Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
can still remain in the Knesset either by serving as an independent, joining another party, or
establishing a new party with others.
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
Israel's prime minister is head of the executive branch and the country's leader. According to
Israel's Basic Law on Government, the prime minister need only be an Israeli citizen and a
permanent resident of the country. A prime minister supposedly serves a four-year term, but
most prime ministers do not remain in offi ce four straight years, being removed by resigna-
tion, death, illness, the loss of a Knesset majority, a personal decision to dissolve the Knesset
and go to elections, or a no-confi dence motion passed in the Knesset.
The prime minister is also head of his or her party, which is usually (but not always) the
party with the most votes and hence the most Knesset seats. During Israel's history the prime
minister has become increasingly more powerful. Nevertheless, given party factions and the
need to maintain a multiparty coalition, since no single party is able to win a Knesset majority,
the prime minister is probably somewhat less powerful than the leaders of the United States,
France, or the United Kingdom .
The prime minister's staff and the staffs of regular MKs are quite small. The prime minis-
ter's most important advisors are the director-general of the prime minister's offi ce, the cabi-
net secretary, and the media and military advisors. The prime minister also supervises the
country's two intelligence services: the Mossad (corresponding to the CIA) provides the prime
minister with reports on international intelligence, and the Shin Bet (known as the Shabak
and corresponding to the FBI) provides reports on intelligence on Israel and the territories
captured in 1967.
Ministries and Coalition Building
The prime minister chooses the cabinet, although the needs of powerful individuals within the
prime minister's own party and the distribution of seats based on agreements with the govern-
ment coalition partners restricts the prime minister's choices. Since the cabinet includes the
coalition party leaders, it is more powerful than in other Western democracies, and the prime
minister must win a majority in it, not just give it orders.
Following each election, the president, elected by the Knesset for a seven-year term, nomi-
nates a prime minister after consulting with all the political parties. The main criterion is
being the party leader who has the best chance of forming a coalition with a majority in the
Knesset of at least sixty-one MKs. After the 2009 elections, for example, Livni's Kadima Party
had won one seat more than Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party, but President Shimon Peres,
previously a member of Kadima himself, chose Netanyahu as the next prime minister. Discus-
sion with all the parties showed that Netanyahu, but not Livni, had support from more than
sixty-one MKs.
Once selected, the president's choice for prime minister must be approved by the Knesset
in a symbolic vote of confi dence. The prime minister-elect then has twenty-eight days to as-
semble a formal coalition of political parties that agree on the government's platform —both
