Sunday is the first day of the working week in Israel – but the upcoming Sunday August 17 promises to be a day of strikes and demonstrations. There’s a groundswell of public opposition to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promised all-out offensive against Gaza city as well as a growing sense of desperation at the plight of the remaining hostages.The question is how will these actions on the streets translate into a coherent political alternative to Netanyahu in Knesset elections? The next election must take place by October 2026 – but it might well happen sooner. Netanyahu has presided over the most right-wing government in the country’s history. During his current term from October 2022, mass protests have been a feature of Israeli society. Initially they were against the government’s attack on the powers of the supreme court, which many saw as a more general attack on democracy. Now, with the failure of the military operation in Gaza to secure the release of all the October 7 hostages, the need to secure a ceasefire or a more permanent end to the war to bring the hostages home has become the focus of public protests. August 17 is likely to involve the largest national mobilisation yet.But despite the mass action on the streets, Israel’s opposition parties have remained divided on policy and largely united only in their dislike of Netanyahu. Only the left: the Labor Party and Meretz seem to have grasped that the time has come to offer the country a clear political alternative. After decades of rivalry, they’ve merged into one party, the Democrats, under the leadership of charismatic former deputy chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Yair Golan. Yesh Atid (which translates as There is a Future) led by Yair Lapid offer a broadly centrist political platforms. Like the Democrats, Yesh Atid has been active in the campaign for securing the release of the hostages but is largely silent on any resolution of the conflict with the Palestinians. The rest of the opposition: Benny Gantz’s Blue and White and Avigdor Leiberman’s Yisrael Beitenu are firmly on the centre-right. Gantz’s party places security as its main policy but has been open to compromise with Netanyahu on the judicial reforms. Leiberman’s party is rooted among Russian immigrants and maintains a nationalist position. Once a Netanyahu associate, he is now a major critic.Israel’s electoral system requires parties to work together to forge coalitions. Netanyahu did so in November 2022 with the support of the most right-wing parties in the Knesset. Now the polls are predicting that it is Naftali Bennet, who served as prime minister from June 2021 to June 2022, who is shaping up as the most likely candidate to lead the opposition bloc into the next election.Bennett led a broad coalition which briefly interrupted Netanyahu’s second period in office. Consequentially, his government was supported by Mansour Abbas’s Ra'am, or United Arab List. Abbas’s presence in the coalition underlines the significance of the role that Arab parties potentially play in Israeli politics, representing, as they do, 20% of Israel’s population in a system where lawmakers are chosen by proportional representations. But Israel’s Arab parties, which range across different shades of Islamism, Arab nationalism and socialism, are as factionalised and divided as the Jewish parties.What the public wantA lot will depend on how the parties handle the war and hostage questions. Opinion polls consistently show there is a large majority of Israelis (74%) in favour of ending the war in Gaza and bringing the hostages home.A majority of people, 55%, now think that Netanyahu is handling the war badly . This level of approval, together with mass action on Israel’s streets, presents an opportunity for Israel’s opposition parties to paint themselves as a viable alternative government. Now, nearly two years after the October 7 attack, with the unresolved hostage situation, mounting settler violence on the West Bank and Israel becoming ever more isolated internationally, this issue has become even more acute. People want the war to end.But this doesn’t translate into support for a two-state solution, which has fallen since October 7 to a small minority of 21% of voters. It’s not what will bring people on to the streets on August 17. During the last major period of public unrest – the pro-democracy protests of two years ago – the organisers of the marches actively discouraged comparisons between the attack on democracy in Israel and the decidedly undemocratic Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. While today there are groups such as Jewish-Arab Standing Together who make that case, especially after the course of the Gaza war, these forces are far from the mainstream of even the most activist opponents against Netanyahu’s war.Sunday’s demonstrations will be a significant moment for Israel and a real challenge to Netanyahu’s government. It is possible that in the next few months his government will fall over the withdrawal of the ultra-orthodox parties who are angry about the goverment’s decision to revoke the exemption for ultra-orthodox Jews from the armed forces. This is likely to make passing a budget problematic and may well trigger an elections much earlier than scheduled. Netanyahu could well face an electorate exhausted by the trauma of October 7, wars on many fronts and rising Israeli casualties in Gaza. If the opinion polls are right, and an anti-Netanyahu bloc wins a majority, there could even be a new government in the next six months. But to dismiss a more permanent settlement with Palestine cannot be viable in the long term. Any government committed to defending Israeli democracy will find that it is incompatible with continuing denial of Palestinian democracy. Unless there is peace with its Palestinian neighbours, Israel will not be at peace with itself.John Strawson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.