Final episode: Understanding Bibi's comeback

Have Israel's election results got you down? No one parses the voters' choice like Election Overdose hosts Anshel Pfeffer and Dahlia Scheindlin. In the special one-hour season finale, they walk through all the nerdy data and critical commentary to make sense of what just happened. Learn why Netanyahu won big, but Likud fared poorly; where we think Naftali Bennett's voters went, and who really should be blamed for Meretz failing to enter the Knesset.  Find out about turnout in Likud strongholds, voter breakdown in a small kibbutz in the Negev, and which Overdose host was once an outstanding dairy farmer. Bring a glass of whiskey, take two aspirin before bed, and see you for the next election.  Overdose is over, but don't stop following Dahlia (@dahliasc) and Anshel (@AnshelPfeffer) on twitter and keep read their articles and columns on Haaretz.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With less than two weeks to go until Election Day, the campaign has moved to high-tempo. Or has it? This week’s Election Overdose episode tries to work out why no issues have caught the public’s attention so far in the long campaign and asks whether the controversial judicial reform proposals of the far-right Religious Zionism party will gain traction. Also: Will the public opinion polls ever move before November 1?  Subscribe to Election Overdose for the right dose of parties, people, politicians and polls in Israel's fifth in the never-ending election cycle. Follow Dahlia (@dahliasc) and Anshel (@AnshelPfeffer) on twitter and read more of their articles and columns on Haaretz.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Will religious Jewish determine the results in Israel's election? With just 25 days to go and each electoral bloc desperate for the final push to reach a 61-seat majority, Israel's national religious community faces surprisingly tough choices. Which parties could be attractive to moderate religious right-wing voters in Israel? Why did the ultra-nationalist Jewish supremacist party call itself Religious Zionism, and why is it doing so well in all electoral surveys? To answer these questions, Overdose hosts Anshel Pfeffer and Dahlia Scheindlin talk with Yair Ettinger, religious affairs commentator for Israel's Kan news, and author of The Great Split, a new book about the dilemmas defining and dividing the national religious community in Israel today. Subscribe to Election Overdose for the right dose of parties, people, politicians and polls in Israel's fifth in the never-ending election cycle. Follow Dahlia (@dahliasc) and Anshel (@AnshelPfeffer) on twitter and read more of their articles and columns on Haaretz.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

All eyes are on Arab voters, as the Israeli election campaign begins in earnest. In the final hours before last week's deadline for finalizing party slates, the Joint List disintegrated, leaving three different parties to compete for the votes of Palestinian citizens of Israel. But the Joint List breakdown could also demoralize those voters so badly that their already-tepid participation rate falls even lower.  Professor Amal Jamal of Tel Aviv University joins Election Overdose to discuss what Arab voters want and what their parties are offering, from ideology to political integration to immediate social interests. This week we also track Prime Minister Lapid's United Nations speech, and why efforts to disqualify parties from running mostly fail (but not always). And what do the new polls tell us?  Subscribe to Election Overdose for the right dose of parties, people, politicians and polls in Israel's fifth and best election campaign yet. Follow Dahlia (@dahliasc) and Anshel (@AnshelPfeffer) on twitter and read more of their articles and columns on Haaretz.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On September 15th, Israeli parties must submit their final lists of candidates and be inscribed in the book of parties for the upcoming election. One week from now, parties of the left and right that have been flirting with merging or splitting must make a final decision. Will the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism split into two factions and what would that mean for Benjamin Netanyahu's chances to return to the prime minister's office?  Why do Arab voters want the three parties of the Joint List to remain glued together, and can Israel's left-wing parties Labor and Meretz work it out this time? This week's Election Overdose breaks down the final party dilemmas and the consequences of each scenario. We also survey the dazzling new posters of Benny Gantz around town and ask what exactly was Netanyahu doing in a 700,000-shekel bulletproof glass, air-conditioned Bibi-mobile this week on a tour named "Bibiba"?  Each week, hosts Anshel Pfeffer and Dahlia Scheindlin discuss all the news, polls, history and party trivia you need to know for Israel's upcoming election. Subscribe to the show on your podcast app, follow Dahlia (@dahliasc) and Anshel (@AnshelPfeffer) on twitter and read more of their articles and columns on Haaretz.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guest this week is Member of Knesset Yossi Shain, who joins the podcast to discuss how Yisrael Beitenu, his party, is preparing for the November 1 election. Shain argues that the secular right-wing party led by Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman represents 'the true right-wing' in Israel, unlike the religious and far-right alliance of parties that was merged last week under pressure from opposition leader Netanyahu.  Shain also explains how Lieberman, who has a long history of harsh statements against Israel's Arab politicians, found himself in a coalition together with Mansour Abbas of the United Arab List. In his view,  Lieberman hasn’t changed; but Mansour Abbas recognized Israel as a Jewish state, which made it possible for Yisrael Beitenu to cooperate with him.  In other news, Meretz elected Zehava Galon as its old-new leader; Prime Minister Yair Lapid had a heart-to-heart with President Biden about Iran, and Israel narrowly averted a teacher's strike ahead of the new school year. But will any of it matter to the voters by November? Each week, hosts Anshel Pfeffer and Dahlia Scheindlin discuss all the news, polls, history and party trivia you need to know for Israel's upcoming election. Subscribe to the show on your podcast app, follow Dahlia (@dahliasc) and Anshel (@AnshelPfeffer) on twitter and read more of their articles and columns on Haaretz.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Election Overdose, we ask if the famous rule of American elections, is finally making its way to Israel as well. Our guest Karnit Flug, former governor of the Bank of Israel, now at the Israel Democracy Institute and a professor at Hebrew University, breaks down myth and reality about the non-political economics of Israel. Why do Israelis constantly complain of economic woes, but hardly ever vote based on economic platforms?  Earlier on the show, we discuss the latest senior general to enter politics, former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot. Do the political achievements of Israel's generals justify the hype? And why did Eisenkot flirt with Prime Minister Yair Lapid for months before joining the new National Unity party of Defense Minister Benny Gantz?  Each week, hosts Anshel Pfeffer and Dahlia Scheindlin discuss all the news, polls, history and party trivia you need to know for Israel's upcoming election. Subscribe to the show on your podcast app, follow Dahlia (@dahliasc) and Anshel (@AnshelPfeffer) on twitter and read more of their articles and columns on Haaretz.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The week began with a ceasefire ending the three-day violent escalation between Israel and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. Now, with the border quiet again, we ask if Israelis have already forgotten the rockets fired at them and the perceived skillful handling of this crisis by prime minister Yair Lapid, and more importantly, will they remember Gaza at all on Election Day? Also this week, Labor party members voted to select their list of candidates for the next Knesset, and on Wednesday, Likud members did the same. Both parties saw surprises and a changing of the guard. In Likud, loyalists supporting Benjamin Netanyahu were rewarded. But what do the lists of candidates mean to the voters - will anyone support or abandon a party because of these names? And which party in Israeli history was the first to hold primaries anyway? Each week, hosts Anshel Pfeffer and Dahlia Scheindlin discuss all the news, polls, history and party trivia you need to know for Israel's upcoming election. Subscribe to the show on your podcast app, follow Dahlia (@dahliasc) and Anshel (@AnshelPfeffer) on twitter and read more of their articles and columns on Haaretz.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With just under three months to go before the election, Haaretz’s Election Overdose podcast asks the million dollar question: can we, and should we, trust the polls? What are they worth at this point in time, and do they really serve the public, or are they misleading voters in the service of murky political interests? Also on this episode, we ask whether Likud’s old-new economic plan has a point, will the far-right Religious Zionism party get its act together, do either of the candidates for Meretz’s leadership have an idea of what the party stands for and do the members of Yesh Atid really think Yair Lapid is second only to God? Each week, hosts Anshel Pfeffer and Dahlia Scheindlin will bring all the news and analysis an Israel-election junkie needs, including polls, guests and trivia tidbits about the strangest parties in Israeli history. Subscribe to the show on your podcast app, follow Dahlia (@dahliasc) and Anshel (@AnshelPfeffer) on twitter and read more of their articles and columns on Haaretz.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Israeli politicians are making up for a slow summer news cycle by issuing promises almost daily about which parties they will or will not accept as future coalition partners. With several parties each rejecting several others, can Israel ever form a government? Or does the long list of coalition-building pledges simply reveal how many of these vows will be broken in the future? The politics of coalition-building seem to have usurped issues and ideology, and they may just be a proxy for the underlying question of "yes" or "no" to Benjamin Netanyahu. Special guest and Haaretz political columnist Ravit Hecht joins the podcast to analyze the situation. Meanwhile, Ayelet Shaked of Yamina joins with the small Derekh Eretz faction, which could either be a game-changer or not matter at all. Netanyahu and Lapid compete for foreign policy cachet, polls are stuck and party time this week goes back to 1949. Each week, hosts Anshel Pfeffer and Dahlia Scheindlin will bring all the news and analysis an Israel-election junkie needs, including polls, guests and trivia tidbits about the strangest parties in Israeli history. Subscribe to the show on your podcast app, follow Dahlia (@dahliasc) and Anshel (@AnshelPfeffer) on twitter and read more of their articles and columns on Haaretz.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.