Israel's Shuffling Leadership

Since Naftali Bennet stepped down as Israel’s Prime Minister last month, his replacement, temporarily leading the country is Yair Lapid. Bennet was part of the Yamina party and Ayelet Shaked is now the leader of the Yamina party. The Yamina party has weakened and Bennet has stated that he will be leaving politics since his coalition crumbled.

While these changes are occurring, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making plans for a comeback as he heads the Likud party. Netanyahu believes that the Yamina party will not be strong enough to make it to the Knesset. But Netanyahu may need Yamina to secure a majority (coalition) in the Knesset after the elections.

There are a lot more moving parts to the Israeli Knesset (parliament) than with the United States election process. Sometimes it is difficult to follow as one of the many parties may fail, new ones come into being and ultimately whichever party is elected, the leader of that party must still form a coalition majority to move forward. Even after a coalition is formed, if enough people in the coalition do not agree with what is going on in the Knesset, they can withdraw and cause the fragile majority to dissolve, which brings them back to more elections.

 Israelis will go to the ballot box on November 1st for their fifth national election in less than four years! The polls suggest that Benjamin Netanyahu may have a narrow majority.

As we pray for our own mid-term elections coming up on November 8th, please keep Israel’s fragile government in prayer. With such division, they are vulnerable to the political world.