Israeli Elections Update

Recently, Israeli politics have been heating up in a way completely new to Israel’s young statehood. After Bibi Netanyahu (of the Likud party) won the majority of seats during the election in April but failed to effectively form a coalition (of at least 61 seats in the 120 seat parliament), Israel performed its first ever --for lack of a better word-- redo election. Likud’s main competitor is Benny Gantz (of the Kachol V’Lavan party). Israel’s democracy had practically become jammed; even though Bibi was voted into the highest number of seats in the Knesset and technically won the election, other elected parties wouldn’t sit with Likud in a coalition. Due to Bibi’s inability to form a coalition, another election was the only way to move forward. In the next election, which took place this past month, Kachol V’Lavan beat Likud by exactly one seat with 33 seats, a close enough vote to call the President into action. Israel’s president Reuven Rivlin was called in to be a neutral voice in the process of election. His job was to decide which of the two parties would get the right to form a coalition, and even though Kachol V’Lavan technically won this election with the highest amount of elected seats in Knesset, President Rivlin chose Bibi to form a coalition. Rivlin’s reasoning was that the evidence pointed towards Bibi having a more substantial ability to form a coalition with other parties in Knesset than Kachol V’Lavan. After about a month, Bibi still couldn’t form a coalition, and Rivlin passed the opportunity to Benny Gantz of Kachol V’Lavan. Now, polls are showing that most Israelis support their party in a coalition under Gantz rather than casting a third election, and Gantz is doing everything possible to be able to form a coalition in the next month. Gantz initially said he wouldn’t include the Arab party in his coalition, but in his effort to become the next prime minister, it seems he is considering it. He met with the Joint List, which is the Arab party in Israel. Historically, the Arab parties haven’t actually taken seats in government out of protest; however this year, the Arab party might have a substantial amount of power in determining the fate of the election. Exactly how the country will move forward is unclear; Israel might have to hold a third election or the state might just have a direct election, electing a prime minister instead of electing a party.