On March 3, the Valdai Club hosted an expert discussion on the results of the elections in Israel.
The elections to the Knesset (Israeli parliament) will be held for the third time in a year. On April 9 and on September 19, 2019, the right-wing Likud party, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Kahol-Lavan centrist bloc, led by Benny Gantz, former Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, did not get the required number of votes to form the government. Yisrael Beiteinu party refused to form a coalition with either of these political forces. Recent polls show that during the current election the balance of political forces will not change significantly. Kahol-Lavan can improve its results, but this is unlikely to be enough to form a coalition without Likud or Yisrael Beiteinu.
What are the causes of the domestic political crisis in Israel? Is Israel able to resolve it? How will the current elections affect the situation in the Middle East? How will they affect the “deal of the century” proposed by Donald Trump? The discussion participants answered these and other questions.
Speakers:
Yacov Livne, Chargé d'Affaires of Israel to the Russian Federation;
Anatoly Viktorov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Israel (via video link);
Yuri Kanner, President of the Russian Jewish Congress;
Tatiana Karasova, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Israel, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences;
Zvi Magen, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), Tel Aviv University, Israel's ambassador to Russia (1998-1999) (via videolink).
Moderator:
Working languages: Russian, English.