The remarkable thing is that people like Benny Gantz, Chili Tropper, Yoaz Hendel, and others, who describe themselves as sober centrists, accept the premise. Millions have voted for Benjamin Netanyahu, we are told.<\/p>\n
The implication is that excluding Likud from the government would somehow violate democratic norms. Polls show a party standing for this idea may get into the Knesset \u2013 so the issue could soon become urgent and decisive.<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a vote at the plenum hall of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on July 16, 2026. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL\/FLASH90)<\/p>\n
Therefore, let me ask: When Netanyahu assembled the current government, did he feel compelled to invite his principal opponents into the cabinet because millions had voted for them? Did he consider Yesh Atid, Yisrael Beytenu, Labor, or Gantz himself to be entitled to ministries by virtue of the ballots they received?<\/p>\n
He governed with the coalition he preferred and consigned everyone else to the opposition without the slightest hesitation. Nor would it have been honest of the opposition to join him and help him in his project of dismantling Israel\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n
Nobody in Netanyahu\u2019s camp called that anti-democratic. Nobody claimed that the opposition\u2019s voters had been disenfranchised.<\/p>\n
No democracy allots the opposition and the coalition equal governing power<\/p>\n
Now, on the eve of what could become a genuine electoral reversal, we hear it again. \u201cNo boycotts!\u201d As if Likud, uniquely among parties, deserves permanent access to executive power and Knesset representation were insufficient \u2013 cabinet participation as a civil right.<\/p>\n
One searches in vain for another parliamentary democracy that functions this way. Britain\u2019s Labour Party does not expect Conservative ministers when it governs, or vice versa; it expects to try to implement its agenda<\/a>. Germany does not require every large party to join every government. India\u2019s Congress Party is not waiting for an invitation from Modi.<\/p>\n Some will argue that Israel is special, because there are especially big issues at stake (they say this only when Likud cannot form a government). Israel, they say, lives under constant external threat \u2013 Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, international isolation, and perpetual security challenges. Thus, it supposedly requires the broadest possible unity government.<\/p>\n