On October 27, Israel will hold elections for the 26th Knesset. Election Day is a national holiday. They are taking place against the background of growing extreme right-wing sentiment and disagreement about the direction of the country's development. Tomorrow the Israelis will go to the polls, which will be open from 7:00 to 22:00, and those who remain in line after closing will still be entitled to vote. The elections will be the first national elections since the beginning of the "war on seven fronts" - the destruction of Gaza, Israel's creeping of the West Bank of the Jordan River, wars with Lebanon, Iran, Syria and Yemen and armed conflict with Shia resistance groups in Iraq. Israel's 7.3 million voting citizens will determine the direction of the country's future, as the Jewish state remains embroiled in years of conflict, faces increasing international criticism and faces deepening polarization within Israel. Israelis vote for a party, not a candidate, and first place does not automatically guarantee power. Benjamin Netanyahu, the longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history, is running for another term while on trial for corruption, which he denies. About 750,000 Israelis living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem will be able to vote on equal terms with other Israeli citizens in elections for the parliament that enacts laws in the countries where they live. This is in contrast to the approximately three million adult Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and East Jerusalem, who will not be able to participate in the election of their government. The result is a stark anomaly in the West Bank - a Jewish settler has the right to vote, but a Palestinian family living nearby under the same military rule does not.

On October 27, Israel will hold elections for the 26th Knesset. Election Day is a national holiday. They are taking place against the background of growing extreme right-wing sentiment and disagreement about the direction of the country's development. Tomorrow the Israelis will go to the polls, which will be open from 7:00 to 22:00, and those who remain in line after closing will still be entitled to vote. The elections will be the first national elections since the beginning of the "war on seven fronts" - the destruction of Gaza, Israel's creeping of the West Bank of the Jordan River, wars with Lebanon, Iran, Syria and Yemen and armed conflict with Shia resistance groups in Iraq. Israel's 7.3 million voting citizens will determine the direction of the country's future, as the Jewish state remains embroiled in years of conflict, faces increasing international criticism and faces deepening polarization within Israel. Israelis vote for a party, not a candidate, and first place does not automatically guarantee power. Benjamin Netanyahu, the longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history, is running for another term while on trial for corruption, which he denies. About 750,000 Israelis living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem will be able to vote on equal terms with other Israeli citizens in elections for the parliament that enacts laws in the countries where they live. This is in contrast to the approximately three million adult Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and East Jerusalem, who will not be able to participate in the election of their government. The result is a stark anomaly in the West Bank - a Jewish settler has the right to vote, but a Palestinian family living nearby under the same military rule does not.