populist alchemy, Netanyahu has built a psychological fortress, a “Bibiland,” where social grievances are deliberately preserved rather than solved. It is a brilliant, albeit devastating, political strategy: the deeper the poverty, the more severe the underfunding of schools and hospitals in the periphery, the easier it is to channel the public’s justifiable anger away from the government and toward “internal enemies,” the judiciary, the free press, and the cultural elites. The marginalized have been trapped in a domestic Stockholm syndrome, taught to view the very architect of their economic plight as their sole protector and savior.
The irony is as thick as it is tragic. Why? Because Netanyahu is the ultimate embodiment of the privileged “First Israel.” Raised in an affluent Jerusalem neighborhood, educated at American elite institutions, and a veteran of an elite military unit, he is culturally and economically light-years away from the traditional, working-class base he claims to represent. The greatest tragedy of this manufactured division is that Netanyahu is the one who inflicts economic harm upon the very people categorized as “Second Israel.” While presenting himself as their savior, his leadership has consistently dismantled the systems meant to empower them.
His actions suggest he doesn’t care about the “Second Israel.” A leader can passionately represent the underprivileged without being one of them, provided they implement policies to lift them up. But as Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Netanyahu championed a cold, hyper-capitalist ethos. He slashed social safety nets, privatized essential services, and presided over a country with some of the highest inequality rates in the developed world. The underfunded schools, the overburdened hospitals, and the lack of infrastructure in the periphery are the direct results of his governance. The very people he claims to shield are the ones left to sink further below the surface.
Under his watch, the at-risk youth, the families unable to break the cycle of poverty, have seen their realities worsen. The socio-economic gaps have widened, and the periphery has been left to sink further below the surface.
Even his credentials as the ultimate guardian of Israel’s conservative right-wing ideology are an illusion. Over his career, Netanyahu has repeatedly bucked conservative doctrine, freezing West Bank settlements, releasing thousands of terrorists in disproportionate swaps, and showing willingness for far-reaching territorial concessions in past negotiations. By turning him into a messiah-like person, his supporters have made him immune to any kind of critique.
This upcoming election is the most consequential in Israel’s history because we are running out of time. We cannot afford another term where our social fractures are treated as electoral assets. The socio-economic neglect of our periphery is no longer just a minor domestic issue; it is a strategic threat to the stability of the nation. A society cannot hold together when its leadership deliberately feeds on its internal wounds.
When Israelis go to the polls in October, the true choice will not be between the right or left, nor will it only be about national security. The choice will be whether we allow our historic social pain to be permanently hijacked for the legal and political survival of a leader, or whether we finally dismantle “Bibiland” and begin the grueling and necessary work of rebuilding our fractured society. For those of us who see the reality on the ground every day, the stakes couldn’t be higher. It is a vote to decide if Israel will remain an illusion, or if it will finally become a home for all of us.
Roni Fantanesh Malkai is an activist, media personality, former spokeswoman of the Ministry of Welfare and Social Work, and the author of Bibiland: How Benjamin Netanyahu Transformed Israel in His Own Image (Hebrew, Steimatzky Publishing, 2025) and We Are Black Jews: Ethiopian Jews and the Journey for Equality in Israel (Gefen Publishing, 2024).
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.