Emily covers breaking news from all over the world. She previously reported on home news and politics for The Telegraph. You can reach her at emily.smith@telegraph.co.uk 5:00am BST Adam Pines has spent $2,900 (£2,100) on a flight he hopes will change the course of Israel’s future.

The Israeli expat, who lives in Los Angeles, has returned to Tel Aviv to vote in Knesset elections on Tuesday. He has travelled 7,500 miles with the aim of ousting Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving prime minister.

Mr Pines, 47, has not flown back to vote before, but this time feels compelled to make the journey. He told The Telegraph: “I feel that Israel has lost its moral compass.”Israel does not allow the majority of its citizens living abroad to vote by post, so expatriates need to cross oceans to cast their ballots.

Mr Pines is one of at least 53,000 Israelis living around the world who are travelling to their home country to vote at a defining moment of their country’s history.

Adam Pines says he has been reluctant to tell people he is Israeli as a result of his country’s actions The Telegraph spoke to a number of Israelis living overseas who are planning to make the journey, united by their desire to oust Mr Netanyahu.

Their objections strike at some of the most combustible fault lines in Israeli society – from the mounting death toll in Gaza and violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, to the bitter dispute over military conscription.

Israeli expats are also concerned with the issue of conscription, and exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox, which is causing deep division within Israel.

More than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began in October 2023, according to the territory’s health ministry. In the occupied West Bank, at least 170 attacks have been reported since Sept 27. Mr Netanyahu has criticised the violence, but done little to end it.

Last week, Heidi Levine, a Washington Post photojournalist, was beaten by settlers, nearly losing a finger. The following day, a delegation of European diplomats was attacked.

Heidi Levine, a photojournalist, is treated in hospital after being attacked in Abu Falah in the West Bank The incidents have damaged Israel’s reputation, and led to a rise in anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli hostility worldwide. Britain’s Community Security Trust recorded 1,926 incidents in the first half of this year, a 21 per cent rise on the same period in 2025.

The figures follow a series of deadly attacks on Jewish communities, including two Jewish men killed in the attack on a Manchester synagogue in October and 15 people killed in a shooting at a Bondi Beach Hanukkah celebration in December.

In the run-up to the first election since the Hamas attacks on Oct 7 2023, polling suggests Mr Netanyahu is trailing his main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, by 12 percentage points.

The Central Bureau of Statistics estimates there are 600,000 Israelis living abroad, giving the thousands of expats the potential to tip the scale.

As well as paying for flights, Mr Pines has spent almost $3,500 on accommodation, because hotels are charging double their usual rates. His opposition to Mr Netanyahu – nicknamed Bibi – stems partly from his failure to prevent the Oct 7 attacks.

He said: “Bibi demonstrated a failure in safeguarding Israel which led to the atrocities of Oct 7. That is a massive unprecedented failure of leadership, especially in light of all the reports that emerged about the attempts to alert Israel about the attack.”Mr Pines has also become increasingly concerned about what Israel’s actions mean for Jewish and Israeli communities around the world. He said: “Today, I don’t even say that I’m Israeli. It’s potentially dangerous.”He is far from alone.

For Orit Eyal-Fibeesh, who moved to Britain 24 years ago, the election represents a last chance to rescue Israel from a government she believes has taken it towards disaster. The charity worker, who lives in London, has flown back with her husband and son, each spending £1,000 on flights.

Polling suggests Gadi Eisenkot will probably oust Mr Netanyahu to become the next prime minister of Israel Ms Eyal-Fibeesh, 55, will be voting for the Democrats, led by Yair Golan. She brought her flight forward to help with campaigning at the party’s headquarters.

She said: “It would be safe to say that all of my friends ... are flying to vote because we believe we have one last chance to save Israel from a really disastrous government.”Ms Eyal-Fibeesh, who co-founded a grassroots organisation called We Democracy, has also organised protests against the Netanyahu government in the UK.

The group was established in early 2023, when the prime minister’s proposed judicial reforms prompted mass demonstrations in Israel. She said the consequences of the government’s policies have extended far beyond the country’s borders.

Orit Eyal-Fibeesh, who lives in London, has flown to Israel with her family to campaign for the Democrats She said: “It’s devastating and it’s also affecting our lives here, the rise in anti-Semitism. When I first came here, being an Israeli was something to be proud of, and now I’m hearing people who are feeling the need to hide any Jewish symbols.”

Lior Suchoy, who moved to the UK from Israel in 2017 to complete a PhD, shared her concerns. He said: “I’m very, very worried about the fact that the title of Israel is almost diabolical today. I suffer from it every day.”

Mr Suchoy, 39, “didn’t hesitate” to return to his home country for the election. He said: “This country is rotting from within. I oppose the war, I oppose Israel’s control over Palestinians. I oppose how they destroy Israeli society from within. I think they’re corrupt.”He added: “I’m more ashamed of being Israeli because of what my country is doing.”He said he did not know anyone who planned to vote for Mr Netanyahu, whether they lived in Israel or abroad.

Lior Suchoy says he suffers every day from Israel’s deteriorating international reputation Yuval Yashiv, 62, a medical technology director, who has lived in the UK for 34 years has not voted in an Israeli election since 1999, because he believed it was unfair to influence the country’s future while living abroad.

This time, he believes the stakes are too high to stay away. He and his wife are paying around £750 each for their flights.

He said: “It’s really critical, and we feel in a way, an obligation to our family and friends in Israel to do that, and for Jews and Israelis here, Jews around the world.”Mr Yashiv described Israel as being at a “major junction” and was particularly concerned about military conscription, which became a central issue in Israeli society after the Oct 7 attacks.

Yuval Yashiv, who, as an expat, previously did not vote in Israel on principle, is doing so this time because he feels it is so crucial The ultra-Orthodox community has long been exempt from compulsory military service under arrangements that have become increasingly contentious after three years of war.

Opposition leaders have pledged to end the exemptions, while Mr Netanyahu’s coalition has supported legislation allowing many ultra-Orthodox men to avoid the draft.

As Mr Netanyahu comes under increasing pressure, the growing determination of Israelis abroad to influence the result has prompted a legal challenge from his Likud party.

The Aid Coalition, a US-based organisation that describes its mission as “strengthening and preserving the democratic foundations of the State of Israel”, has launched a scheme called Fly & Vote to help expatriates return for the election by assisting with administrative arrangements.

An attorney representing Likud filed an appeal demanding an end to the scheme, likening it to an “electoral bribe” and arguing that it breached party-financing law.

Likud maintained that, even when travellers paid for their own tickets, discounted group fares negotiated with airlines constituted an illicit benefit. The appeal was later dropped.

Yossi Mekelberg, an expert in Israeli politics at Chatham House, described the mobilisation of expatriates as “unprecedented”.

He said: “It’s extremely unusual. I’ve never seen something like this, and I can tell you, it has never happened in the history of the country.”The influx comes as Israel grapples with a growing exodus of its own citizens. Since 2023, around 50,000 Israeli graduates have been leaving the country each year, fuelling fears of a “brain drain” as highly educated professionals and high earners move abroad.

This means Israelis living in the diaspora, often from more liberal areas, including Tel Aviv, are more likely to vote against Mr Netanyahu.

Mr Mekelberg said the profile of Israelis returning to vote had shifted. In previous elections, those travelling home were more likely to be ultra-Orthodox, whose parties have often backed Mr Netanyahu.

He said: “This time, you hear more and more of those who came because they support the opposition.

“They feel democracy has been compromised under the current government, they oppose the way that the war was conducted in Gaza, the fact that this is a government that presided on the biggest failure of security on October 7 back in 2023, and the corruption. They say it is the time to change.”With the election on a knife edge, and thousands more expatriates expected to land at Ben Gurion airport before polling day, their votes could prove disastrous for Mr Netanyahu.