Page 9 - Issue 23

Election update from Israel…

By Zach Freund

It looks like the 4th election in two years is as indecisive
as the last three. Netanyahu (Likud) is going to have a
tough time forming a coalition. Based on current results,
he will need both Naftali Bennett (Yamina) and Mansour
Abbas (Ra’am) to agree to join his coalition, in order to
form a government.

The path to victory for Bibi is unclear however, as Bennett
has claimed he will not sit in a coalition with Ra’am, the
Islamic Arab party. It leaves Netanyahu in a position he
has found himself in countless times in the past, and will
demand his absolute best political manoeuvring to pull
this off and form a government. With the rest of the votes
to be counted over the coming days, it remains to be seen
what will happen, but the current situation appears to be
a continued deadlock. Here is a fun simulator where you
can try and form coalitions based on the current projected
number of seats per party!
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/3990025/

Some of my thoughts/feelings at the moment.

1. This was the fourth national election in two years.
It’s exhausting. Everyone has election fatigue. This
year had the lowest voter turnout since 2015.
Coming from Australia where voting is mandatory, it
still blows my mind that voting is optional, and that
only 67% of people who were eligible decided to vote.
On the one hand I get it, people in Israeli society are
disillusioned by the politics and think that voting