Following the merger between Lapid and Bennett—an absurd situation where the head of a list based on merging Yesh Atid with a politically shapeless entity claims the title ‘right-wing’—it’s time to sort this out.
In at least the past decade, Israel’s public discourse has shifted: issues once debated became consensus, while fringe topics rocketed to center stage and turned into fault lines with deep fractures running between them. You can’t define who’s right-wing today using criteria from 20 years ago. So:
1. Right-wing doesn’t mean “anyone who opposes a Palestinian state.” A lot has happened since the Oslo Accords, and 99 Knesset members voted against unilateral recognition of such a state. If only they were all right-wing. They’re not. If you oppose a Palestinian state but protest at Kaplan—you’re not right-wing.
2. Right-wing means supporting the judicial reform. You can’t praise the Supreme Court and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and call yourself right-wing today. That’s fraud.
3. Right-wing means supporting continued war in Gaza and opposing its end after less than a year. If you backed a hostage deal at any price—that’s not the right-wing position.
4. Right-wing, in the vast majority of cases, means supporting Benjamin Netanyahu. Yes, love it or hate it. If you can’t stand Netanyahu but wholeheartedly support the judicial reform, continuing the war, opposed a hostage deal at any price, and so on—you’re right-wing but not a Bibi-loyalist. In reality, there are very few of those and many pretenders.
5. If you were a Likud member 20 years ago and today hold all the opposite positions from what’s described here—you’re not right-wing.
6. Right-wing doesn’t necessarily mean being religious, but if deep down—even if you won’t admit it out loud—Judaism scares you, you’re probably not right-wing.
7. Right-wing means believing we live in one of the best and most moral countries in the world. If you’re busy trashing and complaining about the state from morning to night, you’re probably not right-wing.
8. Right-wingers, quite generally, are optimistic and happy. If you’re constantly aggrieved and victimized—pretty good chance you’re not right-wing.
9. A right-winger believes in the justice of the Zionist path and the Jewish people’s right to the Land. If deep down you think Zionism is a historical injustice—you’re not right-wing. You’re not even Zionist left.
10. If the person you’re angriest at in the world (right after Bibi, of course) is your grandfather who boarded a ship to the Land of Israel instead of to America, you’re not right-wing.
You don’t have to hold every view described here to be authentically right-wing—reality is complex, has many shades, and that’s perfectly fine. But if you go through this list and can’t identify with the vast majority of it, you’re not right-wing. You’re left-wing, and the real question you need to ask yourself is: why are you so embarrassed about it?