Israel's 2026 election is a contest for 120 Knesset seats, allocated by proportional representation in one nationwide constituency. Party identities and prior alliances explain the landscape, but only the final candidate lists and certified count establish which parties ran and how many seats they won. See how the threshold and seat allocation work.
Likud and the right
Likud began in 1973 as an electoral alliance including Herut and the Liberal Party, and later became a unified party. The 2022 election gave Likud 32 seats. Its national-liberal identity combines nationalist goals with stated commitments to civil rights, the rule of law and a competitive market, as summarized in the Israel Democracy Institute's Likud profile. In 2022, Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit and Noam ran together on a list that won 14 seats. Those parties have distinct organizations and priorities; the joint slate should not be mistaken for one permanent party.
Center and opposition
Yesh Atid is a centrist party founded by Yair Lapid in 2012. It won 24 seats in 2022, making it the largest opposition faction. National Unity was a separate 2022 electoral list that brought together Benny Gantz's Blue and White, Gideon Sa'ar's New Hope and Gadi Eisenkot; it won 12 seats. Their record shows why alliance names and membership must be checked election by election, rather than inferred from older partnerships. Read the centrist parties comparison.
Religious, Arab and left-wing lists
Shas and United Torah Judaism represent distinct Haredi constituencies and have negotiated over education, welfare, religious policy and military service. Ra'am is an Islamist Arab party that joined the coalition supporting the 2021 Bennett-Lapid government; Hadash-Ta'al and Balad represented different approaches among Arab-led lists in 2022. Labor and Meretz formed The Democrats in 2024, while retaining organizational independence during a partial merger. These backgrounds are covered in the pages on religious Zionist parties, Haredi parties, Arab political lists, and The Democrats.
The 2022 results are a useful baseline, not a forecast: Likud won 32 seats, Yesh Atid 24, Religious Zionism 14, National Unity 12, Shas 11 and United Torah Judaism 7. The election results table records the full count. Treat claims about 2026 mergers, blocs or campaign promises as established only when supported by registered lists, party statements or official results.