Netanyahu Didn't Lose The Israeli Election Before, And He Didn't Win It Just Now
The latest developments in Israeli politics, explained
Many people were befuddled to hear the news today that Israeli President Rivlin had tasked Benjamin Netanyahu with trying to form the next Israeli government. After all, the opposition party Blue & White got more votes, and Netanyahu got even less support this election than he did in the last one. Had Bibi lost the election, many wondered, or did he win?
Of course, those people were not readers of this newsletter. Because you guys know that the Israeli electoral process takes more time than just counting the votes, and that we still won’t know the victor for some time. In Tablet, I explain why Netanyahu is getting first crack at the coalition, why the opposition actually wanted him to, and what Bibi or his challenger Benny Gantz will need to do to actually win. An excerpt:
But didn’t Gantz’s party get more votes than Netanyahu’s? Why isn’t he getting the first chance to form a coalition?
It’s complicated. Gantz’s Blue & White received 33 Knesset seats to Likud’s 32. At the same time, as noted above, Netanyahu technically has one more seat of support in the Knesset—55 to 54—and there is no official rule that the biggest party gets the first chance to create a coalition. In fact, in Israel’s 2009 election, when Netanyahu first began his current term in office, Tzipi Livni’s center-left Kadima actually won one more seat than Bibi’s Likud. But Israeli President Peres nonetheless gave the first shot to Netanyahu because the right had a bigger ideological bloc overall in the Knesset, and thus the best chance of forming a coalition.
At the end, I address some of the bigger picture questions:
Given this chaos, has Israel considered adopting a simpler and more straightforward system of government, like say, the electoral college?
Not as yet.
Why do hundreds of thousands of people around the world think Israel controls global politics when they can’t even govern themselves?
Now, that’s a question even I can’t answer for you.
My goal is to help as many people as possible understand some of the most vexing issues of our time—all in plain English and without condescension. If you liked this post and want to support this sort of journalism, please be sure to subscribe to get future installments directly in your inbox, and tell your friends to do so as well: