Shin Bet to Guard Three Opposition Leaders as Threats Mount Three Days Before Election

Israel's Shin Bet security service reversed an earlier decision and announced Saturday it will provide state protection to three opposition party leaders, Yashar's Gadi Eisenkot, Democrats chairman Yair Golan and People of Israel's Ofer Winter, with protection beginning Sunday, three days before the October 27 election, according to a report by The Times of Israel. Eisenkot's staff had repeatedly pressed for protection, citing a stream of online and public threats against him.

The decision follows a broader pattern of rising threats against opposition figures in the campaign's final stretch. B'Yachad chairman Naftali Bennett's security detail was recently doubled after he faced physical attacks, including an incident involving a thrown salt shaker in Bnei Brak, and a man was arrested Saturday after allegedly attacking a member of Bennett's security detail in Tel Aviv while declaring "Only Bibi." Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman said separately that he has received death threats.

President Isaac Herzog, who has repeatedly warned about the tone of the campaign, said plainly that "elections are not a civil war." Eisenkot, for his part, framed the stakes of the vote in stark terms, saying opposition voters would "prevent Netanyahu from achieving his goal of securing a tie" that could drag Israel into another election.

The security reversal underscores how far political tensions have escalated heading into Tuesday's vote, with multiple candidates now requiring state protection in what is normally a far less combustible campaign season.