Where they stand
The issues
These are the 8 issues at the centre of the election. Each one is a scale with two ends, and every list is placed on it from its platform, its votes and its interviews. Pick an issue to see where all 38 lists sit, weighted by the seats the polls give them.
Judea & Samaria
About half a million Israelis live in Judea and Samaria alongside roughly three million Palestinians, under a mix of Israeli and Palestinian Authority control. The lists run from a full withdrawal and a Palestinian state at one end to Israeli sovereignty over the whole territory at the other, with most somewhere between.
Gaza & Security
After the war that began in October 2023, the lists disagree on who should govern Gaza, whether the IDF keeps a permanent presence there, and what Israel should give up for a deal. The axis runs from a negotiated arrangement and disengagement to open-ended military control.
Haredi Enlistment
Since 1948 most Haredi yeshiva students have deferred or avoided military service. The High Court struck down the last exemption law in 2017 and in June 2024 ordered the army to start drafting them. The lists disagree on whether to draft yeshiva students, set quotas with sanctions, fund civil service instead, or write the exemption back into law.
Judiciary
The 2023 overhaul set out to limit High Court review, give the coalition a majority on judicial appointments and let the Knesset override rulings. The court struck down the first piece of it in January 2024. What every version of the bill changes is who has the last word, so that is what this axis scores: whether the court can strike a law, or the Knesset can override the court.
Economy
Israel's cost of living is among the highest in the OECD, housing takes a larger share of income than in most rich countries, and the war has to be paid for. The lists disagree on how much the state should spend, whom it should tax, and how far to open protected sectors to competition.
Education
The state funds several school streams, from secular state schools to independent Haredi networks, and they do not teach the same things. This axis scores who should control a school the state pays for: the ministry, with a core curriculum every school must teach, or parents and communities, with vouchers and the freedom to choose. It is not a question of how much to spend.
Religion & State
Marriage and divorce, kashrut, Shabbat commerce and transport, conversion and the rabbinate's monopoly are all governed by arrangements that date to the state's first years. The lists disagree on civil marriage, buses on Shabbat, and who decides who counts as a Jew. The constitutional question of what kind of state Israel is sits on the Nation & Citizenship axis, not here.
Nation & Citizenship
The 2018 Nation-State Law defines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people and says nothing about equality. About one citizen in five is Arab. The lists disagree on whether the state should be defined first by Jewish national self-determination or by equal citizenship for everyone in it, and on whether the law itself should stand, be amended, or be repealed.
Seat counts are the average of the 10 most recent published polls. Stance values are editorial, placed on a nine-step scale from published platforms, votes and interviews. Sources are on every party page.