Israel First

Israel First is a new centre-right party launched on 15 July 2026 by Sharren Haskel, a former Likud and New Hope MK and deputy foreign minister, pitching a liberal-economic Zionist right that rejects extremists. It has struggled to build a slate and headquarters, and it has not crossed the threshold in any published poll.

Israel First was launched in mid-July 2026 by MK Sharren Haskel, a former Likud and New Hope lawmaker, about a day after she resigned as Deputy Foreign Minister (14 July 2026) in protest at a law freezing arrests and prosecutions of Haredi draft evaders. She pitched it as a home for 'politically homeless' voters of the liberal, statesmanlike right: equal military or civilian national service and an end to ultra-Orthodox deferments, economic liberalism, strong security and the West Bank's centrality to Israel's security doctrine, and a broad government drawing on both Netanyahu's bloc and the opposition. The party's published platform stresses equal national service, 'work over dependence', transparency of sectoral budgets and fewer sector-specific funding mechanisms. On 23 August 2026 former spy Jonathan Pollard announced he would run on Haskel's slate, and on 3 September 2026 the cannabis-legalization party Ale Yarok joined, its chairman taking third place. Pollard does not appear on the list as published by the Central Elections Committee; we have not found a report explaining why. Expected mergers did not materialize and the party runs alone under the ballot letter י. Polls have consistently placed it below the 3.25% electoral threshold (Haskel cited internal figures of close to 1%).

Made up of: Israel First, Ale Yarok (joined 3 Sep 2026)

Polling