Explainer: Israel's biggest political parties

When Israelis head to the polls on Tuesday for the fifth time in less than four years, they will have many parties to select -- from the smallest factions fighting to make it into Israel's parliament, the Knesset, to the heavy hitters like Likud and Yesh Atid. 

In a two-part series, i24NEWS international affairs correspondent Batya Levinthal breaks down Israel's political parties, starting with those with the most support, and then examining the smaller parties who often punch above their weight.

Part two featuring Labor, Meretz, Jewish Home, Yisrael Beitenu, Ra'am and Hadash/Ta'al will be published on Monday.

Likud

Led by Opposition Leader and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Likud is arguably Israel’s most prominent political party. Likud ― center-right to right-wing on the Israeli political spectrum ― believes in nationalism and emphasizes the right of Jewish settlement in the West Bank. The party holds that Jerusalem is Israel’s eternal capital and has rejected the idea of a Palestinian state. Likud supports a free-market economy but has adopted mixed policies in the past. On religion, it has a more moderate stance and continues to support the status quo between religious and secular Israelis.

Yesh Atid

Yesh Atid ― meaning "there is a future" ― is a centrist party led by Israel's current Prime Minister Yair Lapid. It is the second biggest party after Likud. Yesh Atid was created to shift the focus from politics and security to civic issues and reforms. Some of its ideological principles and part of Lapid’s eight goals include: prioritizing civil society, equality in education and military draft, and fighting political corruption. Yesh Atid promotes a free market and socially liberal economy, it also strives for a two-state solution, while maintaining but halting Jewish settlements. The party’s main voters are the secular middle class.

National Unity

In 2022 Defense Minister Benny Gantz teamed up with Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s like-minded New Hope party and another former Israeli army chief of staff, Gadi Eizenkot, to form the National Unity party. It’s a new party but it’s deeply rooted in Zionism and liberalism. It has vowed to protect Israel’s Jewish identity and has an ambiguous position on a two-state solution. The National Unity party also aims to focus on government corruption and impose term limits. It aims to shift the economy to focus on macroeconomics and is pushing to invest in education. The party hopes to attract votes from the center-right who will not vote for Netanyahu or Lapid.

Religious Zionism

Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir are now a political powerhouse. The merger between the two was brokered by Benjamin Netanyahu, who hopes to secure their backing to give him a right-wing majority coalition. As leader of the Religious Zionism party Smotrich will head the faction, even though Ben Gvir, who leads the Jewish Power party has a higher profile. The ideologically-similar parties are on the far-right of the political spectrum. To strengthen Jewish identity, both parties promote nationalism and Orthodox Judaism. They support annexation of the West Bank and are opposed to any territorial concessions.

United Torah Judaism

UTJ is a political alliance consisting of two parties - Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah. United Torah Judaism is an Ultra-Orthodox religious and right-wing party. Unlike similar religious parties, UTJ is non-Zionist. The party has no uniform opinion on the issue of increasing settlements in the West Bank. It aims to maintain a status quo relationship with regard to religion-and-state issues. UTJ also promotes the increase of strict Jewish law into Israel’s ultra-Orthodox society and regards secular subjects like Math and English as irrelevant. UTJ tends to pull voters from a deeply religious and anti-Zionist background.

Shas

Shas - which is an acronym for Shomrei S'farad, meaning "Sephardic Guardians" is a right-wing party. It is an ultra-Orthodox religious political party that is part of the so-called national camp. However, it has participated in left-wing governments, and is often willing to compromise on both religious and economic issues. Shas aims to end prejudice and discrimination against Mizrahi Jews. The party advocates for the increased influence of the Jewish religious law. Originally, it was more moderate on the Israel-Palestinian conflict but has since moved further right-wing - opposing any freeze on Israeli settlement construction. The religious party represents and enjoys support from the Sephardic and Mizrahi ultra-Orthodox Jews.