Israeli election: A referendum on ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu? – Press Review

The Times of Israel reports from Kibbutz Be’eri, where one in 10 residents was slaughtered on October 7, 2023, and where “hearts and minds will be broken if Netanyahu retains power”. Meanwhile, a Jerusalem Post commentator says “form a government, you can hate each other on your own time”, arguing that what Israel needs now above all is stability from a broad coalition of Zionists. Haaretz, though, says the Palestinians are the real crux: with 2 million displaced Gazans living in camps, and a policy of “settler terror” forcing Palestinians into ever smaller corners of their territory, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is ready to continue the latter policy at the risk of sweeping international sanctions. Centrist leader Gadi Eisenkot, however, according to the left-leaning paper, understands that the West expects a policy shift on the West Bank. 

Palestinian paper Al Quds, meanwhile, reports that an attempt to ban weapons inside polling stations in majority-Arab towns has been refused by the Israeli supreme court, raising fears of armed right-wing groups intimidating voters. Lebanese paper Al Akhbar is covering the hundreds of fixed and mobile polling stations which have been set up in southern Lebanon, Gaza and Syria for occupying Israeli soldiers to cast their votes. A message, according to Al-Diyar, that there is no current intention to withdraw. “The occupier is voting for its own occupation,” says the newspaper. L’Orient-Le Jour has published a letter to an Israeli voter by a Lebanese journalist who says these elections will probably affect his life more than any in his own country. He recognises that Israel’s options are politically similar in many ways, but says the election is essentially about one thing: finishing with “Bibi” in power, once and for all. 

Meanwhile in France, the government “backs down”, in the words of Libération, by promising to reform and replace Parcoursup, the platform by which high schoolers are offered options for higher education; to limit class sizes to 28 in the third-last year; to create 15,000 new spots in higher education courses; and to make €4 billion available for renovations of school buildings. But the calls to protest remain in place for both this coming Saturday and November 5. For journalists at L’Humanité, the government has “timidly taken out the chequ ebook”: they point out that the €4 billion for renovations are in fact loans, and that the new places on university courses were announced after 10,000 spots were done away with last year. L’Opinion, meanwhile, has the headline “long live selectivity at universities,” saying the prime minister has lied to the French youth twice: once by pretending the country could afford these measures, and again by pretending that higher education could exist without selectivity. 

Finally, The Times vaunts Harry Kane’s 73 goals across 65 games for club and country in the 2025-26 season, which have won the 33-year-old striker his first ever Ballon d’Or. French sporting newspaper L’Equipe hails “King Harry” on its website’s front page, which is rather gracious given that another favourite for the title was Les Bleus‘ Kylian Mbappé. Spanish Marca discusses why the winner wasn’t Lamine Yamal, as the jury focused this year on individual performance, rather than team successes. For Goal.com, Kane “isn’t the world’s best footballer…but deserved the 2026 Ballon d’Or”, adding that “Yamal and Mbappe’s time will surely come. But in 2026, they must bow to Harry Kane”.