Israeli democracy is on borrowed time. After years of incremental erosion, the democratic backslide is no longer theoretical. It is happening. And if we do not confront this moment with the seriousness it demands, we may soon find ourselves waking up in a country where elections are no longer free, fair, or guaranteed.

Benjamin Netanyahu has shown the world that he will do anything to stay in power. He has attacked the judiciary, undermined the press, demonized civil society, and attempted to hollow out the checks and balances that keep authoritarianism at bay. He is now trying to fire the last gatekeepers of Israeli democracy. His judicial overhaul plan ignited mass protests in 2023 because millions of Israelis understood something fundamental: democracy does not disappear overnight. It dies slowly, often at the hands of elected leaders who chip away at its foundations while claiming to defend it.

As political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt make clear in How Democracies Die, democratic erosion does not begin with tanks in the streets. It begins with the incremental normalization of anti-democratic behavior, with leaders who exploit institutions for personal gain and test how far they can go before the public or their peers push back. Netanyahu has been testing those limits for years. Now, even though Israel’s next general election is not due until 2026, we must ask an uncomfortable but necessary question: would he try to delay the vote? And if so, could he?

The question is deeply tied to the ongoing war. The conflict, triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel, has become the justification for a prolonged state of emergency, with Netanyahu refusing ceasefires and declaring a commitment to indefinite warfare. The longer the war continues, the more he can argue that now is not the time to hold elections.

It may sound alarmist. But it is not implausible. In fact, it is already being floated.

Netanyahu’s allies have already explored the idea that the next election might not need to happen until 2027. How? By exploiting a quirk in the Hebrew calendar.

According to Israel’s Basic Law: The Knesset, elections must be held at least every four years. The law specifies that elections........

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