Benjamin Netanyahu’s Long Premiership and the Rise of the New Political Center: Is there a Qualitative Change in the Israeli Party System?

Abstract

Israel's party system has been characterized by the bipolar rivalry between the left-wing and right-wing blocks since the late 1970s. In recent years we could have seen at least two trends that seem to diverge from this model. For the last 9 years the Likud party has formed three successive governments which has made Benjamin Netanyahu the longest continuously serving prime minister in the history of Israel. Another new occurrence is the preservation of a significant representation of the center parties for four Knesset terms in the row. The aim of the paper is to verify whether Israel's party system has departed from the two-blocs bipolar model. Based on the empirical data (election results, government formation, party's political platforms) it examines whether the parties' rivalry in the years 2009-2018 differed qualitatively from the previous period. To answer this question the paper investigates three hypotheses. First-Likud has become a dominant party in Israel. Second-a dominant and stable Israeli right-wing parties' bloc has formed. Third-an enduring and relevant center sector has emerged in Israel's party system.

Bibi and Mr. Prime Minister: do different Facebook identities imply different messages for political leaders?

“…From the beginning of his political and public career, Netanyahu was considered media savvy, and throughout his career attracted the attention of Israeli media (Skorek, 2018), although media attention was not always positive and the coverage he received was sometimes defined as scornful (Weiss Yaniv and Tenenboim-Weinblatt, 2016). Netanyahu's negative coverage may have been a counter-reaction to his frequent attacks against Israeli media as part of a populist strategy featuring an anti-elitist and sometimes specifically anti-media message (Weiss Yaniv and Tenenboim-Weinblatt, 2016).…”

“…2.2.1 Benjamin Netanyahu and social media. Benjamin Netanyahu ("Bibi", as he is known among the Israeli public) was elected head of the Likud party in 1993 and was elected prime minister in 1996, becoming Israel's youngest prime minister (Katz, 2017;Skorek, 2018). In 1999, he was defeated in the prime ministerial election and announced his retirement from political life, yet returned in 2002 to the government headed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (Katz, 2017).…”

“…The longest-serving Israeli Prime Minister (over 14 years, including more than 10 consecutive years since 2009), Benjamin Netanyahu is a well-known public figure in the international community due to his ties to leaders from many countries and his occasional public speeches in global media events such as the General Assembly of the United Nations and many other public appearances (Roy, 2019; Skorek, 2018).…”