When Israelis go to the polls on October 27, much of the world will be rooting for the defeat of the country’s longtime prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Under his nearly two decades of rule, Israel has become steadily more aggressive. It has abandoned any pretense of supporting a two-state solution; started constructing hundreds of new Jewish settlements in the West Bank; and, following Hamas’s cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, laid waste to the Gaza Strip, occupied parts of Lebanon and Syria, and launched war against Iran, its archnemesis. Meanwhile, its democratic institutions have faced endless attacks by Netanyahu and his allies, who have proposed laws that would, among other things, greatly curtail the power of Israel’s courts. Should he return to power for an unprecedented seventh term, many fret that the country will permanently transition into a rogue theocratic actor.

To many voters, this election thus marks a crucial turning point in Israeli domestic policy.…