Israeli Prime Ministers

A history of Israeli prime ministers.

Prime ministers are elected from the Knesset. Because the legislature's design favors small parties, governments usually involve a large coalition.

Between 1996 and 2003, prime ministers were instead directly elected in a national ballot. This reform was intended to ease the formation of government; stalemates persisted because governments did not necessarily possess the votes to pass legislation.

Otherwise, there have been periods where no majority can be formed and the last prime minister retains office as a caretaker indefinitely. The most prominent example is the 2019-2020 government crisis. Benjamin Netanyahu called snap elections for Apr 9th, 2019; while both his Likud and Benny Gantz's Blue & White won sizeable minorities, neither could build a majority coalition. A second election was called for September 17th, and again no government could be formed. Finally, after the third elections held on March 2nd, 2020, Netanyahu and Gantz formed a coalition.

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