Israel goes to the polls: when France's crisis becomes a campaign argument

Six days before Israel's legislative elections on 27 October, France has found itself drawn into the campaign. The violence of 17 October has become, in Jerusalem as in Washington, the backdrop for speeches aimed first at their own voters.

The facts

On Tuesday 20 October, in an interview with the channel i24NEWS, Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that France had "succumbed to the invasion of extremist Islam", report The Times of Israel and HuffPost. The Israeli prime minister added that he had warned Emmanuel Macron, after the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023, that the threat would eventually reach Paris.

The day before, according to Haaretz, Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the Otzma Yehudit party, posted an AI-generated campaign video showing a Palestinian being shipped from Gaza to Paris. Again according to the Israeli daily, French diplomacy responded on X with irony. The Israeli minister has been banned from French territory since 23 May 2026, a decision announced by Jean-Noël Barrot after the treatment inflicted on activists from the Gaza flotilla, as Euronews recalls.

On Sunday 18 October, Donald Trump wrote "France is burning!" and urged Paris to close its borders, according to i24NEWS. The same day, the US president gave Benjamin Netanyahu a backing he described as "total and unconditional". The next day, his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, met the Israeli prime minister during an unannounced visit to the Uvda base, according to Al Jazeera, citing Reuters.

The vote looks tight. According to the polling average compiled by The New Arab, neither Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc nor Gadi Eisenkot's would reach the 61 seats needed, each being credited with about 51 seats out of 120. The Yashar party of the former chief of staff would narrowly lead Likud, while Itamar Ben-Gvir's party could win eight seats.

What we know about the violence in France

The narrative imported from abroad runs up against the available evidence. The mobilisation was about purchasing power: 550,000 demonstrators according to the Interior Ministry, 800,000 according to the CGT, says i24NEWS. The Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, said she could not confirm any political link between the Paris rioters and the far left, and those arrested claim little, reports Blick. No public evidence supports the theory of an "invasion of extremist Islam", HuffPost notes.

The attribution of the violence is in fact debated in France itself. Emmanuel Macron and Sébastien Lecornu blamed far-left groups, and a man described as close to that movement was arrested in the investigation into the fire at Limoges town hall, according to AFP. But Mediapart has published exchanges in which a territorial intelligence officer says his services were allegedly asked to attribute the movement to La France insoumise, a claim his colleagues reportedly consider false. The Interior Ministry denies any such instruction, LCP notes.

The positions at stake

The Netanyahu camp's argument deserves a hearing. Israel presents itself as a democracy on the front line against Islamism, and France has paid a heavy price to jihadist terrorism. The Israeli prime minister also criticises Paris for recognising the State of Palestine in September 2025, which he accuses of fuelling antisemitism, HuffPost recalls. For his supporters, this is lucidity, not interference.

On the other side, the Israeli opposition is campaigning on security and on responsibility for 7 October. Gadi Eisenkot challenges the prime minister's security doctrine, reports i24NEWS, and considers him unfit to lead a new operation against Iran, according to The Times of Israel. Pascal Boniface, director of IRIS, nevertheless urges caution: on the Palestinian question, this opposition's positions are said to be closer to Benjamin Netanyahu's than one might think.

Analysis

In Washington as in Jerusalem, a French social crisis is being reinterpreted solely through the lens of immigration and Islam. This narrative erases what brought people onto the streets: the cost of living, energy prices, the anxiety of a younger generation that doubts its future.

A Gaullist tradition cannot accept this. Sovereignty is not only about refusing orders; it is also about refusing to let others write the diagnosis of our divisions for us. That foreign leaders on the campaign trail use France as a foil says nothing about France, but a great deal about their own electoral needs. The danger lies elsewhere: six months before our presidential election, these narratives feed, here at home, those who want to pit order against disorder rather than address the social causes of anger.

For Europe, the stakes go beyond the controversy. If Benjamin Netanyahu wins with the support of a strengthened Itamar Ben-Gvir, the EU-Israel relationship will remain tense, particularly over Gaza and the West Bank. If the opposition wins, nothing guarantees, according to IRIS, a change of course on settlements.

A response based on facts and law

France has nothing to gain from a war of words. It has everything to gain from responding with facts, by publishing, as soon as the investigation allows, a precise record of arrests and prosecutions. After 27 October, it should propose to its partners a clear European line: dialogue with any Israeli government that respects international law, and targeted sanctions against officials who incite hatred, as Paris and Rome requested in May for Itamar Ben-Gvir. One question remains: will the European Union, this time, speak with one voice?

Article written with the help of artificial intelligence.