What changed so much with Israel's Netanyahu that he's been ousted?
I've not ever really followed politics until more recent years, but I'd thought Netanyahu was relatively good for Israel. So this has seemed a surprise all the controversy lately, and now he's voted out. How bad did it get that he's been kicked out, what happened?
Answers ( 1 )
So, bear with me here because Israeli politics are a little complicated. First, in Israel (and unlike the US), you don't vote for particular politicians during elections. You vote for a party. The party with the most votes gets the most seats in their parliament (called the Knesset). If no one has a majority (and Israel has a ton of parties, so outright majorities are extremely rare), the Israel's President gets to decide which party gets the first opportunity to try and form a government by assembling a coalition of different parties. If that party fails to do so in 28 days, another party may get a shot at the President's discretion. If no one can form a government, Israel has new elections. This continues until someone forms a government.
Typically, the largest party in the government picks their leader to be the Prime Minister (who is the overall head of government). Netanyahu has served as Prime Minister because his party, Likud, has been the largest party in the Knesset for the past 12 years.
This time around, Netanyahu did get the first opportunity to form a government because his Likud party is the largest in the current Knesset (30 of 120 total seats) back on April 6, 2021. However, he failed to form a government in 28 days. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin then granted Yesh Atid's leader Yair Lapid the right to try and form a government on May 5, 2021, since Yesh Atid had the second most seats in the Knesset at 17. Lapid was able to assemble a coalition comprised of enough parties to give him a majority in the Knesset, and got to form a government as a result.