Forum:2015 Israel General Elections

Election date is on March 17th. We have a very tumultuous time for Netanyahu, who sacked two ministers from his cabinet (they happened to be leaders of his hardline coalition) and forced an earlier election for Israel. Isaac Herzog of the Labor Party has agreed with Tzipi Livni of Hatnuah to run on a shared ballot, which would form a coalition government between the two should they win; Herzog and Livni would rotate the premiership for two years (Herzog first, then Livni). The Orthodox Haredi Jews are splitting the hardline vote by creating so many different pro-Haredi (called Shas) parties; they do not allow female Haredi to run for office.

Avigdor Lieberman (Yisraeli Beiteinu) and Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home), two other hardline coalition leaders, have effectively thrown Netanyahu under the bus as a way to drum up more extremist voters, so his hold is tenuous at best. It could be that the hardliners (i.e. someone worse than Netanyahu) will win while he gets thrown aside, or it could be that the hardliners will split the votes and give it to Herzog/Livni. I really can't tell what's gonna happen. The three major Arab parties are looking to merge, which would be huge and could tip the balance. [Here is a picture that shows the current standings of the Knesset]. Serocco (talk) 19:35, 1 January 2015 (UTC)