Melanie Preston

Last night, less than an hour after I posted my article on "Election Eve," I received a video from Udi Goren, going through each of the candidates. Udi is the cousin of Tal Chaimi, who was taken hostage on October 7th from Kibbutz Nir Yitzchak, where I volunteered with babies last year after returning to Israel to live. I feel so many people abroad miss this side of things, so hope you will watch it, regardless of whether you are casting a ballot. As for me, I am still deciding...

I'm finally bingeing Eylon Levy's election podcast, after changing my mind hourly for the past month about who to vote for in tomorrow's historic election. This will be my second time ever voting in Israel, but my first time in 20 years. What happens this time could mean the country's survival or not - and what this means depending on who you ask will get you an entirely different response, as is always the case in Israel.

At this time three years ago, I was not yet living in Israel for the second time. In fact - I hadn't even visited in 11 years, and the years I had lived here happily had receded into the background...into a place in the attic you forget about, when things in the forefront become too overwhelming for too long - that you simply forget - a time when you had found yourself, and a time when you had been happy.