Undecided Elections Again Leave Israel With Impossible Political Conundrum

While Israeli families met over the weekend to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover with hardly any restrictions due to the coronavirus, the country’s politicians worked overtime in an attempt to finally form a government and pull the nation out of its ongoing two-year (and counting) political crisis. After Tuesday’s elections, which again produced no clear victor, the center-left bloc’s leader and current head of the opposition, Yair Lapid, met with his allies and heads of other parties, including the United Arab List, which is courted by both political sides and has yet to commit to either Lapid’s forming coalition or Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc. On Monday, Netanyahu’s Likud officially kicked off negotiations with the four-seat Arab party, after unequivocally condemning the left for doing the same the past three election rounds and repeatedly warning of a government “supported by terrorist sympathizers.” While Lapid, Netanyahu and other candidates tussle over the prime minister’s office, it seems the likeliest scenario, once again, is a do-over – a fifth election in just over two years.