In April Israelis went to the polls for national elections. The result was a virtual tie between the old right wing coalition parties, led by Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, and the ne wBlue White party who campaigned on a left-center platform whose chief appeal was that it would replace Netanyahu. The Blue-White and their allies managed to garner enough support to make it impossible for the Likud party to bring in enough coalition partners to make a majority and form a new government. Netanyahu decided to go back to the public and called another election. We all voted yesterday. The result, so far, looks very much like the result of the last election.
The real test will come when the President tasks one of the major party leaders to try to put together a coalition. It won’t be easy. The Israeli system of proportional representation gives a disproportionate voice to the smaller coalition partners. Of course, each of them has a special axe to grind. The two religious parties want extra subsidies for their activities and exemptions from military service for their youth. Some of the parties on the left want actual universal military service, civil marriage, and an end to former “status quo” arrangements that prevent public transportation from operating on the Sabbath and keeps ALL businesses shut down on that same day. And then there are the Arabs. The united Arab party wants more efforts to give their supporters equal status. There are some parties that will not join a coalition if it includes the Arabs. Others won’t join a coalition that includes a religious party. And there are others that will not join a Netanyahu led government because he is accused of corruption. Netanyahu, himself, seems to want to remain in power in order to avoid the possibility of a conviction coupled with prison time.
As you may have gathered from this very brief summary, politics in Israel can be REALLY complicated. For the next few weeks we all just have to wait and see if anyone can find a compromise solution and form a new coalition government.
Wetherhorn 