{"id":208349,"date":"2026-07-15T18:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T18:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/208349\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T18:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T18:26:09","slug":"israels-post-war-elections-demand-a-vision-for-the-countrys-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/208349\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel’s post-war elections demand a vision for the country’s future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over more than a thousand days of war, policy makers and analysts have asked repeatedly: What is the plan for the \u201cday after\u201d \u2013 in Iran, in Lebanon<\/a>, and especially in Gaza? Now, with elections in full swing, it\u2019s time for Israelis to apply that very question to Israel itself.<\/p>\n

On October 27, Israelis will go to the polls in Israel\u2019s first post-war election. Elections are always \u201cfateful,\u201d \u201chistoric,\u201d and \u201cunprecedented.\u201d But this one is pivotal indeed, coming on the heels of Israel\u2019s longest war and several years of acute instability and growing internal divisions over the country\u2019s identity, leadership, and future.<\/p>\n

If Israel is to thrive and prosper for decades to come, its leaders must articulate a bold new vision for the country that encompasses its twin identities as the nation state of the Jewish people and a thriving liberal democracy.<\/p>\n

It may be difficult for some to appreciate, but Israelis are still processing October 7. National security will always be paramount, but there is also a growing understanding that Israel\u2019s security is intimately bound up in the strength of its democracy.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most obvious manifestation of this phenomenon in recent months has been the eruption of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) protests over efforts to draft young haredi men into a badly overstretched IDF<\/a> and the parallel efforts of the current coalition to pass a law that would exempt them from service.<\/p>\n

\"HarediHaredi rabbis speak at mass protest against draft law in Jerusalem, January 6, 2026. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM\/THE JERUSALEM POST)Who will defend Israel in the future?<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that Israel will continue to need a powerful, highly sophisticated army for the foreseeable future. But Israelis should ask themselves: Who will supply the highly trained soldiers needed to protect the country\u2019s borders?<\/p>\n

How can we be sure they will be led into battle, when necessary, by responsible commanders and principled statesmen? What education system will produce the innovators tasked with building the anti-missile defense systems of the future?<\/p>\n

The qualitative edge that has sustained Israel in its conflicts with vastly more numerous enemies has not been territory or natural resources, but people. Talent, ingenuity, and commitment to the national project are the foundational building blocks of the country\u2019s national security.<\/p>\n

This qualitative edge is in danger after years in which leaders perpetually avoided hard decisions and too often prioritized political expediency over the long-term good of the country.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s newly elected leaders will have their work cut out for them. On the external front, they must find creative ways to use the country\u2019s military and economic advantages to solidify Israel\u2019s standing in the region, expanding the Abraham Accords to additional Muslim countries.<\/p>\n

They will need to reimagine Israel\u2019s relationship with its Palestinian neighbors, both in Gaza and the West Bank, and sketch a new vision for secure coexistence rooted in the recognition that the current trajectory is not sustainable. They will also clearly need to develop a comprehensive strategy for winning back America, including its blue and red flanks.<\/p>\n

Internally, among other urgent tasks, Israel\u2019s leaders will need to reform a broken and outmoded electoral system, put in place new budgetary priorities to sustain stability and growth, find ways to combat social media-induced polarization in the age of AI, and radically rebuild the civil service to win back public trust and deliver better services effectively and efficiently.<\/p>\n

Addressing Israel’s unfinished domestic challenges<\/p>\n

Above all else, Israel\u2019s leadership must be laser-focused on correcting two \u201coriginal sins\u201d committed by Israel\u2019s founders in 1948: the failure to pass a constitution and a bill of rights, and the failure to insist on the equality of the country\u2019s ultra-Orthodox population before the law.<\/p>\n

To start with the second issue: since the outbreak of the war, a surprising degree of left-to-right consensus has emerged about policy towards the ultra-Orthodox<\/a> minority. The haredi community, for the most part, has remained indifferent to the price paid by their compatriots in this painfully bloody war.<\/p>\n

Worse, haredi leaders have called on their followers not to enlist in the IDF and continue to block a core curriculum that would allow their students to become productive members of the knowledge economy and civil society.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s haredi community currently makes up 14% of the population but is growing at a rate of 4.2% per year. 57% of the community is under the age of 20, while only 50% of adult men work.<\/p>\n

The IDF urgently needs 10,000 soldiers to fill in the ranks of those killed or injured in battle; 100,000 haredi men of draft age are unwilling to serve.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is simple: non-haredi Israelis can no longer afford to subsidize or defend this fast-growing segment of the population. Going forward, any government subsidies must be provided on an equal basis and as an incentive for national service, adherence to national educational standards, and joining the workforce.<\/p>\n

This will require bold leadership.<\/p>\n

The case for a constitution<\/p>\n

If David Ben-Gurion can be forgiven for failing to foresee the explosive growth of haredi autonomy, it is harder to pardon him for the foregoing passage of a constitution.<\/p>\n

The consequences of that indecision became apparent in early 2023 when an elected government sought to exploit the country\u2019s weak democratic foundations to consolidate political power in the hands of the executive branch, sparking months of protests and bringing the country, in the words of President Isaac Herzog, to the brink of \u201ca real civil war.\u201d<\/p>\n

The damage done by the architects of the judicial overhaul must first be undone before our leaders can get to work building a broad consensus for lasting change in the form of a new constitutional framework that will strengthen the separation of powers and protect the civil liberties of all Israelis.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s ability to nurture and retain the next generation of scientists, entrepreneurs and hi-tech soldiers depends to a large extent on the strength of the democracy that will be rebuilt in the coming years. A system with fair, agreed-upon \u201crules of the game\u201d will help ensure that all Israelis remain committed to their country\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

A vision for Israel’s future<\/p>\n

This is what US President Abraham Lincoln<\/a> defined as a government \u201cfor the people and by the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

After three and a half years of division and war, Israel is at a crossroads. In my military reserve duty, I oversee the selection process for recruits to the IDF\u2019s special forces units. Every time, I am amazed anew at these patriotic young men and women who are willing to sacrifice everything for their country.<\/p>\n

But these young Israelis, who represent the future of the country, also demand leadership willing to put partisan politics and personal interests aside and lead a responsible conversation about our nation\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

We can only hope the leaders elected this fall will prove equal to the challenge.<\/p>\n

The writer is the president of the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) in Jerusalem. He previously served as a member of the Knesset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over more than a thousand days of war, policy makers and analysts have asked repeatedly: What is the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[12205,1152,55205,423,37,649],"class_list":["post-208349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-constitution","tag-democracy","tag-hareidi-draft","tag-idf","tag-israel","tag-opinion"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116925405033826111","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}