Democracy Put to the Test in Israel

The October 27 Knesset election appeared to produce a political deadlock in Israel, as neither the current governing coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party nor the parties making up the anti-Netanyahu camp managed to secure the 61 seats required for a parliamentary majority. Since Eisenkot and his allies explicitly identify themselves as Zionists, their readiness to enter into an alliance with Arab parties – the most obvious way out of the electoral deadlock – would also reveal a great deal about Zionism’s relationship with non-Jewish political forces and, by extension, about the democratic character of the Jewish State.