Legislative elections were held in Israel on 2 March 2020 to elect members of the twenty-third Knesset. The result was initially a stalemate, which was resolved when Likud and Blue & White reached a coalition agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, the premiership would rotate between Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, with Gantz given the new position of Alternate Prime Minister until November 2021. These elections followed the continued political deadlock after the April and September 2019 Knesset elections.
Background
The extended period of political deadlock that led up to the election was the result of close races in April and September 2019 that left both incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition favorite Benny Gantz unable to muster a 61-seat governing majority, in coalition with their respective blocs of smaller, ideologically allied parties.
As a result, Netanyahu and Gantz agreed in principle that the only solution was a national unity government between Netanyahu's Likud and Gantz's Blue and White parties. However, substantial disagreements over the terms of such a government prevented one from being formed, as Netanyahu demanded the inclusion of his allied right-wing, religious parties, and Gantz refused to cooperate with a Netanyahu-led Likud as long as he was under indictment for alleged bribery and fraud.
Orly Adas, director of the Central Elections Committee, cautioned that she lacked the necessary funding and staff to conduct a third election, and President Reuven Rivlin stressed his desire to avoid calling one, repeatedly expressing his dismay at the failure to form a unity government. Nevertheless, as required by the Basic Law, he initiated on 21 November 2019 a 21-day period in which any member of the Knesset (MK) who received the support of 60 of their fellow lawmakers was allowed to try to form a government. After no MKs succeeded at this task by 11 December, Rivlin was forced to call the new election.
Electoral system
The 120 seats in the Knesset are elected by closed list proportional representation in a single nationwide constituency. The electoral threshold for the election is 3.25%. In most cases, this implies a minimum party size of four seats, but it is mathematically possible for a party to pass the electoral threshold and have only three seats (since 3.25% of 120 members = 3.9 members).
Surplus-vote agreements
Two parties can sign an agreement that allows them to compete for leftover seats as though they are running together on the same list. The Bader–Ofer method disproportionately favors larger lists, meaning that such an alliance is more likely to receive leftover seats than both of its comprising lists would be individually. If the alliance receives leftover seats, the Bader–Ofer calculation is then applied privately, to determine how the seats are divided among the two allied lists.The Distribution of Knesset Seats Among the Lists—the Bader-Offer Method, Knesset website The following agreements were signed by parties prior to the election: Likud and Yamina Blue and White and Labor-Gesher-Meretz United Torah Judaism and Shas
Date With the deadline to form a government ending at 11 December at midnight, elections called 90 days later should have been held on 10 March. However, as that date would have conflicted with the Jewish holiday of Purim, the election would have to be held either one week earlier on 3 March, or one week later on 17 March. A Knesset bill was required to be passed to allow the election date to be moved up to earlier in March. The date of 3 March conflicted with Israeli memorial day, so Likud pushed for an election date of 16 March, while Blue and White wanted an election held on 2 March. The two parties agreed to hold elections on 2 March 2020, and the required Knesset votes took place on 11 and 12 December to ratify 2 March.
Campaign Likud
Parties
Parliamentary factions At the end of the 22nd Knesset, there were ten factions in parliament. Name Ideology Symbol Primary demographic Leader September 2019 result Votes (%) Seats Blue and White Liberalism – Benny Gantz25.94% Likud National liberalism – Benjamin Netanyahu25.1% Joint List Big tentMinority interests Israeli Arabs Ayman Odeh10.6% Shas Religious conservatism Sephardi andMizrahi Haredim Aryeh Deri7.44% Yisrael BeiteinuNationalismSecularism Russian-speakers Avigdor Lieberman6.98% United Torah Judaism Religious conservatism Ashkenazi Haredim Yaakov Litzman6.06% Jewish Home–National Union Religious Zionism Modern Orthodox andChardal Jews Rafi Peretz5.87% New RightNational conservatism –Naftali Bennett Labor-Gesher Social democracy – Amir Peretz4.80% Democratic Union Social democracy – Nitzan Horowitz4.34%
Contesting parties
The central committee of the Likud party, on 8 December 2019, voted to cancel the primary for its electoral list. However, an internal Likud court ruled on 19 December that it was unconstitutional, as the Likud constitution would have to be amended if primaries were cancelled. The central committee approved, on 12 December, the holding of a leadership primary for the party on 26 December, in which Netanyahu defeated his challenger, Gideon Sa'ar. The Likud court, on 23 December 2019, overturned the decision to hold a primary for the Knesset slate. Likud filed its list on 16 January. Yair Lapid of the Blue and White alliance () indicated that he would abandon a previous agreement to rotate the premiership with Benny Gantz if another election takes place, meaning that only Gantz would be the Blue and White candidate for prime minister. The party submitted its list on 15 January. Joint List () Labor-Gesher-Meretz (): Labor and Gesher announced on 15 December that they would stay together for the March election. Labor announced on 15 December that Amir Peretz would remain head of the party. Both of the decisions were ratified by the Labor Central Committee on 25 December, in addition to allowing Peretz to select two candidates for the first ten slots on the list, which would move down other candidates. The Meretz party decided on 16 December against holding a leadership primary. The party held a vote on 22 December and decided against holding a primary for the Knesset list (instead keeping the same slate of candidates as the previous election) and also confirmed Nitzan Horowitz as leader of the party. The Democratic Union initially announced on 7 January 2020 that it would run in the elections. On 7 January 2020, Peretz proposed the creation of a centre-left political alliance between his party, the Blue and White party, and the Democratic Union. On 8 January, Gantz ruled out uniting with any party and suggested that Labor-Gesher merge with the Democratic Union. On 12 January, Labor announced that it was negotiating a joint list with Meretz to prevent the possibility of either party not making the electoral threshold and not entering the Knesset. Labor and Meretz announced a joint run on 13 January 2020, with the Labor party central committee voting in favor of ratification of the alliance the following day. Meretz approved the alliance on 14 January. The alliance submitted its list on 15 January. Shas () Yisrael Beiteinu () United Torah Judaism() Yamina (): The Jewish Home and Otzma Yehudit announced on 20 December that they would run on a joint list (later named the United Jewish Home) and had called on Tkuma to join them. However, Jewish Home leader Rafi Peretz faced backlash on 21 December from over 80 officials of the party (including Jewish Home's "number 2", Moti Yogev) indicating that Peretz reached the deal with Otzma Yehudit unilaterally, and further warning that if the deal was not annulled, they would "convene" the central committee and announce party primaries. (They claim Peretz was against open primaries as he supposedly was afraid of losing his leadership position). They also sought a vote on the merger by the parties' central committee. The merger was approved by the central committee on 13 January. Ayelet Shaked announced on 19 December that she would remain a member of the New Right, running as the number two on the party's list. A joint run between itself and Tkuma was announced on 14 January, following a collapse in negotiations between Tkuma and The Jewish Home. One apparent cause for the collapse was the cancellation of the vote to approve the merger between Tkuma and Jewish Home. The Jewish Home MK Moti Yogev, Shaked, New Right head Naftali Bennett and Tkuma head Bezalel Smotrich had all called on Peretz to join the New Right and Tkuma list. Peretz had insisted that he would not abandon the agreement he signed with Otzma Yehudit, though he ultimately reneged on his promise and the Jewish Home, Tkuma and the New Right reformed the Yamina alliance. The new Kol Hanashim Women's Party (), headed by Dr. Mazal Shaul, Sharon Roffe Ofir, Orit Taie and Dr. Elana Maryles Sztokman is running on a platform of women's leadership and gender equality.
Not running Moshe Feiglin of Zehut announced on 13 December 2019 that his party would not run in the election. Noam announced on 2 January 2020 that it would not run in the election. Stav Shaffir initially announced on 25 December that she would run independently as head of the Green Movement, though was still working on creating an alliance of the Labor Party, Meretz, the Green Party and allies of former prime minister Barak, going as far as raising the possibility of giving her second slot on the Democratic Union list to Issawi Frej, an Arab member of Meretz. She let go of her demand for the second place on the list on 4 January 2020 in an attempt to keep the Democratic Union list united, though her Green Party was not included in the Democratic Union alliance or the Labor-Gesher-Meretz alliance. She rebutted Horowitz' claim that she was offered the fifth seat on the Meretz list, instead stating that she would have received the second slot, but at the cost of "ousting" Golan and "dismantling" the Democratic Union, which she was unwilling to do. Shaffir announced on 15 January that her party would not contest the elections. Moshe Gerin of Tzomet announced that the party would not participate in the election and would instead support Likud.
Opinion polls
Exit polls Three television channels released exit polls shortly after polls closed at 22:00. Following their release, Netanyahu tweeted "Thanks" in Hebrew. Around three hours later, two of the channels released updated polls that took into account voting between 20:00 and 22:00, which showed a slight drop in predicted seats for the right-wing bloc.
SourceLikudB&WJLShasL–G–MUTJYaminaYBChannel 12 (initial)37331497776Channel 13 (initial)37321496868Kan36331596876Channel 12 (updated)37321597767Channel 13 (updated)37341497766Source: The Times of Israel
Results
Aftermath
On 8 March 2020, Lieberman gave Gantz his backing to form a new government. The next day, the Joint List agreed to work with Gantz and Lieberman to oust Netanyahu. Orly Levy announced on 10 March that she would not support a minority government and had unofficially left the Labor–Gesher–Meretz alliance. Blue and White MKs Zvi Hauser and Yoaz Hendel had previously stated that they would not support a government that relied on the Joint List's support. An aide to Gantz also stated that he plans to form a government by 23 March. Lieberman and Labor party leader Amir Peretz also reaffirmed on 11 March that an alliance with the Joint List would not change their party's position on forming a political alliance with Gantz.
The elected MKs were sworn in on 16 March 2020. On 15 March, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin announced that he had asked Gantz to form the new government after Gantz received support from 61 of the 120 MKs.