President Donald Trump on Sunday called on Israel to “get their act together.”
“Israel is all messed up in their election […] they have to get their act together,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn before leaving on his trip to Europe. “Bibi got elected and now they have to go through the process again? We’re not happy about that,” Trump said.
Well, Bibi didn’t get elected, despite appearances, Bibi’s party took 35 out of 120 seats in the Knesset and Bibi was unable to convince a majority of the House to join him in a coalition government.
Israel flirted with direct elections for prime minister between 1996 and 2001. As these things usually turn out, instead of consolidating power in the hands of fewer parties, the reform actually led to more, smaller parties. Israelis who voted for their choice as PM then felt secure in voting in a separate ticket for their favorite Knesset faction, and those two did not necessarily belong to the same party.
In 1996, when the first such direct election took place, Benjamin Netanyahu defeated Labor’s Shimon Peres, but in the Knesset Labor won more than 27% of the votes to become the largest faction, forcing Netanyahu into a coalition government with the religious parties.
Five years later, in 2001, Prime Minister Ehud Barak resigned, and a direct election for PM was held, which then Likud chairman Ariel Sharon won handily with 62.4% of the vote. But Likud only had 21 seats in the Knesset at the time, and Sharon was forced to form a national unity government. That’s when most Israelis realized the system was causing more harm than good and did away with it.
One of the reasons Trump is so perturbed has to do with the fact that as long as there is no legitimate government in Israel, he doesn’t feel he can introduce his Deal of the Century peace plan for Israel and the Palestinian Authority. So far, the PA has boycotted it directly, and, as it turns out, Israel is boycotting it the old fashion way – by not being home when the G-Man from DC rings the bell.