On October 27, Israelis vote for the 26th Knesset. Thirty-eight lists filed to run. If you read English and not much Hebrew, finding out what any of them plans to do once in office is harder than it should be.
How this series works
What this series is
This is Close Read. Over the next few weeks I'm going to take the parties one at a time and read what each one has published about policy. By policy I mean what they say the government should do: which laws they want to pass or repeal, what they'd fund, what they'd cut, what rules they'd change.
I'm leaving the politics out. No polls, no coalition math, no feuds between leaders. Plenty of people already cover that. This series is about the part that affects your life after the votes are counted.
The rules
I'm holding every party to the same rules, so I want to lay them out now.
First, I only use what the party itself made public. Their platform, their website, their official accounts, their campaign material, and on-the-record statements by their leaders. When I use an interview instead of a written platform, I'll say so on screen.
Second, I don't contact the parties. If a position isn't somewhere the public can find it, it doesn't count for this series. A voter shouldn't need a press pass to learn what they're voting for.
Third, if a party published nothing, that's the episode. I'll show you where I looked and when, and I'll tell you I came up empty. That tells you something too.
Fourth, every episode walks the same list of topics in the same order: security and foreign policy, accountability for October 7, the economy and cost of living, housing, religion and state, the courts and how the government is run, education, health, welfare and pensions, Arab citizens and minorities, immigration and the diaspora, and environment, energy, and transportation. Then whatever the party itself put first. When a party says nothing on a topic, I'll say that.
Translation
Most of these sources are in Hebrew, and some are in Arabic or Russian. I'll translate as plainly as I can. When a word in the original carries weight that doesn't survive translation, I'll put the original on screen so you can check me.
What I won't do
I won't tell you who to vote for, and I won't grade the policies. You'll hear what each party wrote, in their words, and you decide what you think of it.
Sources
Every episode has its sources in the description, with links to the originals. Most are in Hebrew. If you read Hebrew, please check my work, and if I got something wrong, tell me in the comments and I'll pin the correction.
The order
I'm taking the lists in the order the Central Elections Committee numbered them. That order has nothing to do with size or polling, and you can check it on the committee's site. Most days two episodes go up, Sunday through Friday, until October 26. If a party publishes something new before the election, I'll pin an update on its episode.
List number one is B'Yachad, so that's where we start.
Who is B'Yachad?
B'Yachad, which means "together," is the joint list of Naftali Bennett's party and Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid, running under the ballot letters Resh Kuf, with Bennett first and Lapid second.1
What has B'Yachad published?
I couldn't find a single platform document.2 Instead, the joint website, be-yahad.org.il, has about twenty-five separate policy plans in Hebrew, under the slogan "only together will we fix."2 Most were posted or updated between June and the last week of September.3621 There's also a thirty-four page education plan as a PDF.11 Many of the plans have English and Russian versions.2 Four plan pages, on government, foreign policy, the civil service and Haredi integration, still say "coming soon."2
Yesh Atid also keeps its own site with a ten-point list.32 Where Yesh Atid says something the joint site doesn't, I'll tell you it's from Yesh Atid. I'm also using a few posts from Bennett's public Telegram channel.3337
B'Yachad's positions, topic by topic
The same twelve topics, in the same order, for every party. Where nothing was published, the episode says so.
What does B'Yachad say about security and foreign policy?
The national security plan says Israel should move "from containment to deterrence, from attrition to decision."3
On Gaza, the plan says Israel won't move "a millimeter from the yellow line" until Hamas fully disarms, and will strike any Hamas buildup or training.3 After preparing the army, the US and the world, Israel would give Hamas an ultimatum: disarm, or be disarmed.3 The plan says Israel has no interest in running Gaza.3
After visiting the Gaza border in August, Bennett wrote on Telegram that the IDF's order should be to kill any terrorist at any hour without restrictions, and that where needed a permanent IDF force should be stationed inside communities next to the fence.33
The plan calls for a "large, proactive and lethal" army instead of a small one, and says everyone will be drafted, with no exemptions.3 On Hezbollah and Iran, the line is "if Hezbollah hits Israel, Israel hits Iran."3 It commits to preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon and to speeding up the collapse of the regime by diplomatic, economic and technological means.3
They want to declare Qatar an "enemy state," remove Qatar and Turkey from any role in Gaza, and bring Egypt in instead.3 Bennett repeated that call on Telegram in September.38
On the region, they list strengthening the Abraham Accords, reviving the Negev Summit, and normalization with Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.3 And they propose a national public diplomacy body in the Prime Minister's Office, which they call "8300," a play on the intelligence unit 8200.3
I couldn't find a published position on a Palestinian state, or on the future status of the West Bank. The foreign policy page is still a placeholder.2
What does B'Yachad say about accountability for October 7?
The security plan commits to a state commission of inquiry.3 In a September 22 post, Bennett called it the first fix the next government would make.37 Yesh Atid's list includes the same commitment.32 I didn't find details on the commission's mandate or who would appoint it.
What does B'Yachad say about the economy and the cost of living?
The cost of living plan is about food prices.5 It says a large importer could distribute only one monopoly brand, and gives the example that Tnuva could not control milk, chicken and frozen vegetables at the same time.5 It would adopt European food standards, set up one central food authority, cancel tariffs and replace them with direct support for farmers.5 It would also automatically recognize kosher certification from abroad.5 The stated target is that within three years, the Israeli grocery basket costs the OECD average.5
For small businesses, they propose a permanent compensation mechanism that kicks in automatically in an emergency, without waiting for a government decision.22 An English-language page on hi-tech sets a goal of fifteen percent of Israelis working in the sector.29
Yesh Atid's own list says it would cut the number of ministries and create one new one, a ministry for fighting the cost of living.32
I didn't find a published position on income tax rates, VAT or the minimum wage.
What every party says about the economy and the cost of living
What does B'Yachad say about housing?
The housing plan has two headline items.6 First, an active reservist would get a benefit worth one million shekels toward one apartment, with priority in land tenders and a promise to deliver within four years, with no lottery.6 The site defines an active reservist as someone with at least twenty reserve days over three years, or fifteen for combat soldiers.8 Second, about one hundred thousand long-term rental apartments within a decade, forty percent of them subsidized at thirty percent below market.6
They'd also move planning powers to local authorities, with binding targets: a building permit within three months.6 And they propose bringing in foreign construction workers on seven-year visas.6
What does B'Yachad say about religion and state?
The list has two pages on this: one on religion and state, and one on its Service Law.78
The Service Law, which the site calls "Bennett's Service Law," follows one rule: whoever serves receives from the state, whoever doesn't, doesn't.8 It would cancel yeshiva student stipends, coalition funds, National Insurance and property tax discounts, and daycare subsidies for people who neither serve nor work.8 The religion and state plan adds that any framework with exemption quotas is rejected.7 The site says the Service Law's benefits cost 8.8 billion shekels, paid for by those cuts and by closing ministries, without adding to the deficit.8 The apartment benefit is costed separately: the Service Law landing page says it would come from the state selling land to reservists at a discount, not from the budget.9
On schools, the rule is "100 percent core or 0 percent funding."7 The full education plan says funding would stop for new pupils in Haredi schools outside the state-Haredi stream, aiming for seventy percent of Haredi pupils in that stream within four years and all of them within eight.11
On Shabbat, each local authority would decide for itself whether to run public transport.7 They'd legislate a civil union registered at the Interior Ministry, with the full rights of marriage, regardless of religion, gender or sexual orientation.7 Yesh Atid's list uses the words "civil marriage."32 Conversion powers would go back to community rabbis, with the standard kept Orthodox.7 The plan says, "The Chief Rabbinate is not abolished. Its exclusivity is."7
What does B'Yachad say about the judiciary and governance?
A page on the joint site proposes making the Declaration of Independence the opening chapter of a constitution, together with a Basic Law: Legislation that defines the powers of the Knesset, the government and the courts.30 Yesh Atid's list adds an amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary and term limits, and says it would repeal all of what it calls the current government's "regime coup" laws.32
A draft bill from Bennett's party before the merger, still hosted on the site, would limit a prime minister to two consecutive terms or eight consecutive years, whichever is longer.31 The crime plan includes a law to restore police independence.4
I couldn't find a published position on how judges are selected or on the attorney general. The government page is still a placeholder.2
What does B'Yachad say about education?
The education plan sets a starting teacher salary of twelve thousand shekels.10 It would move most decisions from the ministry to local authorities and principals.10 A national education council would set a shared core for sixty percent of what every child learns, with twenty percent left to each school stream and twenty to the school or local authority.10 Twelfth grade would become a state-funded preparatory or service year, with most matriculation exams done by eleventh grade.10 In emergencies, schools would reopen before malls and restaurants.10 Bennett wrote on the first day of school that the next government would declare a national emergency in education and recruit thousands of teachers.35
Yesh Atid's list adds a cap of twenty pupils per class.32
What does B'Yachad say about health?
The health plan would build dozens of community health centers within five years, for minor surgery, imaging and specialists, starting in the periphery.14 It would set up a desk to bring back Israeli doctors working abroad, double investment in preventive medicine, and have leading hospitals open branches in the north and south.14
What does B'Yachad say about social welfare, pensions and the elderly?
The aging plan would link the old-age allowance to the average wage again, and raise it on a sliding scale for about 350 thousand seniors, doubling it for the poorest.19 For low-income Holocaust survivors, the annual grant would rise from about 7,700 to 12,000 shekels.20 People with disabilities would keep sixty percent of their allowance after they start working.18
Active reservists would get fifty percent off electricity, water and property tax.8 Reservists' spouses would get their own legal status and direct rights.21 Wounded soldiers would get a state-funded lawyer from their first hearing.27 And the women's plan sets 250 million shekels a year for fighting domestic violence, plus paternity leave.16
What every party says about social welfare, pensions and the elderly
What does B'Yachad say about Arab citizens and minorities?
I couldn't find a plan for Arab citizens as a whole. The Negev plan, which the site calls "Bennett's plan for law and order in the Negev," is about Bedouin society.26 It would define protection rackets and agricultural crime in law as "nationalist terror" so the Shin Bet can be involved, double police stations in Bedouin towns, and set mandatory minimum sentences.26 It would develop recognized towns while, in the plan's word, "crushing" illegal construction in the unrecognized villages, prosecute polygamy and stop benefits to those families.26 It also lists three new industrial zones, Hebrew study and pre-army programs.26 The plan describes it as carrot and stick.26
In a September 15 Telegram post, Bennett wrote that the rule of no benefits without service or work would apply to all citizens, "including the Arabs."36
What does B'Yachad say about immigration, absorption and the diaspora?
I couldn't find a dedicated plan. The religion and state plan includes a conversion track for immigrants.7 The English hi-tech page says they'd "encourage mass immigration."29 Yesh Atid's list mentions working with world Jewry against antisemitism.32 I couldn't find anything on absorption benefits.
What every party says about immigration, absorption and the diaspora
What does B'Yachad say about the environment, energy and transportation?
The environment plan calls for a binding climate law with its own budget, a waste law, and ending routine use of the old coal units at the Orot Rabin power station.15 It would speed moving petrochemical plants out of Haifa Bay.15 It also proposes a law creating metropolitan transport authorities, with weekend public transport where local authorities choose it.15
What every party says about the environment, energy and transportation
What B'Yachad puts front and center
The Service Law has its own landing page and slogans.89 A proposed northern frontline law would make the border area a national priority zone until 2035, with tax breaks that grow the closer you live to the border.24 And the crime plan would treat crime as a national security threat and bring in the Shin Bet, with a target of thirty percent fewer murders in four years.4
They've also published plans on LGBT equality, including a legal ban on conversion therapy, on tourism, and on animal welfare.172328
What B'Yachad hasn't published
I couldn't find published positions on a Palestinian state or the West Bank, on judicial selection or the attorney general, on income tax, or on immigrant absorption. Four plan pages, including government and foreign policy, still say "coming soon."
Sources
Everything above comes from what B'Yachad made public: its platform, website and official accounts, and on-the-record statements by its leaders. Each line was checked against a saved copy of its source. Most sources are in Hebrew.
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Transcript
The words as spoken in the episode, from its captions. Select a time to listen from there.
Full transcript
Intro
On October 27th, Israelis vote for the 26th Knesset. 38 lists file to run. If you read English and not much Hebrew, finding out what any of them plans to do once in office is harder than it should be. This is close read. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to take the parties one at a time and read what each
What this series is
one has published about policy. By policy, I mean what they say the government should do, which laws they want to pass or repeal, what they fund, what they cut, what rules they change. I'm leaving the politics out. No polls, no coalition math, no fuse between leaders. Plenty of people already cover that. This series is about the part that affects your life after the votes are counted. I'm going to hold every party to the same rules, so I'm going to lay them out right now. First, I only use what the party itself made public. Their platform, their website, their official accounts, their campaign material, and on-the-record statements by their leaders. When I use an interview instead of a written platform, I will say so on screen.
Second, I don't contact the parties. If a position isn't somewhere the public can find it, it doesn't count for this series. A voter shouldn't need the direct WhatsApp number to learn what they're voting for. Third, if a party published nothing, that's going to be the episode. I'll show you where I looked and when, and I'll tell you when I came empty. Because that tells you something too. Fourth, every episode walks the same list of topics in the same order. Security and foreign policy, accountability for October 7th, the economy and cost of living, housing, religion and state, the courts and how the government is run, education, health, welfare and pensions, Arab citizens and minority, immigration and diaspora, and the environment, energy and transportation.
Then whatever the party itself put first. When a party says nothing on the topic, I'll share that. Most of the sources are in Hebrew and some are in Arabic or Russian, and I'll translate as plainly as I can. When a word in the original carries weight
Translation
that doesn't survive translation, I'll put the original on screen so you can check along with me. I won't tell you who to vote for, and I won't grade the policies. You'll hear what each party wrote in their
What I won't do
own words, and you decide what you think of it. Every episode will have its sources in the description with links to the original. Most of those original sources are going to
Sources
be in Hebrew. If you read Hebrew, please check my work. And if I got something wrong, tell me in the comments. I'm taking a list in the order of the central election committees numbering them. That order has nothing to do with size or
The order
with polling, and you can check it up on the committee site. Most days, I'm going to try and get two episodes up. If a party publishes something new before the election, I'll try my best to update it on its episode's comments. List number one is Beyachad. So that's where we are going to start. Beyachad says that it will give every active reservist a benefit worth up to 1 million
B'Yachad
shekels toward an apartment, and stop state benefits for people who neither serve nor work. Beyachad, which means together, is the joint list of Naftali Bennett's party and Yair
Who they are
Lapid's Yesh Atid, running under the ballot letters Resh Kuf, with Bennett first and Lapid second. I couldn't find a single platform document. Instead, the joint website Beyachad.org.il
What they've published
has 25 separate policy plans in Hebrew under the slogan Only Together Will We Fix. Most were posted or updated between June and the last week of September. There's a 34-page education plan as a PDF, and many of the plans have English and Russian versions. Four planned pages on government, foreign policy, the civil service, and Haredi integration. Some say still coming soon. Yesh Atid also keeps its own site with a 10-point list, where Yesh Atid says something a joint site doesn't, I'll tell you it's from Yesh Atid. I'm also going to use a few posts from Bennett's public Telegram channel. The national security plan says Israel should move from containment to deterrence,
Security and foreign policy
from attrition to decision. On Gaza, the plan says Israel won't move, quote, a millimeter from the yellow line, end quote, until Hamas fully disarms, and will strike any Hamas buildup or training. After preparing the army, the U.S. and the world, Israel will give Hamas an ultimatum. Disarm or be disarmed. The plan says Israel has no interest in running Gaza. After visiting the Gaza border in August, Bennett wrote on Telegram that the IDF's order should be to kill any terrorist at any hour without restrictions, and that where needed, a permanent IDF force should be stationed inside communities next to the fence. The plan calls for a large, proactive, and lethal, those are in quotes, army instead of a small one, and says everyone will be drafted with no exemptions.
On Hezbollah and Iran, the line is, quote, If Hezbollah hits Israel, Israel hits Iran, end quote. It commits to preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon and to speeding up the collapse of the regime by diplomatic, economic, and technological means. They want to declare Qatar an enemy state, quote, unquote, removing Qatar and Turkey from any role in Gaza and bring Egypt in instead. Bennett repeated that call on Telegram in September. On the region, they list strengthening the Abraham Accords, reviving the Negev Summit, and normalization with Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. And they propose a national public diplomacy body in the Prime Minister's office, which they call 8300, a play on the famous intelligence unit 8200.
I could not find a published position on a Palestinian state or on the future status of the West Bank. The foreign policy page is still, as of the recording of this, a placeholder. The security plan commits to a state commission of inquiry. In a September 22nd post, Bennett called it
October 7 accountability
the first fix the next government would make. Yesh Atid's list includes the same commitment, identifying details on the commission's mandate, or who would appoint it. The cost of living plan is about food prices. It says a large importer could distribute
Economy and cost of living
only one monopoly brand and give the example that Tnuva could not control milk and chicken and frozen vegetables at the same time. It would adopt European food standards, set up one central food authority, cancel tariffs, and replace them with direct support for farmers. It would also automatically recognize kosher certification from abroad. The stated target is that within three years, the Israeli grocery basket costs the OECD average. For small businesses, they propose a permanent compensation mechanism that kicks in automatically in an emergency, without waiting for a government decision. An English language page on high tech sets a goal of 15% of Israelis working in the high tech sector.
Yesh Atid's own list says it would cut the number of ministries and create one new one, a ministry for fighting the cost of living. I did not find a published position on income tax rates, on the VAT, or on the minimum wage. The housing plan has two headline items. First, an active reservist would get a
Housing
benefit worth 1 million shekels toward one apartment, with priority in land tenders and a promise to deliver within four years with no lottery. The site defines an active reservist as someone with at least 20 reserve days over three years, or 15 for combat soldiers. Second, about 100,000 long-term rental apartments within a decade, 40% of them subsidized at 30% below market. They'd also move planning powers to local authorities with binding targets, a building permit within three months, and they propose bringing in foreign construction workers on seven-year visas. The list has two pages on this, one on religion and one on state and one on its
Religion and state
service law. The service law, which the site calls quote-unquote Bennett's service law, follows one rule. Whoever serves, receives from the state. Whoever doesn't, doesn't. It would cancel yeshiva student stipends, coalition funds, national insurance, and property discount, tax discounts, and daycare subsidies for people who neither serve nor work. The religion and state plan adds that any framework with exemption quotas is rejected. The site says the service law benefit costs 8.8 billion shekels, paid for those by cuts and by closing ministries, adding to the deficit. The apartment benefit is costed separately. The service law landing page says it would come from the state selling land to reserve us at a discount, not from the budget. On schools, the rule is 100% core or 0% funding. The full education plan says funding would stop for new pupils in Haredi schools outside the state Haredi stream, aiming for 70% of Haredi pupils in that stream within four years, and all of them within eight.
On Shabbat, each local authority would decide for itself whether to run public transport. They legislate a civil union registered at the Interior Ministry with the full rights of marriage, regardless of religion, gender, or sexual orientation. Yeshati's list used the word civil marriage. Conversion powers would go back to community rabbis, the standard kept Orthodox. The plan says the chief rabbinate is not abolished, its exclusivity is. A page on the joint site proposes making the Declaration of Independence the opening
Judiciary and governance
chapter of a constitution. Together with the basic law, legislation defines the powers of the Knesset, the government, and the courts. Yeshati's list adds an amendment to basic law, the judiciary, and term limits, and says it would repeal all of what it calls the current government's quote-unquote regime coup laws. A draft bill from Bennett's party before the merger, still hosted on the site, would limit a prime minister to two consecutive terms or eight consecutive years, whichever is longer. The crime plan includes a law to restore police independence. I couldn't find a published position on how judges are selected or on the Attorney General. The government page, as of this recording, is still a placeholder. The education plan sets a starting teacher salary of 12,000 shekels.
It would move most decisions from the
Education
ministry to local authorities and to principals. A national education council would set a shared core for 60% of what every child learns, with 20% left to each school stream and 20% to the school or local authority. 12th grade would become a state-funded preparatory or service year, with most matriculation exams done by 11th grade. In emergencies, schools would reopen before the malls and the restaurants. Bennett wrote on the first day of school of this year that the next government would declare a national emergency in education The health plan would build dozens of
Health
community health centers within five years for minor surgeries, imaging, and specialists, starting in the periphery. It would set up a desk to bring back Israeli doctors working abroad, double investment in preventative medicine, and have leading hospitals open branches in the north and in the south. The aging plan would link the old age allowance to the average wage again, and
Social welfare, pensions, and the elderly
raise it on a sliding scale for about 350,000 seniors, doubling it for the poorest. For low-income Holocaust survivors, the annual grant would rise from about 7,700 to 12,000 shekels. People with disabilities would keep 60% of their allowance after they start working. Active reservists would get 50% off electricity, water, and property tax. Reservists' spouses would get their own legal status and direct rights. Wounded soldiers would get a state-funded lawyer from their first hearing.
And the women's plan sets 250 million shekels a year for fighting domestic violence plus adding paternity leave. I couldn't find a plan for Arab citizens as a whole. The Negev plan, which the site calls
Arab citizens and minorities
quote-unquote Bennett's plan for law and order in the Negev, quote-unquote, is about Bedouin society. It would define protection rackets and agricultural crime in law as quote-unquote nationalist terror. So the Shin Bet could be involved. Double police stations in Bedouin towns and set mandatory minimum sentences. It would develop recognized towns while in the plan's words, crushing, that's the quote, illegal construction in the unrecognized villages. Prosecute polygamy and stop benefit to those families. It also lists three new industrial zones in the Negev, Hebrew study, and a pre-army program.
The plan describes this all as sort of a carrot-and-stick approach. In a September 15th Telegram post, Bennett wrote that the rule of no benefits without service or work would apply to all citizens, including the Arabs. I couldn't find a dedicated plan around immigration, but the religion and state plan
Immigration, absorption, and diaspora
includes a conversion track for immigrants. The English high-tech page says they'd quote-unquote encourage mass immigration. Yesh Atid's list mentions working with world Jewry against anti-Semitism. I couldn't find anything on absorption benefits. The environment plan calls for a binding climate law with its own budget, a waste
Environment, energy, and transportation
law, and ending routine use of the old coal units at the Orot Rabin power station. It would speed moving petrochemical plants out of Haifa Bay. It also proposes a law creating metropolitan transport authorities with weekend public transport where the local authorities choose it. The service law, well, it has its own landing page and slogans. A proposed northern front-line law would make the border area national priority zone until 2035, with tax breaks that grow the closer you live to the border, and the crime plan would treat crime as a national security threat and bring in the Shin Bet with a target of 30% fewer murders in four years. They've also published plans on LGBT equality, including a legal ban on conversion therapy, on tourism, and laws around animal welfare.
I couldn't find published positions on a Palestinian state or the West Bank, on judicial selection or the Attorney General,
What's missing
on income tax, or on immigration absorption specifically. Four planned pages including government and foreign policy still say coming soon. That's what Beyachat has put in writing as of October 1st. Every source I use is linked in the description, most of them in Hebrew, so you can read them yourself. If they plan more and publish more before October 27th, I will do my best to pin an update in the comments. Next is list number two, Yashar, and the full playlist is linked below.
