Posted on 09/19/2019 11:18:36 AM PDT by Meatspace
WASHINGTON — The results of Tuesday’s election left U.S. followers of Israeli politics in a state of confusion, with Israel’s political future seemingly harder to predict than ever.
While it is clear to everyone in Washington that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lost the election, it is much less clear who actually won it. Also unclear: Whether Israel will have a government in the next few months or if another election will have to take place in the winter.
With 98 percent of the votes counted on Thursday afternoon, Netanyahu had almost certainly failed in both of his election objectives. First, his Likud party did not receive the largest number of seats, being two behind the centrist Kahol Lavan party led by former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz. Second, and more crucially, the bloc of right-wing and religious parties that support giving Netanyahu legal immunity in the pending corruption charges against him fell well short of garnering the 61 seats necessary for a majority in the Knesset.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
Kingmaker Liberman is going to nominate Gantz to form government, according to Israel channel 12. That breaks the deadlock, but leaves Gantz at the mercy of the Arab party.
Whether this is flat-out #fakenews, or simply a reflection of uncertainty, it does accurately point to the crazy political system and just how Israeli elections operate. It really is a maze of a system. For all of our own system’s issues, at least we usually know who our next CIC is within 24 hours of an election.
Netanyahu currently has no clear path to 61 seats. If he adds Jewish Home (right wing on the Palestinian issue but militantly secular) to his coalition, he loses the religious parties who refuse to sit with Jewish Home.
On the other hand, Blue & White has absolutely no path to a majority-- the total for the Jewish center and left parties is only about 45 seats. The Arab parties (who won about 12 seats) will try to block Netanyahu from forming a government, but will never sit in a government with any Jewish parties, and most of Blue & White would absolutely refuse to sit with the Arabs.
There are only three alternatives now-- (1) a coalition between Blue & White and Likud, leaving out the religious parties (Blue & White has so far refused this, but could change their minds); (2) Netanyahu keeps his current coalition with the religious parties and ekes out a bare 61-seat majority by pulling in some individual members of Blue & White by offering them plum cabinet seats; and (3) a third election (unlikely, since 2 elections in a row have produced only deadlocks).
I’m not an expert but we have experts here on FR so they may hopefully chime in with answers. I’ve just noticed that Haaretz is unreliable and Jerusalem post is unreliable perhaps half or more of the time. Some of the hoist articles are like from another planet , ha! (israelnationalnews and jewishpress seem usually pretty accurate and also fast with breaking updates - tho they include editorial pieces Along the way that are pretty easy to spot so they’re not a problem ) Probably better reporting there than in USA, ha! Still helps to try to find more than one source if possible
“Other people,say that he’s been in office for 13 years and they jury’s want a change.”
The change an Israel without Netanyahu would bring will be untenable for Jewish Israelis and the United States.
There is so much more to be done in Israel and Netanyahu in the one who can bring peace, an end to Israeli Socialism, and an end to abortion in Israel.
Minority government with Liberman, with Arab party agreement not to take down the government. Real possibility.
Netanyahu’s government approved probably the most permissive laws on abortion in the world, not long after his 2013 reelection win.
While this may seem the right thing to do, it is exactly what the Dems and Deep Staters are doing here... , any and all, orthodox and unorthodox and ultra orthodox...
Hahahaha, yeah right, like you could trust an Arab.
Who cares? All that matters is the relationship between the US and Israel, and clearly Netanyahu is the best man when it comes to that.
Yep.
The result would be some sudden crisis like a war, the Arab party obstructs, and a unity government would have to be formed anyway.
But I think the point is that too many players want a unity government, but without Netanyahu. They’ll go the long way if the short way can’t work.
Bibi got Borked, Israel will pay a high price for it.
Suddenly I care a lot less about what happens to Israel.
Bibi will win
Give him time.
Bookmarking Israel news links.
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