Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Why Are Left-Wing Israelis Joining Benjamin Netanyahu’s Right-Wing Party?

Left-leaning Israeli voters are joining Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right wing Likud party by the thousands with the hopes of influencing it from within.

According to a report in Haaretz, about 6,000 center and left-of-center voters have joined Likud through an organization called the New Likudniks.

The group is taking a page from the playbook of West Bank settlers who vote for Likud even as their politics are closer to the ultra right wing nationalist Jewish Home party.

The New Likudniks says it aims to create a “liberal Zionist center” in the government on its web site, advocating measures to lower the cost of living, and advance freedom of religion and human rights. The group deliberately avoids taking a stance on Palestinian statehood and Israeli borders, saying that the issue has been focused on to the exclusion of others in Israel.

At a New Likudnik recruitment event in the Jezreel Valley, Etti Markovich said she joined Likud in order to influence the primaries.

“I’ve never voted Likud, but it’s the party in power, and I’m afraid it will take time to replace it,” she said, according to Haaretz.

Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected]

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.