The first electoral round in April 2019 sparked very heated dichotomist tribal debates around Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption and the controversial question of whether he can function as a prime minister during his trial, in the case he will be indicted.² After twenty-eight days, the time the law allocates to PM candidates to form a coalition, Netanyahu announced his failure and forced a new round of elections, preventing his rival, Benny Ganz, from using a legal option to try to form a coalition under his leadership. Netanyahu was expecting that the power of his party and potential partners would increase from sixty seats to sixty-one, the minimum necessary for a majority in the Israeli Parliament. However, these parties actually lost five seats, creating an even more complicated stalemate.

In the second round the electoral campaigns significantly changed, which in turn triggered heated debates within and between the pro- and anti-Netanyahu blocs. The result was that Netanyahu’s party and his partners (called the “right-wing” bloc) lost five seats; however, the anti-Netanyahu bloc increased only by two seats (from fifty-five to fifty-seven).³ In both rounds a small party representing the Russian-speaking voters, led by an extremely hawkish leader, Avigdor Lieberman, emerged as the breakeven party. Similar to the previous round of negotiations, Lieberman declared once again that he will not take part in Netanyahu’s coalition, rejecting his partnership with the religious parties and demanding the establishment of a National Unity Government, formed mainly by the two big parties and his own party, Israel Beyteinu (“Israel is our home”). Apparently, nothing changed, and the same stalemate was reproduced.