Carnival atmosphere at Ben Gurion Airport as thousands of Israelis come home to vote

A carnival atmosphere prevailed at Ben Gurion Airport on Monday as one plane load after another brought Israelis coming home to vote on Tuesday.

Sometimes it was hard to know whether there were more welcoming parties or arrivals, as activists from the opposition parties — mainly Yair Golan’s Democrats, Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar and Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid’s B’Yachad — sang patriotic songs, waved flags and blue balloons, and approached dazed passengers to inquire who they were voting for and to pitch for their parties.

So forceful was the throng of activists and journalists that airport security staff were called in to ensure arrivals could exit the hall.

During two hours and multiple flights from the US, this reporter saw no Haredim and only a handful of Likud supporters, all but one of whom refused to be interviewed.

One vocal Likud supporter waiting at the barrier periodically screamed, “Only Bibi,” or tried to engage in heated debate with people wearing opposition bloc T-shirts.

Israelis arrived in families, or as single spouses because children overseas had to go to school. Several returnees were young people who had interrupted backpacking trips in Nepal.

Orly Goren Tishbi, 46, flew in from San Francisco for 48 hours to vote, leaving husband Kfir and two children behind. They moved to the US a year ago for Kfir’s high-tech work.

Accepting a Democrats Party sticker, she said, “The atmosphere on the plane was very exciting. Everyone was coming home to vote. I hope and believe we’re going to make a change.”

Flying in from India to vote were two Arab Israelis, Omar Abed El Hai and Ali Masarwa, respectively, from Tira and Baka Al Garbiya. They have businesses in the Indian city of Varanasi.

The pair would only say they were voting for the opposition, that many Israeli Arabs were coming home to vote, and that they hoped for a large turnout by their community.

Also coming in from the US was Israeli-American Conservative Rabbi Tzvi Graetz, a Jerusalemite who has been serving as a rabbi in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, for three years. He managed to cast his vote for the US midterm elections before leaving.

Graetz’s parents Michael and Naomi made Aliyah after the 1967 Six Day War. The late Michael established the first Conservative congregation in the Negev, in Omer, near Beersheba.

Unwilling to divulge his voting choice, Graetz said, “I will vote for somebody who will draft the ultra-Orthodox into the IDF, and I won’t vote for anyone who doesn’t take Diaspora views into account.”

He added, “Over the past few years, especially after [the 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel on] October 7, the boycotts [of Israel], and the antisemitism, I have moved more to the right, and that will affect my vote.”

A note of caution was struck by Matan Kapon, 34, flying in from Hamburg, Germany, with his wife Ilona, and children Leon, four, and Ada, one. He said he would vote, but was coming to Israel anyway as part of a delegation and would not have made the effort otherwise.

Living in Germany, where the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan regularly campaigns among Turkish expats, he thought the rights of overseas citizens to fly home to vote were open for discussion.

Several politicians were present, all from the opposition bloc, among them Gilad Kariv and Na’ama Lazimi of the Democrats, and Orit Farkash-Hacohen of Eisenkot’s Yashar.

Also out in force were volunteers from the AID coalition that has helped Israelis living overseas to come back to vote.

Explaining that (with some exceptions) Israel does not allow absentee ballots, AID coalition board member Ora Peled Nakash said her organization aimed to strengthen democracy and ensure high turnout, whoever people voted for. She said the coalition provided information to 35,000 Israelis overseas and estimated that 67,000 would return, though not all through the AID Coalition.

The only incoming passenger intending to vote for the coalition who was willing to stop for an interview was Rivka Amikam, 33, born in New York to an American mother and an Israeli father. A month ago, she and her family moved from Brooklyn to Netivot in southern Israel. On Monday, she arrived from New York.

Asking not to be photographed, the Orthodox mother of two said she had brought her flight from New York forward to be able to vote — for the Likud.

“I don’t want another October 7,”  she said, explaining that she thought the incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “the safest” choice.

“The left hasn’t understood yet that the Arabs don’t want peace, and don’t want us here,” she said. “They distinguish between religion and state, but it’s the former that makes this a Jewish state, after all the millennia of suffering.”