Israel dissolves parliament and sets an October election

Israel is heading to the polls. Its parliament, the Knesset, voted to dissolve on Friday and to hold a national election in late October, formally ending the term of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and opening a campaign that will double as a verdict on his long tenure.

The vote

The dissolution passed in its final readings, with an election set for October 27 and, in an unusual scene, Mr. Netanyahu voting in favor of ending his own government. The orderly finish was itself notable. Israeli governments have collapsed early and often in recent years, cycling the country through election after election; this coalition, by contrast, held together long enough to run close to a full term before choosing the timing of its own end.

What it fought over on the way out

In its final stretch, the governing coalition pushed through a burst of contentious legislation that reflected its priorities and its internal bargains. Among the most divisive were measures dealing with the military draft, including protections around exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men, a fault line that has strained Israeli politics and this coalition in particular. The government also advanced changes touching the media and the powers of the legal system, part of a broader, deeply polarizing effort to reshape the balance between elected officials and the courts that has driven mass protests during Mr. Netanyahu's time in office.

The campaign ahead

The vote comes against the backdrop of a country still at war, with Israeli forces engaged on multiple fronts in the years since the October 2023 attacks, a conflict that has dominated public life and will shape the campaign. Mr. Netanyahu, one of the longest-serving leaders in Israel's history, enters it in a difficult position: recent polling has shown his bloc struggling to command a majority, and a centrist challenge, led in part by a former military chief, has gained ground as an alternative to both the prime minister and the far-right partners he has relied on.

Why it matters beyond Israel

An Israeli election is never only a domestic affair. The result will help decide the country's course on the war, on its fraught relationship with the Palestinians, and on its ties with the United States, its most important ally, at a moment of upheaval across the Middle East. For the next three months, that argument moves from the Knesset floor to the campaign trail, where Israelis will weigh whether to extend Mr. Netanyahu's long grip on power or bring it, at last, to an end.