Suitcases are being packed with a question. This election should be the answer.

On October 27, Israelis vote. The choice on the ballot is which party. The choice beneath it is whether the covenant that holds this country together still holds.

Lately, almost every conversation I have with professionals and entrepreneurs ends in the same quiet place. Not in anger. Not in slogans. In logistics.

A European passport renewed “just in case.” A job offer abroad kept warm. A discreet look at schools in another time zone. Nobody announces it. It comes up between the main course and dessert, in a lowered voice, as if saying it too loudly would make it real.

These are not people who dislike this country. They love it. They serve in it, invest in it, build businesses in it, and raise their children to feel responsible for it. And they are quietly preparing for the possibility of leaving their own home.

Almost no one says, “We’re going.” They say, “We’ll see after the election.” Their suitcases are packed with a question, not yet a certainty. That is what should worry us most.

The numbers behind the feeling

Long-term emigration has risen sharply since 2022. Between 2023 and 2025 alone, roughly 235,000 Israelis left the country for a year or more. Within that number is a sharper one — the Israel Innovation Authority found that about 8,300 high-tech workers, roughly 2.1% of the sector’s entire workforce, relocated abroad between October 2023 and July 2024 alone. High-tech accounts for a fifth of Israel’s GDP and roughly a quarter of state revenue from income tax. And a recent Channel 12 poll found that nearly one in four Israelis said they or a relative would consider leaving if the current coalition were reelected — not a prediction, but a warning shot from people who are still deciding. A country can absorb emigration; every open society loses people. What it cannot easily absorb is losing the people who build, invest, and pay for everything else — at the exact moment antisemitism abroad is rising and the case for staying should be getting stronger, not weaker.

Why this moment doesn’t look dangerous — and is

The economy functions. The army performs wonders. The shekel is strong. The cafés are full. By every visible measure, life is good. But we, of all peoples, should know better than to trust only what is visible. October 7 taught us that by the........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)