Israel Bracing for Possible 5th Election Cycle

The fourth Israeli election in two years is officially less than one month away, but the electoral picture isn’t getting any clearer. On Tuesday, new polls showed neither side netting enough seats to form a viable, sustainable government, with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party dropping to 28 seats and Netanyahu’s bloc of supporters failing to reach the coveted 61-seat threshold. On the other side of the aisle, challengers like Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and former Likud minister Gideon Sa’ar remain steady with 18 and 13 seats respectively, and could theoretically establish a coalition of parties that don’t have much in common other than a desire to unseat Netanyahu. On Tuesday, the prime minister attempted to further close ranks among his limited group of supporters, demanding the ultra-Orthodox and extreme right-wing parties to sign a declaration vowing to back only him after the election and not join a competing coalition. The attempt failed, however, when the Religious Zionist party refused to sign the document.