Haifa and Tel Aviv, Israel | Oct. 27, 2026, 5:00 a.m. ET | 4 min read

To cast a ballot in Israel’s pivotal elections Tuesday, Shai Schoenfeld had to fly home.

But unlike most Israeli expatriates, his return voyage was a 10,000-mile, 30-plus-hour odyssey from a remote sheep station in the Australian outback to his village in the Galilee, in northern Israel.

His transit from Down Under put him in rare company among the tens of thousands of Israelis returning to the country from around the globe to vote in parliamentary elections widely regarded as critical for the Jewish state’s future.

“I’m doing this 99% out of fear,” says the 20-something Mr. Schoenfeld, who will be participating in his second national election.…