The ground is shaking in American politics, and Israelis would be wise to listen. Voices that once lived on opposite ends of the spectrum are suddenly speaking and even hearing one another.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is exchanging collegial banter with the liberal hosts of The View. Trump voters and progressives who once treated each other like toxins are now circling the same frustrations and, almost subconsciously, beginning to negotiate the same solutions.
Across America's battleground swing states, working-class Trump voters and young progressives, who share almost nothing ideologically, are showing up at the same community meetings demanding relief from soaring food prices, rent, medical debt, and student loans.
Polling shows both camps now rank economic precarity as their top concern. In several districts, they have even backed the same populist ballot initiatives on rent caps and corporate tax breaks.
The specific issues differ, but the deeper pattern is unmistakable: when daily life becomes unsustainable, old political identities and alliances begin to crack. People stop voting by tribe and start voting by survival. Israelis are no exception.
These moments may look unrelated, but they are spokes of the same wheel. Political behavior no longer maps neatly onto ideology. Voters who once lived in separate political universes are drifting toward the same frustrations, the same anxieties, the same fears about national direction.
The American story is not about policy. It is about psychology, and psychology moves faster than politics. Those same forces are already shaping Israeli public life, even if they appear here differently.
And Israelis can feel this shift. After two traumatic years, political exhaustion is bubbling beneath our feeds and in our daily conversations. Voters who once sat firmly in the center now express comfort with defense policies they previously rejected. This is not a uniform agreement. It is unity around the principles that matter most, beginning with accountability for the horrors of October 7, which occurred under this government’s watch.
The broader public mood reflects this fatigue. In a July 2025 Israel Democracy Institute survey, only 43 percent of Jewish Israelis felt optimistic about the future of Israeli democracy, 46 percent about national security, 32 percent about the economy, and just 25 percent about social cohesion. These are staggering figures for a country built on resilience and shared destiny.
When confidence erodes so broadly, voters reassess old loyalties. The early signs are visible. Repeat-voter rates for several right-wing parties, including Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit, have dropped significantly in recent surveys, a quiet signal that some voters on the right are reconsidering their political homes. Other polls show a growing hidden center, with more Israelis identifying as centrist or unaffiliated than in previous years.
The tribal map still exists, but it is weakening, and something new is beginning to form. The public is ahead of the politicians. Israelis are rebelling against the boxes they were placed in. Here, political exhaustion does not fade. It organizes. It pushes people who once lived in different political worlds into the same streets, the same conversations, and the same demands for competence and responsibility.
Naftali Bennett clear example unifying, responsible leadership
And when a society reaches this moment, it begins looking for leaders who speak to the entire country, not just to a single tribe. Very few Israeli political figures have shown that capacity. Naftali Bennett has become the clearest example of the kind of unifying, responsible leadership this moment makes possible. Israelis must stop searching for who shouts the loudest and start searching for who behaves like an adult. That is why Bennett’s appearance at the Saturday night protests mattered. Supporting a state commission of inquiry, he stood not above the public but with it. Very few former prime ministers have dared to do that.
This shift is visible in our streets and public squares, where Israelis are signaling the kind of leadership they expect. It is already locking arms with us at Habima, just as Bennett, Eisenkot, and Lapid locked arms last Saturday night. Not in uniformity of every opinion, but in unity around the principles that matter most.
America’s political chaos shows what happens when exhaustion has nowhere productive to go. Israel’s moment shows what can happen when exhaustion is channeled into a new political reality. Leadership that emerges in such moments is defined not by tribe, but by seriousness, responsibility, and a willingness to stand with the public when it matters most.
This moment allows for the creation of a renewed national camp. One not defined by loyalty to a fearful leader consumed by his corruption trial, but by leaders who reflect and strengthen the backbone of the country. Leaders who understand national security, respect tradition, believe in democratic norms, and see Israelis not as tribes but as partners.
Most Israelis want something simple and profound: to build a good life, raise their families, and feel safe in their own country without apologizing for it. They want leaders who stand beside the public when the cause is just.
This election year is filled with uncertainty, but one trend is unmistakable. Israelis are moving toward a politics that reflects their real lives, not the tribal divisions that once defined them. The leaders who understand that will shape Israel’s future.
Justin Hayet is a Tel Aviv-based commentator and strategist.