Live Now
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
Key updates
Charedi Public vows to stay in election race to the end, as PM reportedly pushing party to drop out
Moti Leitner, chairman of the Charedi Public party, speaks during the party’s election campaign rally at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, ahead of Israel’s upcoming general elections, October 17, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Moti Leitner, chair of the ultra-Orthodox Charedi Public party, tells Channel 12 that he will not bow out of the election after it was reported yesterday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was pushing him to suspend his campaign.
The Charedi Public has set itself apart from mainstream ultra-Orthodox parties United Torah Judaism and Shas with its relatively moderate stances on IDF enlistment and by including women on its Knesset slate.
Despite opinion polls consistently showing that Charedi Public falls below the 3.25% electoral threshold, Leitner is adamant that it will run until the end, asking, “How can we come to hundreds and thousands of Israelis and tell them ‘we’re going to close off your opportunity to bring us your support?'”
He says that despite polling results, he believes Charedi Public could become the “surprise” of election day on October 27, citing the phenomenon of the “shy voters” who are reluctant or afraid to admit they are voting for his party due to societal pressure and potential retaliation, potentially skewing the polls.
Answering those who say that voting for Charedi Public is a wasted vote, Leitner says that “a wasted vote is a vote for United Torah Judaism and Shas. A vote for us is a vote for the future.”
Yashar accuses Netanyahu of silencing Sephardi Likud candidates in AI campaign video
Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party posts an AI-generated video depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu eating lobster and accusing him of sidelining Mizrahi members of his Likud party during the election campaign.
The video comes after remarks by Channel 14 political commentator Yinon Magal, who called Eisenkot a “monkey,” widely interpreted as a racist slur targeting Eisenkot’s Moroccan heritage.
Netanyahu later condemned Magal’s remarks, after Yashar publicly questioned why the prime minister and his Likud party had failed to denounce them. At the same time, however, Netanyahu accused Eisenkot of failing to denounce alleged similar rhetoric directed at Likud voters.
נתניהו, תן למזרחים מיקרופון:
ינון ״כלי להעברת מסרים של נתניהו״ מגל קרא למזרחים קופים, אליו הצטרפה מקהלת השופרות.
אולי בגלל זה נתניהו לא נותן למזרחים במפלגתו להתראיין בקמפיין?נתניהו אתה בהיסטריה אז סותם פיות – תלמד ממי שיהיה ראש הממשלה המזרחי הראשון ותן למזרחים מיקרופון (ותשים… pic.twitter.com/1jHHE7BUfg
— ישר! עם איזנקוט. (@yashar_eisenkot) October 19, 2026
Alongside the video, Yashar accuses Magal of using racist language against Sephardi Israelis and suggests Netanyahu is preventing Mizrahi members of his party from speaking publicly.
The video features a song in the Mizrahi music style questioning why prominent Sephardi Likud candidates, including Channel 14 commentator Jacob Bardugo and Transportation Minister Miri Regev, have not been interviewed since the campaign began.
“Why does Netanyahu erase the Mizrahim from his campaign?” the song asks.
The lobster imagery appears to reference a March 2023 incident in which Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, were filmed dining at a non-kosher restaurant in London over Shabbat, with lobster visible on the plate of the diner who filmed the video.
“Netanyahu, you’re in a panic, so you’re silencing voices,” the party writes. “Take a lesson from the man who will become Israel’s first Mizrahi prime minister, and give Mizrahim a microphone (and turn up the volume),” it adds, referring to Eisenkot.
US Supreme Court rejects efforts to revive plea deal for accused 9/11 mastermind
This February 2017 photo provided by his lawyers shows Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba (Courtesy Derek Poteet via AP)
The US Supreme Court rejects an effort to revive a plea deal for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The agreement would have spared Mohammed the risk of execution in exchange for his guilty plea and a sentence of life in prison without parole.
Mohammed is accused of developing and directing the plot to crash hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon 25 years ago. Another of the hijacked planes crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
The plea agreement was approved by military prosecutors and the Pentagon’s senior official for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stepped in.
Austin threw out the deal in 2024, saying a decision on the death penalty in an attack as grave as September 11 should only be made by the defense secretary.
Relatives of the September 11 victims were split on the agreements for Mohammed and two co-defendants. Some said a trial is the best path to justice, while others saw it as the best hope for bringing the long, painful case to a conclusion.
Defense attorneys had argued that Austin, who served under President Joe Biden, acted too late. But a divided appeals court panel found Austin acted within his authority.
New York City bank vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti, windows smashed
A CapitalOne bank location on the Upper East Side of Manhattan has been vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti.
Images of the vandalism shared by New York City Speaker Julie Menin show that the windows of the bank were smashed.
Red graffiti on the doors says “Drop Elbit” and “Pal Action.”
Pal Action, or Palestine Action, is an activist group that has increasingly targeted Israel-linked defense companies, including Elbit.
The US Treasury Department and the UK have designated the UK-based group as a terrorist organization.
The vandalism and destruction at the Capital One branch on 86th Street is deeply disturbing and unacceptable.
I have been in contact with the NYPD regarding this incident and have urged an immediate investigation, including whether this is a potential antisemitic hate crime.… pic.twitter.com/B1AUvO6I3Y
— Speaker Julie Menin (@SpeakerMenin) October 19, 2026
The group’s US branch, Palestine Action US, has rebranded as Unity of Fields. It wasn’t clear which group exactly vandalized the bank.
Palestine Action’s social media and Telegram accounts have been suspended and there does not appear to be an immediate claim of responsibility.
Menin says she has urged the police to investigate whether the incident is an antisemitic hate crime.
The NYPD tells the Times of Israel that at 7:40 a.m. an “unidentified individual threw a brick into the window” of the bank, and that the police are investigating the incident as a “possible bias criminal mischief” offense.
Calla Walsh, an extremist anti-Zionist activist, also posts an “anonymous submission” showing saboteurs disabling equipment at a New York City subway station. Walsh was a co-founder of Palestine Action US but has said she is no longer involved with the group.
The video shows vandals painting over security cameras and using electric drills to destroy and disable card readers at the subway station’s turnstiles.
The activists leave flyers that allege connections between the company producing the transit equipment and Israel.
“Every time you tap, you’re sending money to a war profiteer. Stop the genocide. Free Palestine,” the flyers say, according to the footage.
Iranian FM blames US for ‘insecurity’ in Strait of Hormuz
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, right, shakes hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov before their meeting in Tehran, Iran, October 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iran’s top diplomat accuses the United States of being responsible for the “insecurity” in the Strait of Hormuz, which has been at the heart of the conflict between the foes.
“The war imposed by the United States and the Zionist regime (Israel), combined with the economic blockade, constitutes the principal source of insecurity in our region,” says Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, having previously referred to “the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz” during a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
One reported killed in Gaza City strike
Hamas-affiliated media outlets in Gaza report that one person was killed in an IDF strike in the Daraj neighborhood of central Gaza City.
There is no immediate comment from the IDF.
عاجل | جرحى بقصف مسيّرة إسرائيلية لمحيط مدرسة "التابعين" في حي الدرج بمدينة غزة. pic.twitter.com/y1twVZyZmr
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) October 19, 2026
Hendel, Winter court would-be Gantz voters; coalition urges small right-wing parties to follow his lead
Opposition party leaders welcome Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz’s decision to withdraw from the October 27 election, as other small parties hovering around the electoral threshold seek to attract his supporters while members of the coalition call on them to follow suit and withdraw.
Yoaz Hendel, chairman of the Reservists-Economic Party, thanks Gantz for his years of service, saying he has “done what is right and necessary for the country.” He calls on voters of what he terms the “third bloc” to support his party, declaring that “the only way to establish a Zionist government is to vote for the Reservists and Economic Party.”
Ofer Winter’s People of Israel party similarly thanks Gantz for his decades of service, before urging Blue and White’s would-be voters to support him instead.
“Gantz’s withdrawal illustrates the importance of the People of Israel party in Israeli public life. Anyone who wants a right wing that serves in the military, acts decisively and is not dependent on Goldknopf’s 61st vote has only one political home – the People of Israel party,” it says.
Hendel, like Gantz, has refused to align himself with either the pro- or anti-Netanyahu bloc, while Winter has pledged to join only a Netanyahu-led government, even as the coalition has led a bitter top-down campaign to pressure Winter to withdraw. Both Hendel’s and Winter’s parties have been hovering around the electoral threshold for months.
Government ministers seize on the opportunity to urge Winter to follow Gantz’s lead and withdraw.
“Gantz’s withdrawal stems from his responsibility not to waste votes for the left-wing bloc,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party says, referring to the opposition bloc. “By contrast, on the right, there is a complete lack of responsibility on the part of Ofer Winter and the other splinter parties that are nowhere near the electoral threshold, yet insist on throwing votes in the trash and risk bringing to power a left-wing government with supporters of terrorism that will bring disaster upon the State of Israel.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, of Netanyahu’s Likud, similarly urges right-wing parties polling below or near the electoral threshold to “do what Benny Gantz did a short while ago: withdraw from the race.”
“The cost of wasting right-wing votes in this election could be fatal,” he warns, pointing to the 1992 election, when three small right-wing parties failed to cross the threshold. “Show responsibility for the sake of the people of Israel and the Land of Israel!”
Gantz pulls out of election race, eight days ahead of vote
Blue and White leader Benny Gantz leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, February 9, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Blue and White chair Benny Gantz announces that he is withdrawing from the upcoming election, just eight days before the October 27 vote.
He will deliver a statement to the press this evening regarding his decision.
His withdrawal comes after months of polls have shown his party failing to cross the electoral threshold.
In a brief statement, Gantz says he will “continue to fight for unity” from the sidelines, calling it “the only solution that will prevent another disaster and protect Israel against all challenges, domestically and abroad.”
Last month, he told The Times of Israel that he would halt his election campaign if polls taken in the last week of the race showed Blue and White failing to enter the Knesset.
Blue and White will still appear on the ballot on election day, but any votes cast for the party will be wasted.
Key Update
IDF: Two Palestinian suspects planning terror attack arrested in the West Bank
Two Palestinian terror suspects who were planning an imminent attack were captured by Israeli commandos in the West Bank yesterday, the military announces.
Soldiers of the Duvdevan Commando Unit raided Kafr Aqab following intelligence provided by the Shin Bet on “two terrorists who were advancing an imminent terror attack and operating to establish terrorist infrastructure,” the military says.
The IDF says the pair were taken to be questioned by the Shin Bet.
Police say they’re investigating West Bank stone-throwing attack on group that included Knesset candidate
Police say they have launched an investigation into a suspected Palestinian stone-throwing attack near the central West Bank’s Turmus Ayya today on a group that included People of Israel Knesset candidate Fleur Hassan-Nahoum.
Officers accompanied by IDF soldiers rushed to the scene to gather evidence and search for suspects after receiving a report about the stone-throwing, police say.
The statement notes the targeted group included a “public figure,” but does not name Hassan-Nahoum, who was on a tour with the pro-settlement organization Regavim.
read more: