50,000 Israeli expats fly home to vote in potential boon to Netanyahu rivals

NEW YORK — Over 50,000 Israelis living abroad are expected to fly home to vote in the Oct. 27 election — cast by many observers as the most consequential in the nation’s history — in a surge that could boost Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents.

Several Israelis based in the United States told Al-Monitor they believe this election provides the best chance to defeat the premier, a divisive figure who has served a collective 19 years in office since first coming to power in 1996. 

The AID Coalition, a US-based nonprofit supporting Israeli democracy, estimated in September that at least 53,000 Israelis will return home to vote. Through its Fly & Vote initiative, the group helps voters arrange flights, though travelers must cover their own expenses.

Under Israeli law, citizens cannot vote from overseas, though there are exceptions for diplomats and others, including overseas employees of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Israel. Such individuals can vote at Israeli embassies and consulates. 

According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, about 810,000 Israelis live abroad and are eligible to vote in this year’s election, while local media estimates report between 500,000 and 800,000 Israelis living in the US. Figures on overseas turnout in 2022 are unavailable.

The available data indicates that Israeli diplomats are voting in greater numbers than they did in the previous election in 2022. The Central Elections Committee said that 86.7% of eligible diplomats and related personnel cast their ballots during early voting at diplomatic missions this month, compared with 69.6% in 2022. 

Anti-Netanyahu trend

Many of the citizens returning to vote are part of a growing wave of Israelis who left the country out of frustration with the current government following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack and ongoing regional wars. A Tel Aviv University study published in August estimated that 45,000 to 50,000 Israelis emigrated for a year or more in 2025. From 2023 to 2025, a total of 268,509 Israelis stayed abroad for at least three consecutive months — a sharp rise from 183,219 during the equivalent period 10 years prior.

Gadi Galinsky, 54, a graduate student and former teacher from Beersheva in southern Israel now living in New Jersey, said he believes more people will return home to vote this year than in previous elections. Galinsky plans to vote for the Democrats, a center-left party that supports a two-state solution and opposes the occupation of the West Bank, saying he wants to "end the war as fast as possible," referring to the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Stop the killing from the Israeli side and from the Palestinian side."

“My son is going to be in the military next year. I want someone that will influence things like more negotiations with the Palestinians," he told Al-Monitor. "Less military expenditures and more diplomacy.”

Galinsky said he returned to Israel in 2022 to vote as well. 

Anat Keinan, 37, an artist from Jerusalem currently based in New York City, said she feels this year’s election offers a “historic” possibility to defeat Netanyahu.  

“This is the only thing we can do to make a change,” Keinan, who participated in the 2021 anti-Netanyahu protests, told Al-Monitor. “I see with my other friends here that pretty much everyone is going back.” 

Keinan said she plans to vote for the Democrats or the Joint List, a bloc of three Arab parties. Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel is motivating her to fly home this time. 

“Netanyahu is the reason that happened and everything else — the destruction in Gaza and the hostages the government did nothing to bring back. This government doesn’t want to lead us to peace,” she said. 

Hamas killed around 1,200 people in Israel and took roughly 250 more hostages in the attack. The Israeli military's operations in Gaza subsequently killed more than 74,000 people, according to local authorities. The final living hostages were released in October 2025 as part of a deal brokered by the Trump administration. 

'Last chance'

Ben Argov, 35, a dual US-Israeli citizen living in Boston who did not return to vote in 2022 but has in other past elections, said he feels a “responsibility” to fly to Israel and cast his ballot. He plans to vote for Yashar, a center-right party led by former Israeli military chief Gadi Eisenkot, the main contender to defeat Netanyahu. Argov pointed to Eisenkot’s support for a state commission of inquiry into the security failures around Oct. 7 and universal military conscription, including for ultra-Orthodox Jews who have been historically exempt from service. 

Argov said he fears Israelis overseas may not be able to vote in the future amid attempts from the Netanyahu government to restrict the ability of Israelis outside the country to vote. 

“This may be the last chance,” Argov told Al-Monitor. “It could lead to a world where I can’t return to vote, where they draft laws against voting for people not living in the country.”

The overseas vote is expected to benefit the opposition. UnXeptable, an anti-Netanyahu protest group with chapters throughout the US, is encouraging Israelis to return home to vote. 

Fearing the impact of overseas turnout, Likud petitioned the Central Elections Committee in September to block the Fly & Vote campaign. Netanyahu's party dropped the suit in early October after Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg brokered a settlement barring the AID Coalition from subsidizing airfare.

However, not all Israeli expats oppose Netanyahu. Yiftach Moran, 38, a Hebrew teacher based in the New York metropolitan area, said he plans to vote for far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s party or the new far-right party led by former military commander Ofer Winter. 

“What Smotrich did in Judaea and Samaria in the past four years is truly amazing in terms of giving permission to build [settlements],” Moran told Al-Monitor, referring to the biblical name for the West Bank commonly used by Israeli settlers and the right. 

In his ministerial post, Smotrich has been instrumental in the cabinet’s approval of increased spending on settlement construction, and the government allocated $434 million in July for 34 new settlements. The majority of the international community considers the settlements illegal and the West Bank occupied, though Israel disputes the idea.

Moran, a West Bank resident from Yakir and a World Zionist Organization Hebrew teacher, believes the territory’s high elevation is critical to Israel’s long-term security. He favors keeping Netanyahu in office, citing his "militant positions" in the country’s multifront regional conflicts. As a WZO staff member, he is able to vote in the New York City Consulate.