Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich held an emergency meeting with dozens of local council leaders on October 27, 2026, urging an immediate effort to mobilize right-wing voters as the country voted in the 26th Knesset election. During the meeting, Netanyahu reportedly warned that his political bloc could lose the election if supporters failed to turn out in sufficient numbers, describing the situation as a “real alarm.” The appeal came amid reports of strong voter participation among left-wing and Arab voters, raising concerns among coalition leaders about the balance of turnout across competing political camps. Netanyahu called on local leaders to reach voters and encourage supporters to cast their ballots before polling stations closed. He also criticized Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party, calling it “fake right-wing” and arguing that votes for parties outside his preferred bloc could complicate efforts to secure a governing majority.

Smotrich reinforced the urgency of the campaign, urging municipal leaders, particularly in Judea and Samaria, to send activists into cities and conduct door-to-door outreach to increase participation. He also warned that votes cast for smaller parties, including those associated with Ofer Winter, could fail to translate into parliamentary representation if those parties did not cross Israel’s electoral threshold. The intervention highlighted the strategic importance of both voter turnout and the distribution of votes among right-wing parties in Israel’s proportional parliamentary system. The election, the first national vote since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks, has been widely viewed as a referendum on Netanyahu’s wartime leadership and the country’s political direction. With competing blocs seeking enough seats to form a government, the emergency meeting underscored the pressure facing coalition leaders as they attempted to rally their supporters during the final hours of voting.