SHMONA, Israel (AP) — The town of Shmona has long been a bastion of support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. But this loyalty is no longer ironclad.
Israel’s northernmost city, once a bustling commercial center that was temporarily evacuated three years ago after being hit by rockets from nearby Lebanon, still feels half-empty even though the attacks have largely subsided. While the town remains staunchly conservative, there is dissatisfaction with the way Netanyahu has handled the recent war against the militant group Hezbollah, which could bode ill for him in Tuesday’s Israeli election.
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Netanyahu has vowed to stop Hezbollah attacks, leading a bombing campaign in Lebanon and invading the country twice since 2023. More than 4,000 Lebanese were killed, and Israeli forces occupied large swathes of southern Lebanon, razing towns and displacing an estimated 1 million people.
Despite this, Hezbollah remains active. Some in the town of Shmona say Israel should have taken a tougher approach. Others said they no longer believed Netanyahu cared about them.
Eti Ben Shabat, 64, said she had always followed her family in voting for Likud without a second thought in previous elections. But in recent years, she says, something has suddenly changed. She said in part that Netanyahu had failed to deliver on promises to bring security to the north and dismantle Hezbollah.
“I don’t want the lies to continue,” she said.
Netanyahu’s approval ratings were high in previous elections
It is unlikely that Netanyahu will lose Shmona entirely. But even a small drop in his approval ratings — and those in other traditional strongholds — could spell trouble for him.
That could leave a very tight election in the hands of Gadi Eisenkot, who aims to replace him. Or it could strengthen far-right parties, which might back Netanyahu to remain prime minister but then have greater power in the governing coalition.
Shmona has always supported right-wing parties, especially Likud. In the last elections held in 2021 and 2022, about 50% of voters chose Likud, compared with a quarter of voters nationwide, according to the Central Election Commission.
“Shmona, socioeconomically and religiously, this city was built for right-wing people, especially Likud,” said Sami Malul, 72, a retired Likud city councilor who served as the town’s acting mayor in 2008.
But the town is crumbling from war. From the time Hezbollah began firing on Israel after Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, until the ceasefire with Hezbollah was reached in late 2024, the government evacuated the town of Shmona and dozens of other towns and villages along the Lebanese border.
Netanyahu claims to have subdued Hezbollah. So when Hezbollah missile strikes began again in March after Israel and the United States launched a war against Iran, some in the town of Shmona had their trust shattered.
Israel’s subsequent occupation of southern Lebanon reduced Hezbollah’s firepower, but did not stop it. The Lebanese army has made little progress in its efforts to oust Hezbollah from southern Lebanon.
Kiryat Shmona claims that nearly 80% of its 22,000 residents have returned, but locals say the actual number is closer to 50%. The streets feel empty and abandoned. On the main shopping street, several shops remained closed. Others were open but without customers.
Malur insisted that the government handled the war and evacuation properly and put the safety of residents first. He believes that the village of Shmona has faced attacks since its founding and that Netanyahu should not be held responsible for the current situation.
Many others feel the same way.
“We really love Bibi and we can’t choose anyone else, but he should see the needs of his people,” Maimon Amsalim said, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “Keeping us safe is the most important thing and we have nothing else to do.”
For some, three years of war triggered seismic shifts
Nissan Zeevi, a third-generation resident of northern Israel who lives in a small town near Kiryat Shmona, has voted for Likud for as long as he can remember. But this year he ran for a parliamentary seat with the Bayard opposition party, angry at what he said was Netanyahu’s “abandonment of the north”.
During the recent war with Hezbollah, Zevi founded the 1701 Lobby, a militant group that advocates for improved security in the north. He hopes that the Israeli army will intensify its attacks on Hezbollah and maintain a buffer zone in southern Lebanon until the Lebanese government identifies Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
“The people of the north have been stuck in a war that has not ended for three years,” Zevi said. “You can see in Netanyahu a huge frustration and a huge disappointment.”
“Netanyahu still has his base here and they will be with him through life and death. But people are much more politically aware now,” Zevi said. “After 20 years, he needs to make way for new leadership.”
In small towns, vote by family
Around town, there was little evidence that an election was imminent and no palpable excitement from Likud or Netanyahu. Scattered campaign posters from smaller right-wing parties fluttered at intersections or were taped to mobile bomb shelters. Few residents are willing to talk politics, citing widespread despair and frustration.
Aside from vague promises of “robust defense,” none of the candidates offered concrete plans for a conflict with Hezbollah.
A poll earlier this month by Hebrew University’s Agam Lab showed Netanyahu’s approval rating dropped to around 17% across northern Israel, from around 29% before the last election in 2022.
Nimrod Neal, director of Agam Labs, said most Likud voters disappointed with Netanyahu are likely to support hardline parties such as Ozma Yehudit (Jewish Force) and the Religious Zionist Party, which advocate harsh military action against Israel’s enemies.
Ben Shabat spoke of her decision to support Eisenkot as she waited outside a barbershop in the center of the town of Kiryat Shmona. Eisenkot is a former military chief who, while still a general, ordered the use of disproportionate force in response to Hezbollah attacks during the 2006 war.
Ben-Shabat said she believed Eisenkot was a more honest leader than Netanyahu, who she felt had made little effort to connect with northern residents and sent soldiers to fight while his own sons lived in luxury apartments in Miami. She also pointed to his ongoing corruption trial.
Netanyahu made a brief campaign stop in the town on Tuesday. He visited a high school and college, events that were closed to the public, but he did not walk around downtown to mingle with residents like other candidates.
Her decision to vote for Eisenkot was not an easy one in a place where Likud support is more a matter of identity than ideology. The town is overwhelmingly made up of Mizrahi Jews, who arrived in the 1950s from Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
Mizrahi Jews often identify with the right, especially the Likud party, because they face discrimination from elites of European descent who have traditionally dominated Israel’s government, military and business institutions.
“Kiryat Shmona is like a little family and we are always helping each other, which is one of the reasons I love it,” said Ben Shabat. But this close support also comes with social pressure to vote a certain way.
At a recent gathering of Eisenkot supporters, the room was packed, but people didn’t want to take photos of the audience because they were worried about what their families or neighbors would think, Ben Shabat said.
“It’s a small place, so people don’t talk about it openly,” she said. “But deep down, people do want change.”
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