Prime Minister Netanyahu's Likud Party "won" the most recent Knesset elections but Israel being Israel, no party wins an absolute majority so the country is inevitably governed by a coalition. Alas for Bibi, though...Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party, which shares much of its policy doctrine with Likud, absolutely WILL NOT join with Likud so long as Likud won't pass a bill ending the military draft exemption for some 60,000 ultra-Orthodox young men. On the other hand, the hard Right religious parties, whose presence is tiny but as necessary to Likud's coalition as Yisrael Beiteinu is, absolutely WILL NOT join with Likud so long as Likud agrees to pass a bill ending the military draft exemption for some 60,000 ultra-Orthodox young men. This might be it, folks, the defining moment where Israel must decide once and for all exactly what kind of nation-state she will be; secular or religious. New elections are a definite possibility.
Netanyahu is doing his level best to dissolve the Knesset before his mandate from President Rivlin to form a government expires. If he fails, Rivlin will probably ask Gantz of Blue and White to try it. Gantz might succeed and might not. It's unlikely that any of the Haredim will join such a coalition, though. Five hours left, Bibi!
The bill dissolving the Knesset passed all three readings and the vote wasn't close so Israel will have a new election in mid-September. Be interesting to see if the results are any different this time around.
Parliamentary systems are so fascinating. They give me the willies, though, and probably unfairly. But when you read Shirer's book and all the machinations of the Weimar Republic, it just makes you wonder about how they can be manipulated by tyrants. By the way, am not suggesting tyranny in Israel at all. Just the system seems strange and capable of manipulation. Maybe those who've been raised in parliamentary systems think the same about our two-party system.
No, democracy in the free part of Israel is very active and public discourse is tumultuous to say the very least. In the unfree side, the occupied territories, political discourse tends toward the violent. Bibi has remained in power so long because he promises, and seems to deliver, safety to the nation and its Jewish citizens. I do not know how long the status quo can continue though nor do I see any easy endgame. History keeps intruding on my thoughts. Throughout the history of the world, including the history of the United States, expulsion or death figures all too often as the ultimate "solution" to intractable ethnic problems. There will be no two-state solution and no one who is being honest about it thinks either side wants a two state solution. What will be is what currently is; a single state. I don't like to think about the implications.
To me it's less about whether a system is parliamentary as such, and more whether the system is "first past the post" single member districts (as in the U.S. and the UK parliament), which lead to a two party system; or proportional representation (like the European Parliament or Knesset) which leads to more diversity of points of view in the legislature.
