What ‘right’ and ‘left’ mean in Israel today

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that in Israel, the meanings of “right” and “left” are shaped less by traditional economic issues than by views on Palestinian statehood, occupation, security, settlements and the country’s Jewish versus democratic character. The analysis, published on Sept. 9, 2026, says this framework has long overshadowed the kinds of tax-and-welfare debates that often define left-right politics in Europe and the United States.

According to the article, Israel’s right evolved from the Revisionist and later Likud tradition into a camp broadly associated with rejecting or sharply limiting Palestinian statehood, backing Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and prioritizing sovereignty and security. The piece notes that this camp is not always uniformly free-market in economic policy; it can also support subsidies and state aid when useful for political coalitions or key constituencies.

The left, by contrast, is described as having once been tied to Labor Zionism and state-building institutions, but now as much smaller and more associated with territorial compromise, civil liberties and concern about turning military control into permanent rule. Al Jazeera says major milestones such as the Oslo period, the second Intifada, the Gaza withdrawal and the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks deepened the shift toward security-focused politics.

The article also places centrist figures and former security officials in the middle of this landscape, arguing that today’s main divide is often not over whether force should be used, but over what it should achieve and whether a political settlement with the Palestinians remains possible.