As Israel stands on the threshold of an election, the most refreshing thing that could emerge would be a consensus that this time the results will be respected: that those who win will be allowed to govern, and those in the opposition will accept the results and move on.
On the surface, that should not be such a huge ask. Alas, that is how democracies work: elections are held, one side wins, and the other side loses. In healthy democracies, the losing side accepts the results and lets the winners govern; after all, the results express the people’s will.
Unfortunately, there is growing reason to fear that, once again, this will not happen here.
A May poll published by the Jewish People Policy Institute found that while 65% of Israelis indicate they will accept the election results, the ideological breakdown was striking.
Among right-wing and center-right respondents, nearly half characterized a possible loss as “regrettable, but life goes on,” while another 30% said they would fully respect the majority’s decision.
On the Left, however, the numbers were dramatically different: 81% of left-wing respondents said an electoral defeat would be “intolerable,” while 62% of the center-left said the same.
That is troubling.
Each party has the chance to convince the public during the campaign. But once the votes are counted, that should be the end of the story.
Election results no longer signal start of new era
Unfortunately, this country’s recent history has proven otherwise. Election results no longer signal the start of a new stage in which the winning side governs in accordance with its principles and coalition agreements. Instead, they often become the opening shot in the next election campaign.
Israel felt this intensely following the last elections and the formation of the current government. From day one, the opposition set about trying to dismantle the coalition, labeling it illegitimate and bringing throngs into the streets to protest, making the simple act of governance almost impossible.
Until October 7, when the intensity of the domestic discord subsided somewhat, the nation rallied together and beat back the enemy.
But the opposition, the Left, the Kaplan Street movement, and the anti-Netanyahu camp did not invent the wheel here, nor do they have a monopoly on delegitimizing the victorious side.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud did much the same after Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid formed a government in 2021.
They, too, deemed that government illegitimate, did everything possible to topple it, and did not give it a chance to govern.
The objective in both cases was identical: delegitimize the government, weaken it, and eventually bring it down. The only real difference was the arena in which that effort was waged.
Netanyahu and the Likud’s efforts were concentrated inside the Knesset, because the governing coalition’s margin was so slim that all they had to do was peel away a few dissenters – Idit Silman and Amichai Chikli, for example – to bring it down.
But when Netanyahu formed a coalition in 2022, it rested on 64 relatively disciplined seats, and the opposition concluded it could not bring down the government from within parliament. So it took to the streets – figuring that was the only way.
In the end, the anti-government protest movement failed in its primary objective, as the current government, against all odds, will either complete its full four-year term or go to elections only shortly before then. But the atmosphere created was that this government and its decisions were illegitimate, even though it was democratically elected.
One would have hoped the country had learned something from these experiences and come to understand that frustrating the elected government’s ability to govern by any means possible is unhealthy.
The JPPI poll, however, indicates this is not so.
As the campaign season kicks off, the competing parties will all declare that their foremost concern is the country’s well-being. If that is truly the case, they would do well to pledge that, come what may, whether they sit in the coalition or the opposition, they will accept the results and allow the prime minister and his cabinet to steer the country through the tempestuous waters in which it finds itself.
That does not mean genuflecting before every decision. But it does mean accepting the will of the people and respecting the direction the public, through the ballot box, signaled it wants the country to go.