196.7 - Teaser for next week

Teaser for next week

I have about one minute to do this, so it will be quick.

It appears that Benjamin Netanyahu will again be prime minister of Israel. As I do this, that is not a certainty, but it is quite likely.

Israel is a parliamentary system and has multiple parties, so to form a government Netanyahu must get the support of enough parties to have enough seats to make up a majority in the 120-member Israeli parliament, the Knesset. His existing coalition government had a bare majority of 61 seats.

Benjamin Netanyahu

The thing is, while NetanYahoo's own Likud Party did very well, gaining 12 seats, other right-wing parties lost seats. So his "natural coalition," that is, one that would be formed of more-or-less compatible parties, comes up short at only 57 seats. That means he must gain the agreement of one of the centrist parties and while that is likely, such agreements are never 100% certain until they happen.

If for some reason he can't form a government, his rival Isaac Herzog, leader of the Labour Party, would have the next shot.

Still, the expectation is the NetanYahoo will remain prime minister. Which it is why it is relevant, indeed important, to say this:

Benjamin NetanYahoo is a liar, a hypocrite, an imperialist, and a racist.

And I will defend every one of those contentions next week.