Israel’s Fourth Election in Two Years: What’s Different Now?
Election campaign posters of Avigdor Liberman, left, and Benjamin Netanyahu in Bnei Brak, on March 14.
Photographer: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
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Israel’s holding parliamentary elections for the fourth time in two years on March 23 -- yet while it seems we’ve seen this film before, the domestic and global landscapes have changed vastly since the last vote. In March 2020, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, dogged by corruption allegations, was facing his most serious challenger in years. Israel hadn’t even entered the first of its three coronavirus lockdowns. Netanyahu’s chum Donald Trump was in office, and no prospective prime minister wanted to be seen courting Israel’s Arab minority.