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Assessing Israel's Government in the Post-2015 Elections: Continuity and Change
Abstract
The Israeli elections of March 17, 2015, are highly important for a variety of reasons. They have brought to center stage to old conflict between the two large political forces that have dominated Israeli politics since the 1960s. On the one hand, you have a Center-Left bloc of parties—running at this election as the “Zionist Camp”— and headed by a new leader, Yitzhak Herzog and supporting, in principle, a territorial compromise with the Palestinians under Mahmoud Abbas. On the other hand, you have a Right leaning set of parties—describing itself as the “National Bloc”—and led by Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister since 2009 (and prior to that between 1996-1999). To a large extent, the 2015 elections are a test to the leadership of Netanyahu, a leadership that has been characterized by ambiguity, committing publicly to a two state solution (Bar-Ilan speech of 2009) while doing everything possible to prevent such a solution from actually being adopted and implemented. The main goal of my paper is to assess the extent to which the 2015 elections amounts to a real change in the Israeli political landscape or, alternatively, does it reaffirms continuity. The behavior—political statements and actual actions—of the post-election government will be used to determine this question.
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
Israel
Sub Area
None