IDI - Israel Democracy Institute

IDI - Israel Democracy Institute The Israel Democracy Institute is an independent, non-partisan "think-and-do tank" dedicated to strengthening the foundations of Israeli democracy.

In Israel voters do not elect their representatives to parliament directly. Rather, they vote for the party of their cho...
06/23/2026

In Israel voters do not elect their representatives to parliament directly. Rather, they vote for the party of their choice. The more votes the party gets, the more seats it obtains in the Knesset. Selection of candidates is up to the parties. And there is no law mandating how each party selects its candidates.

In a new op-ed, Prof. Gideon Rahat argues that the current methods Israeli parties use to choose their Knesset candidates are problematic because they often concentrate power in one main selectorate — whether a party leader, party members, or another internal party body. Prof. Rahat states that the “only way to neutralize these flaws” is to instate a multi-stage method, in which several selection bodies select candidates one after the other, as is used in other democracies around the world. For example, a small party organ might first filter the initial candidate list into a smaller pool of candidates, and party members could then rank those candidates through primaries. He writes, “Decentralization of the selection process would not only distribute political power more widely throughout each party but would also breathe life into the party as a political subsystem in its own right.”

Read the full op-ed: https://bit.ly/4aAPcmj

06/22/2026

640,000 young Israelis will be eligible to vote for the first time in Israel’s upcoming elections – and a huge majority of them, indeed, plan to vote. A new IDI survey presents a complex portrait of young Israeli voters and the issues they care most about.

The survey, conducted by IDI’s Dr. Tammy Hoffman and Meital Baron, was presented at a special conference convening IDI experts, educators, social media executives, and—most importantly—young Israelis themselves, who will be eligible to vote for the first time in Israel’s upcoming elections.

One of the main findings shows “two contradictory trends,” says Dr. Tammy Hoffman. On the one hand, 91% of young Israelis intend to vote in the upcoming elections, and over 80% view voting as highly influential. Yet at the same time, most do not participate in political activities or demonstrations.
For both young Jewish and Arab Israelis, national security and the cost of living are the top priority issues, and another key finding shows that social media serves as the single most important source of political information among these young voters.

Learn more about the newest voters participating in upcoming elections: https://bit.ly/4uT3rKu

Thirty years ago today, on June 18, 1996, MK Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in as Israel’s prime minister for the first ti...
06/18/2026

Thirty years ago today, on June 18, 1996, MK Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in as Israel’s prime minister for the first time. Since then, he has served nearly 19 cumulative years in office, making him one of the longest-serving leaders in the democratic world.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has headed six governments in total and, after a political timeout, returned to office following the 2009 elections. He remained prime minister until 2021, marking the longest consecutive tenure ever held by an Israeli prime minister, before making a second political ‘comeback’ following the 2022 elections.
IDI's Prof. Ofer Kenig points out in his new op-ed that the amount of time PM Netanyahu has served is “remarkable not just in Israel but also in comparative perspective,” with Netanyahu ranking as the fifth longest-serving leader (soon to be fourth longest) among OECD democracies since 1945.
Read an analysis of Prime Minister Netanyahu's years in office, the evolution of his coalition partners, and the debate playing out around term limits in the full op-ed: https://bit.ly/4eqRZiN

IDI convened the conference “First-Time Voters: Young Israelis Head to the Polls” to discuss the challenges, questions, ...
06/17/2026

IDI convened the conference “First-Time Voters: Young Israelis Head to the Polls” to discuss the challenges, questions, and issues young Israelis are likely to encounter as they prepare to vote for the first time.

Dr. Tammy Hoffman, Head of IDI’s Education Policy Program, opened the conference:

“As adults, it is easy for us to label young people as apathetic and uninterested in politics. But it is becoming increasingly clear that Gen Z young men and women interpret the concept of political participation differently from the generations before them, and find other ways to make their political voices heard — not necessarily through elections. Sometimes, especially not through elections. But that does not mean they are apathetic.”

Photo: Oded Karni

06/15/2026

As Israeli elections inch closer, many are calling them “the most consequential in Israel’s history,” yet most Israelis remain unsure how they will unfold.

IDI President Yohanan Plesner and Prof. Tamar Hermann, Academic Director of IDI's Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research, join Dr. Natan Sachs from the Middle East Institute to discuss Israel’s upcoming elections, why they are viewed as especially consequential, and what effectively is on the ballot.

Prof. Hermann says “the level of ambiguity is high” among Israelis on both the Right and the Left, noting that this applies “not only among those who do not know what they are going to put in the ballot box on election day, but also regarding what is going to happen in general.”

Additionally, Israelis on the Center-left and Left view these elections as “irreversible.” In a scenario in which the opposing party wins and forms the next government, “over 40% of people who self-identified with the Left said…that they would consider leaving Israel, as opposed to less than 10% on the Right.”

Watch the full webinar: https://bit.ly/4eIU2jB

06/14/2026

“You get a video… showing what appears to be election officials tampering with ballot boxes, and it’s obviously doctored…but by that point, the damage has already been done.”

Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, Head of IDI’s Democracy in the Digital Age Program, joins The Times of Israel Deputy Editor Amanda Borschel-Dan on the "What Matters Now" podcast to discuss how actors can use AI to flood the public sphere with confusion and disinformation, the potential impact this can have in an election year, and key regulatory steps that can be taken to ensure Israel's democracy is prepared for the AI era.

Dr. Shwartz Altshuler explains that the intersection between AI and elections is unfolding across three dimensions: generating content that appears authentic; automating persuasion at unprecedented scale and speed; and using advances in affective computing to identify, predict, and respond to human emotions.

Discussing the goals of election influence campaigns, she says, "Some campaigns seek to encourage turnout while others aim to suppress it... Others exploit elections as opportunities to deepen existing social divisions, amplify polarization, and make it harder for citizens to establish a shared understanding of reality.”

Watch the full episode: https://bit.ly/4avbh5q

06/11/2026

This week, Israel’s Knesset passed a preliminary vote on a new Basic Law on Torah Study that would equate the constitutional status of full-time yeshiva students with IDF soldiers. The bill still needs three additional Knesset votes to pass into law.
Shlomit Ravitsky Tur-Paz, Director of IDI’s Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for Shared Society, spoke with Kan English Radio about the proposed legislation and its significance in a new explainer with Prof. Benjamin Porat.
They explain that the proposal seeks to equate the status of yeshiva students with that of those performing military service – a step designed to entrench the exemption of yeshiva students from military service and to prevent them paying an economic price for not serving. Porat and Ravitsky Tur-Paz stress that “the concern is not with the value of Torah study itself. The concern is with the legal and practical consequences of the proposed Basic Law,” which harms the principle of equality and and uses "the constitutional status of a Basic Law to address a political problem affecting a particular sector.”

Read the full explainer: https://bit.ly/4gg2ecd

06/11/2026

CNN discusses IDI's latest Israeli Voice Index survey findings on Prime Minister Netanyahu and the war with Iran.

Read the full survey: https://bit.ly/3SdEb3K

06/10/2026

In a survey taken leading up to the escalated tensions with Iran, IDI's latest Israeli Voice Index finds a sharp decline in the share of Israelis who believe Israel’s security is a central consideration for President Trump, down from 60% in March 2026 to 44% today - an all time low since the question was first asked in November 2024.

The survey also finds that 61% of Israelis think Prime Minister Netanyahu should not run in the upcoming Knesset elections, while 35% think he should.

Assuming the U.S. and Iran reach an agreement, 56% believe it will include provisions preventing nuclear weapons development, down from 63% in March. 32% believe it will include eliminating the ballistic missile threat, and 28% think it will help weaken the ayatollah regime.

17% of Israelis would consider leaving the country if the political bloc they do not support wins the next elections and forms the next government.

Get the full picture of how Israelis feel about the current situation: https://bit.ly/3SdEb3K

06/09/2026

“When I look at the priorities as reflected in the 2026 budget, the budget did not actually rise to the challenges.”

Amid ongoing tensions between Israel and Iran and constant fire on Israel’s northern border, Prof. Karnit Flug, IDI's William Davidson Senior Fellow for Economic Policy and the former Governor of the Bank of Israel, discusses research that she conducted together with Roe Kenneth Portal and presented at IDI’s annual Eli Hurvitz Conference, examining whether Israel’s 2026 state budget rises to the fiscal challenges of the prolonged war that began on October 7, 2023.

The “main challenge” she describes is the huge sums needed to finance the war, yet, when looking at the civilian part of the budget, “we still see significant sums allocated to coalition members and interest groups,” despite the “extreme needs to finance civilian needs for the whole population.”

Their study concludes: “without a clear change in priorities, the continued rise in defense expenditure will lead to one of two outcomes: a sharp erosion of civilian spending…Or a further steep increase in the debt-to-GDP ratio,” with both outcomes harming the public.

Read the executive summary of the study: https://bit.ly/4eeh8gG

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