The Ballot Panic: Who wants us to fear the elections - and why?
In recent weeks, a new object for a panic campaign has emerged - election day. Turning the flagship event of democracy into an explosive and threatening scenario is not just media hysteria, but a planned influence operation aimed at making politics repulsive, eroding public trust, and preparing the ground for the rule of bureaucrats and unelected systems.
Panic over 'religious coercion' — we know that. Panic over the collapse of democracy is also familiar to us. But in recent weeks, a new object for a panic campaign has emerged: panic over the elections. Various 'gatekeepers' are already warning about election disruptions, brainwashing, influence operations, bot attacks, Iranian meddling, perhaps Russian, the possibility of Chinese, and an eye on Turkey as well.
2026 Elections for the 26th Knesset | Mandate polls, bloc map, and updates
From the Central Elections Committee come briefings and warnings about the dangers lurking for the integrity of the elections. Think tanks and research institutes warn against possible violations of voting privacy or the tabulation of results. The media is full of articles about psychological warfare designed to play with your mind and distort consciousness, in order to sow division and rift on the eve of the elections. In protest organizations, volunteers are being recruited for heroic operations to protect democracy and are promising a combative presence at polling stations, especially in strongholds prone to 'trouble'.
In public discourse, election day is turning from an event that Israeli citizens should look toward with hope and excitement into an explosive, flammable, and trouble-prone scenario. A high probability of political crisis and potential for social conflict. Ballot panic.
They are preparing there for any scenario in which they will have to save the ballot box from evildoers planning to disrupt, intimidate, threaten, interfere, riot, or just steal the elections. And above all, the great terror looms over the doomsday catastrophe: the day when the Right will forge the voting results or simply not accept them, and refuse to hand over power to the true winners.
Thus, the great celebration of democracy, election day for the Knesset, is gradually turning into a frightening and threatening event. From a day that Israeli citizens can and should look toward with hope, excitement, and enthusiasm — into an explosive, flammable, and trouble-prone scenario. A high probability of political crisis. Potential for social conflict. Something bad is about to happen, on the way to the ballot box, behind the curtain, or on the night of the vote count. Be afraid.
Political? It disgusts me!
I am not arguing with the concern for the integrity of the elections, or with the need to ensure the properness of the procedure. I am not indifferent to the fact that political polarization can charge the elections with toxic fumes of rift and hostility. And it is clear to me that there are those in the world who are looking for a crack to drive a wedge between us and undermine stability. But the threats of extreme scenarios have reached such a surplus, such intensity, such drama, that a sane person might stop and ask themselves: why do we need this now, these elections, actually?
We are approaching with great strides the imposition of media hysteria over the very existence of the elections. Collective panic from the flagship event of democracy, which is being built in public discussion as something that requires not only civic vigilance, but institutional preventive actions, increased supervision, and control over civic action.
This in itself is already an influence operation, even if not intended or coordinated, from which a demand for intervention from above is implied, a longing for 'gatekeepers' who will take responsibility and enter the governmental, social, managerial, and leadership vacuum that might be created if the worst happens.
The deep product of this panic industry is the erosion of trust in the democratic process. It will not be possible to reach election day, and it will not be possible to leave it with the feeling that everything was proper and that things were conducted fairly. Even if no evidence of result forgery is found, we will remain with the feeling that an interested party played with our minds with 'deep fake' videos, disinformation, manipulations, and lies. And if people went to the ballot box like zombies, to drop an envelope with a note that someone malicious planted in their consciousness — then what is the true value of the whole business?
Soft fascism
All this adds to patterns of thought that have already been rooted in the public: ideological parties are 'extremist', therefore 'center' parties are preferable. An ideological debate is a polarizing thing, therefore it is better to talk only about 'agreements'. Blurring ideology is almost a value in itself. It is clear that everything politicians touch is corrupt and toxic. Decisions, reforms, laws. Everything is labeled as 'controversial', 'an eye-sore', 'causing a storm'.
In the new era, everything stems from 'political considerations' — meaning corrupt by definition. Even if it passed through all the accepted channels. Even if it received the majority of votes in all committees. Even if the Knesset plenum voted for it. Today that is no longer enough. If there is a protest organization that gets angry or commentators who oppose — it is a sign that it is 'reckless legislation' or 'dangerous politicization', which the next coalition will have to 'fix'. And until then, there is a battery of organizations that will petition the Supreme Court, and that will of course freeze, and stop, and discuss, and demand explanations, and take its time, and then probably also cancel.
What is clear is that the elected leadership, the one that did the unbelievable and was elected by the majority of the public against the will of the elites and the consciousness-shaping systems, is unworthy. A cultural disgust for politics and the noise it produces is being built in a meticulous and calculated manner. As Yair Lapid once said: people want a government that won't 'nag' them. 'A government is not supposed to make so much noise', he wrote. 'A government is a functional body. Managerial. That sets policy. It is supposed to get up in the morning, work quietly'.
Together with making politics repulsive and suppressing ideology, the goal is to cultivate a collective aspiration to transfer power from the dubious hands of 'politicians' to an unelected and 'professional' system that 'will know what to do'.
Against this background, the figure of Gadi Eizenkot shines as a leader devoid of ideological or conceptual weight, but rich in 'authority' that stems precisely from his being anti-political. This is the most valued leadership virtue in post-ideological Israel. Amnon Lord wrote this about two weeks ago: 'The hidden message that the voter receives is that with Gadi Eizenkot there will be order, administrative silence will be restored'.
The goal is to cultivate a collective aspiration to transfer power to an unelected system that 'will know what to do'. I will go one step further and call a spade a spade: soft fascism. And that is also what lies behind the labeling of election day as a catastrophic event in the making.
This whole project of creating disgust for politics, suppressing ideological discourse, and now also fueling panic over the elections themselves — comes, ironically, from the wings that present themselves as those fighting to save democracy. When adding to this their declared intentions to close media channels and dismiss 'political' appointments, one may ask if for the liberal camp in Israel, fascism is a step on the way to saving democracy. The Jewish head invents patents for us.
