Grief, anger and elections: Israel marks three years since October 7 attacks as nation prepares to vote

Source: The Conversation – UK

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and leading opposition figure Gadi Eisenkot took to social media as their country marked three years since the devastating Hamas attacks of October 7. As the country mourned, the rival politicians played the blame game.

Eisenkot is the man widely thought to be most likely to beat Netanyahu in this month’s general election. He is running hard on accountability for the October 7 attack, in which 1,200 Israelis died and 251 were taken hostage.

The subject of Eisenkot’s October 7 post on X – and the main thrust of his campaign – is his assertion that the prime minister had been warned about a potential attack and failed to protect his people. He says his first act if elected will be to launch an inquiry and has challenged Netanyahu to a televised debate in which October 7 will be the main topic of discussion.

For his part, Netanyahu’s post on X sought to deflect any blame for October 7 to Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency. Far from being culpable for the attack, the statement from his Likud party said it was Netanyahu who had led the fightback and protected – was still protecting – Israel from its bitter enemies in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

When Israelis go to the polls on October 27, it will be the first national election since the attacks and the subsequent war in Gaza. According to the Israeli Democracy Institute, 68% of Israeli Jews say October 7 is a central factor in deciding who to vote for.

So Netanyahu, campaigning for his fourth term in office, and the opponents hoping to oust him, are trying to exploit the events of October 7 to score points in what is proving to be a very tight race.

Netanyahu’s Likud party is currently projected to have 23 seats, putting him a whisker in front of his main challenger, former military commander Gadi Eisenkot, whose Yashar party is polling at 22 seats. Together, the party led by the former prime minister Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, also an ex-PM, is on 11 seats and the Democrats are on nine seats.

Apart from the two leading parties, the list is extremely tight and the outcome will depend on which of the two leaders can cobble together a governing coalition.

Opinion polls have found that the high cost of living, accountability for October 7 and security and foreign policy are the issues people are most concerned about. A recent study found that housing costs and food prices have overtaken some of the wealthiest countries in Europe.

But it is accountability and security that look to be the issues the politicians are set to fight on before the October 27 poll.

‘Betrayal from within’?

There has been a series of allegations that Netanyahu received prior warning about a serious threat from Hamas. The Wall Street Journal reported on September 28 that Egypt’s intelligence chief warned the prime minister of a threat several times, even visiting him 11 days before the attack.

The approach of Likud has been to deflect the blame onto intelligence and security chiefs for failing to alert the prime minister to the threat from Hamas. Yoav Gallant, formerly Netanyahu’s defence minister, has claimed that Hamas warned Shin Bet about the attack.

This has spiralled into a “betrayal from within” theory – the idea that somebody inside Israel knew what was coming and deliberately kept Netanyahu in the dark. The prime minister’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, has added fuel to this conspiracy by insinuating in a televised interview that Yair Golan, leader of the opposition Democrats party and a former deputy IDF chief of staff, may have had advance knowledge of the attack.

This conspiracy theory has gained some traction on the Israeli right. According to a poll published in the daily newspaper Maariv, 40% of respondents believe there was “betrayal from within”.

Netanyahu rejects the treason argument, insisting that October 7 was a massive intelligence and operational failure by Israel’s security agencies. His October 7 post on X doubled down on this message, insisting that had he been informed immediately of the attack, he could have been “updated in real time — everything would have looked different”.

The post, which quoted his Likud party, said the allegations against him were the work of political enemies who were “broadcasting false political propaganda against Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Likud all day long, with the aim of toppling right-wing rule and paving the way for a left-wing government that will establish a Palestinian state”.

Politics of tragedy

Eisenkot is hardly a left-winger. He is staunchly opposed to a two-state solution. Yet Netanyahu’s campaign released an AI_generated video depicting Eisenkot running past a young man in a shirt reading “Israel unity,” to instead embrace Mansour Abbas, leader of the Arab Ra’am party. The caption read: “Eisenkot has no government without Yair Golan and the Arab parties.” Reports said the young man was intended to represent Eisenkot’s son Gal, who was killed fighting in Gaza.

The video was shared on Netanyahu’s social media account, but an Israeli official later denied the prime minister had seen it.

The prime minister recently attempted to ban Arab parties from running candidates in the election, but the ban was subsequently overturned in a unanimous decision of Israel’s Supreme Court.

Hundreds of Israelis gathered to mark the October 7 anniversary at the site of the Nova music festival, where 378 young people were killed, while in commemoration services around the country, millions more mourned the attack. Families of people killed in the attack spoke of their loss, while former hostages spoke of rebuilding their lives.

The prime minister vowed to “complete the mission” and “continue settling the score with all the murderers”. His opponents vowed to hold him to account for his failure to prevent the tragedy.

With only weeks before the people of Israel deliver their verdict at the polls, the country clearly remains deeply divided about whose message to heed.

Leonie Fleischmann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/10/08/grief-anger-and-elections-israel-marks-three-years-since-october-7-attacks-as-nation-prepares-to-vote/