Between 22 and 23 Israeli politics scholars per survey wave rated every party list on a 0–10 scale for 25 questions: overall ideology, the economy, social values, the conflict, religion and state, and how each party campaigns. Every number on this page is the experts' average rating. Pick a survey wave below: the 2021 wave covers the 24th Knesset, the 2022 wave the 25th, and "2026 inferred" shows our estimates for the lists elected on Oct. 27, 2026, on the same scales.
Each cell shows where the experts placed the party on that question's 0–10 scale; the tick marks the midpoint, 5. Click a column heading for the full question and the spread of expert ratings.
Hover or tab to a party for both ratings. The same values are listed under each question's own tab.
The estimates use no 2026 information, so Where Israel's parties stand, built from 2026 campaign statements, is an independent check. Its five-step placements were set against the matching CHES question; agreement is the rank correlation across lists, and "inside" counts the lists whose campaign placement falls within the estimate's 80% range.
Estimates. A forward Monte Carlo simulation, 20,000 draws per list and question. It propagates known sources of error; it does not fit or update on any 2026 data. Each draw adds:
Draws are capped at 0 and 10. The marker is the median; the bar runs from the 10th to the 90th percentile (the "80% range").
Assumptions. All error terms are normal and independent, including across questions and across the parts of a merger, so read each range on its own, not as a joint picture. Drift has no direction: each estimate is centered on its starting rating, which rules out a system-wide shift such as every party moving right after 2023. Experts are treated as independent draws, with no correction for experts using the scale differently. The drift and merger figures rest on nine parties, one interval and two back-tests, so the 80% coverage is nominal, not verified.
Sniff test. Each 2026 campaign-dashboard issue was matched to its nearest CHES question, and its five steps mapped onto the 0–10 scale (1 = 10, 2 = 7.5, 3 = 5, 4 = 2.5, 5 = 0, oriented to match). "No stated position" was dropped. ρ is the Spearman rank correlation between those values and the estimate medians, ties averaged. With 8–11 lists and many tied steps, one list changing places moves ρ noticeably; treat it as a sanity check, not a significance test. "Inside" counts mapped placements within the 80% range.
Who ran it. The Israeli edition of the Chapel Hill Expert Survey was conducted by Roi Zur and Ryan Bakker, using the same questions CHES asks about European parties plus Israel-specific ones on the conflict, settlements, a Palestinian state, the Jewish and democratic character of the state, and Aliyah.
When. The 2021 wave was fielded in spring 2022, after the March 2021 election; the 2022 wave in winter 2023, after the November 2022 election. Response rates were 44% and 42%.
What the numbers are. Each value is the mean of the experts' ratings. The faint bar behind each dot spans one standard deviation either side of the mean, a rough guide to how much the experts agreed. A wide bar means experts read the party differently, not that the party is moderate.
Gaps. Three questions were asked only in the 2022 wave: Jewish immigration, religious principles in politics, and military aid to Ukraine (the war began after the 2021 election). No mean is published for Ra'am or Balad on Ukraine.
How it relates to 2026. The surveys predate the October 2023 war and the lists that contested the Oct. 27, 2026 election. Yashar!, Beyachad and the Democrats did not exist as lists then, and in 2022 Religious Zionism ran on one list with Otzma Yehudit and Noam. Treat these as expert placements of the 2021 and 2022 lists, not of today's parties.
Groupings. Parties are grouped by the government formed after each election (the Bennett–Lapid government in 2021, the Netanyahu government in 2022) and by seats won; these come from the official results, not from CHES.