The headlines used words like "delusional," "surreal" and "sad" for the March 16 swearing-in ceremony of Israel’s 23rd Knesset amid coronavirus precautions and political deadlock. Israel faces two major crises at once with the spread of the coronavirus and its leaders' inability to form a government after three rounds of elections in the span of a single year.
The outbreak is clearly taking a toll on the worst political crises Israel has known since its founding. Anyone at the Knesset could see the breakdown in the country’s parliamentary system up close. Two weeks after a very impassioned and stormy election campaign came to a close, there is still no clear decision. It is as though the campaigning rages unabated.
