On 23 March, for the fourth time in two years, Israelis will vote in national elections and choose their parliament, the Knesset, from which a coalition government must seek majority support.
As always, only nine million Israeli citizens have a vote, out of a population of fourteen million people living under Israeli control, if we include the West Bank and Gaza. (Here, 972 magazine explains the argument for including these territories in the total.)
On the face of it, the competing parties distinguish themselves from one another according to traditional battle lines: left against right, which in the Israeli context means the “peace camp”, which argues for an accommodation with Palestinians, versus supporters of the occupation and annexation of Palestinian land. Meanwhile, a furious argument rages on about whether prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is corrupt and must step down, or whether he is the victim of a left-wing conspiracy to accuse him of crimes he never committed.
