In just a few weeks, on March 23, Israelis will be headed to the polls for their fourth election in two years. In the past, they looked condescendingly at countries like the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy that had a reputation for frequent elections, thinking to themselves that could never happen in Israel. But it did. Israel’s big political morass keeps on growing with no end in sight, and Israelis will pay yet another visit to the polling booth to see democracy in inaction.
One of the main features of the previous elections was a series of consolidations among political parties, particularly on the center-left. An example of this is the Blue and White list, which brought together three separate parties: Yesh Atid, Israel Resilience and Telem. The Arab Joint List brought together four separate Arab parties, and Labor teamed up with Gesher and Meretz to avoid wasting votes. What stands out in this election is the number of parties that split up into their constituent parts, with many deciding to go their separate ways. So, if it would have taken just three ballots to vote for all the aforementioned parties in the last election, it would take six ballots this time. It is the exact opposite of what happened in the previous elections.
