After three disastrous years, Israel needs to rethink itself. A new government would be a start | Dahlia Scheindlin

Only a clear opposition victory would let us begin to heal, strengthen democracy and establish Palestinian rights

• Dahlia Scheindlin is a Tel Aviv-based political analyst

Israel’s 27 October election is fast approaching, with little clarity about who will win. But Benjamin Netanyahu is more likely to lose. His polling is poor, and the fractious opposition parties may yet find a way to form the next government.

What would such a government do? Most of the Zionist opposition parties, the frontrunners to lead such a coalition, have offered bromides about good governance and unifying the country. Others have focused on more specific plans to establish a state commission of inquiry into the government’s failures around the attacks of 7 October 2023, and end the exemption from military service enjoyed by most ultra-Orthodox Jewish men.

Dahlia Scheindlin is a Tel Aviv-based political analyst and author of The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel