Recent elections to the Israeli Parliament (Knesset)* The February 2009 elections confirmed that electoral reform is one of the most pressing issues in modern Israel. The price of the issue is political stability. Since 1988. The Knesset has never fully completed the 4-year term allotted to it by law, however, it has managed to do so several times before, with the exception of the period of the 1960s. The governmental leapfrog is even more intense than the parliamentary one. The vote gap between the ruling Kadima and the opposition Likud in the February elections was so minimal that, based on the parliamentary mandates received, it was only one seat in the Knesset (28 and 27 seats, respectively). For the first time in Israel's history, the formation of a government was entrusted not to the leader of the winning party (in this case, Tzipi Livni), but to its rival, Benjamin Netanyahu. SWAN, CRAYFISH AND PIKE A similar case has already occurred in Israeli history. In 1984, the left bloc "Maarakh", then mostly consisting of members of the Party of Labor/"Labor, led by Shimon Peres, won 44 seats in the election, while Likud, with 41 seats, became its closest competitor. Peres was unable to form a government coalition, and eventually the principle of rotation was adopted - for the first two years, the government was headed by Peres, and Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir was his deputy and at the same time Foreign minister. Two years later, their roles were reversed. This experience, desperate to form a coalition, Ts. Livni suggested applying again. However, Netanyahu, more confident in his abilities, refused. As a result, his candidacy for the post of prime minister received the greatest support from the parties that passed into parliament, and Israeli President Shimon Peres, according to Israeli political tradition, officially invited Netanyahu to try to form a new government. Kadima went into opposition. Netanyahu managed to create a broad coalition, which included the center ... Read more