Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's pre-election strategy will aim to temporarily tamp down the most controversial parts of his agenda. If he were to be reelected, or even just serve as a caretaker prime minister before an opposition government takes power, he could return to risky policymaking, including by reviving more expansive military campaigns in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and potentially elsewhere. On Oct. 27, Israel will hold parliamentary elections for the first time in four years — a vote largely viewed as a referendum on Netanyahu's leadership since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks. Ahead of the elections, Netanyahu has suggested that he would back away from more controversial domestic policies, such as trying to impose a solution to the ultra-Orthodox draft standoff , while also encouraging centrism in his own Likud party — a tacit acknowledgment that his right-wing government is currently unpopular in national polls.