Following an election, the president nominates a member of theKnesset to become prime minister after asking party leaders whom they support for the position. The first candidate the president nominates has 28 days to form a viable government that can command a majority in the Knesset. He then presents a government platform and must receive a vote of confidence from the Knesset to take office. In practice, the prime minister is usually the leader of the largest party in the governing coalition. Since it is all but impossible for one party to win a majority in the Knesset, all Israeli governments have been coalitions between two or more parties. Between 1996 and 2001, the prime minister was directly elected, separately from the Knesset.[4]
The prime minister's position is greatly enhanced compared to his counterparts in other parliamentary republics because he is bothde jure andde facto chief executive. This is becauseBasic Law: The Government explicitly vests executive power in theGovernment, of which the prime minister is the leader. In most other parliamentary republics, the president is at least nominal chief executive, while usually required by convention to act on the advice of the cabinet.
The office of Prime Minister came into existence on 14 May 1948, the date of theDeclaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, when the provisional government was created.David Ben-Gurion, leader ofMapai and head of theJewish Agency, became Israel's first prime minister. The position became permanent on 8 March 1949, when thefirst government was formed. Ben-Gurion retained his role until late 1953, when he resigned to settle in theKibbutz ofSde Boker. He was replaced byMoshe Sharett. However, Ben-Gurion returned in a little under two years to reclaim his position. He resigned for a second time in 1963, breaking away from Mapai to formRafi.Levi Eshkol took over as head ofMapai and prime minister. He became the first prime minister to head the country under the banner of two parties when Mapai formed theAlignment withAhdut HaAvoda in 1965. In 1968 he also became the only party leader to command an absolute majority in the Knesset, afterMapam and Rafi merged into the Alignment, giving it 63 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.
On 26 February 1969, Eshkol became the first prime minister to die in office. He was temporarily replaced byYigal Allon, whose stint lasted less than a month, as the party persuadedGolda Meir to return to political life and become prime minister in March 1969. Meir was Israel's first woman prime minister, and the third in the world (afterSirimavo Bandaranaike andIndira Gandhi).
Meir resigned in 1974 after theAgranat Commission published its findings on theYom Kippur War, even though it had absolved her of blame.Yitzhak Rabin took over, though he also resigned towards the end of theeighth Knesset's term following a series of scandals. Those included the suicide of Housing MinisterAvraham Ofer after police began investigating allegations that he had used party funds illegally, and theaffair involvingAsher Yadlin (the governor-designate of the Bank of Israel), who was sentenced to five years in prison for having accepted bribes. Rabin's wife,Leah, was also found to have had anoverseas bank account, which was illegal in Israel at the time.
After the1984 elections had proved inconclusive with neither the Alignment nor Likud able to form a government, anational unity government was formed with a rotating prime ministership –Shimon Peres took the first two years, and was replaced by Shamir midway through the Knesset term. Although the1988 elections produced another national unity government, Shamir was able to take the role alone. Peres made an abortive bid to form a left-wing government in 1990, but failed, leaving Shamir in power until 1992. Rabin became prime minister for the second time when he ledLabour to victory in the1992 elections. After hisassassination on 4 November 1995, Peres took over as prime minister.
During thethirteenth Knesset (1992–1996) it was decided to hold a separate ballot for prime minister modeled afterAmerican presidential elections. This system was instituted in part because the Israeli electoral system makes it all but impossible for one party to win a majority. While only two parties—Mapai/Labour and Likud—had ever led governments, the large number of parties or factions in a typical Knesset usually prevents one party from winning the 61 seats needed for a majority.
In 1996, when the first suchelection took place, the outcome was a surprise win forBenjamin Netanyahu after election polls predicted that Peres was the winner.[5] However, in the Knesset election held at the same time, Labour won more votes than any other party (27%). Thus Netanyahu, despite his theoretical position of power, needed the support of the religious parties to form a viable government.
Ultimately Netanyahu failed to hold the government together, and early elections for both prime minister and the Knesset were called in1999. Although five candidates intended to run, the three representing minor parties (Benny Begin ofHerut – The National Movement,Azmi Bishara ofBalad, andYitzhak Mordechai of theCentre Party) dropped out before election day, andEhud Barak beat Netanyahu in theelection. However, the new system again appeared to have failed; although Barak'sOne Israel alliance (an alliance of Labour,Gesher, andMeimad) won more votes than any other party in the Knesset election, they garnered only 26 seats, the lowest ever by a winning party or alliance. Barak needed to form a coalition with six smaller parties to form a government.
In early 2001, Barak resigned following the outbreak of theal-Aqsa Intifada. However, the government was not brought down, and only elections for prime minister were necessary. In theelection itself,Ariel Sharon of Likud comfortably beat Barak, taking 62.4% of the vote. However, because Likud only had 21 seats in the Knesset, Sharon had to form a national unity government. Following Sharon's victory, it was decided to do away with separate elections for prime minister and return to the previous system.
2003 onwards
The2003 elections were carried out in the same manner as prior to 1996. Likud won 38 seats, the highest by a party for over a decade, and as party leader Sharon was duly appointed Prime Minister. However, towards the end of his term and largely as a result of the deep divisions within Likud overIsrael's unilateral disengagement plan, Sharon broke away from his party to formKadima, managing to maintain his position as prime minister and also becoming the first prime minister not to be a member of either Labour or Likud (or their predecessors). However, he suffered a stroke in January 2006, in the midst of election season, leadingEhud Olmert to become acting prime minister in the weeks leading to the elections. He was voted by the cabinet to be interim prime minister just after the2006 elections, when Sharon had reached 100 days of incapacitation. He thus became Israel's third interim prime minister, only days before forming his own new government as the official Prime Minister of Israel.
In 2008, amid accusations of corruption and challenges from his own party, Olmert resigned. However, his successorTzipi Livni was unable to form a coalition government. In theelection in the following year, while Kadima won the most seats, it was the Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu who was given the task of forming a government. He was able to do so, thus beginning his second term as Prime Minister of Israel.
In the2013 election, theLikud Yisrael Beiteinu alliance emerged as the largest faction. After forming a coalition, Netanyahu secured his third prime ministership. In2015, Netanyahu managed to stay in power. Multiple disagreements with his coalition members led to the2019–2022 Israeli political crisis.
In 2021,Naftali Bennett became prime minister. He was succeeded in July 2022 by his coalition partner,Yair Lapid. In December 2022, Benjamin Netanyahu returned to the prime ministership, as a result of theprevious month's election.
Order of succession
If the prime minister dies in office, the cabinet chooses an interim prime minister[6] to run the government until a new government is placed in power. Yigal Allon served as interim prime minister following Levi Eshkol's death, as did Shimon Peres following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.
According to Israeli law, if a prime minister is temporarily incapacitated rather than dies (as was the case following Ariel Sharon's stroke in early 2006), power is transferred to theacting prime minister, until the prime minister recovers (Ehud Olmert took over from Sharon), for up to 100 days. If the prime minister is declared permanently incapacitated, or that period expires, the president of Israel oversees the process of assembling a new governing coalition, and in the meantime the acting prime minister or other incumbent minister is appointed by the cabinet to serve as interim prime minister.
In the case of Sharon, elections were already due to occur within 100 days of the beginning of his coma; thus, the post-election coalition-building process pre-empted the emergency provisions for the selection of a new prime minister. Nevertheless, Olmert was appointed interim prime minister on 16 April 2006, after theelections, just days before he formed a government on 4 May 2006, becoming the official prime minister.
Aside from the position of Acting Prime Minister, there are also vice prime ministers and deputy prime ministers.
Interim prime minister
Theinterim prime minister (Hebrew:ראש הממשלה בפועל,Rosh HaMemshala Ba-foal lit. "prime minister de facto") is appointed by the government if the incumbent is dead or permanently incapacitated, or if his tenure was ended due to a criminal conviction.
Israeli law distinguishes the termsacting prime minister (מלא מקום ראש הממשלה), filling in for the incumbent prime minister, temporarily, and acting in the incumbent's office, while the incumbent is in office, and aninterim prime minister in office. Only if the incumbent prime minister becomestemporarily incapacitated will the acting prime minister act in the incumbent's office and will be standing in for him for up to 100 consecutive days, while the incumbent is in office. Legally, the "100 consecutive days" limit, in the language of the law, only stipulates that the incumbent then is deemed to bepermanently incapacitated and that the limited time for an acting prime minister to act in the incumbent's office is over.
In 2006, Ehud Olmert, after standing in for Prime Minister Sharon for 100 consecutive days, as acting prime minister, did not automatically assume office as an interim prime minister. The government voted to appoint him, and in addition, he was also a member of prime minister's party, which enabled them to appoint him to the role.[7]
Shimon Peres was the foreign minister when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, and was voted unanimously to assume office as an interim prime minister until a new Government would be placed in power (that he later formed by himself). Yigal Allon was also voted to be the interim prime minister after Prime Minister Levi Eshkol suddenly died and served until Golda Meir formed her government.
Both the interim and acting prime ministers' authorities are identical to those of a prime minister, with the exception of not having the authority to dissolve the Knesset.
Interim government
An 'interim government' (Hebrew:ממשלת מעבר,Memshelet Ma'avar lit. "transitional government") is the same government, having been changed in their legal status, after the death, resignation, permanent incapacitation, or criminal conviction of the prime minister, as well as after the prime minister's request to dissolve the Knesset (Israeli parliament) was published through the president's decree, or after it was defeated by a motion of no confidence (these actions are regarded by the law as "the Government shall be deemed to have resigned"), or after election and before the forming of a new government.
