Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu steps up his coalition talks, threatening possible partners not to engage in a center-left government. Still, while Netanyahu got the first shot at trying to assemble a majority coalition, eulogizing the death of the Israeli left is premature. It may have lost much of its vitality displayed through political parties and social movements, but as far as its ideas and visions are concerned, it is still alive and kicking. In fact, even the Abraham Accords may actually further consolidate the hold of these ideas and visions within Israeli society.

More so, these claims over the demise of the Israeli left are somewhat inconsistent with the results of the last March 23 elections held in Israel. True, the right-wing parties delivered an unprecedented achievement, winning 70 out of 120 parliamentary seats. But there is something misleading, something evasive, about this "unprecedented achievement."

If views of the Israeli public vis-a-vis the conflict with the Palestinians are the common and most important benchmarks to decide right and left in Israel, then the following facts cast some doubts over this achievement. As a reminder, in the remote past, the two-state solution was an anathema for the overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews. But in the recent past, this solution has been gaining wide support within Israeli society, including within right-wing constituencies. A March 11 poll has shown that 57% of the voters of right-wing Yisrael Beitenu endorse the two-state solution. The same is true for 44.3% of right-wing New Hope party headed by Likud veteran Gideon Saar. Even 31% of Likud party voters are for it.

More so, I believe that these poll results don’t tell the whole truth. They tell the story of the two-state solution viewed by Israelis, but they do not expose out loud the extent of the dwindling support for extremist positions within right-wing parties vis-a-vis the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. From talks I had with numerous voters, from public opinion studies and analysis by experts, it seems that many of those who had cast their votes to these right-wing parties over the years were not necessarily motivated by Messianic zeal aiming at the annexation of the West Bank to the state of Israel. To a large extent, their voting patterns, I dare say, should be perceived as an expression of a power struggle between old and new ethnics, political and cultural elites. It is far less a deep-rooted electoral commitment to expansionist Zionist ideology.