2018–2022 Israeli political crisis

The 2018–2022 Israeli political crisis was a period of political instability in Israel, in which five Knesset snap elections were held in a span of less than four years: in April 2019, September 2019, March 2020, March 2021 and November 2022.

In the early phase of the crisis, the popular phrasing of the core division within the parties and the public was "only Bibi" (nickname for Benjamin Netanyahu) or "only not Bibi". This stalemate was created due to the refusal of the liberal wing of the parliament to form a coalition with Netanyahu, while the Likud party – the prominent party of the conservative wing – refused to remove Netanyahu from the party's leadership. The rest of the conservative-wing parties refused to form a coalition without Netanyahu and the Likud. None of the wings were able to form a coalition by themselves, due to the tie-breaking parliament seats held by the Arab parties. Some parliament members from Jewish parties (both wings) and Arab parties had considered the possibility of governmental cooperation to be out of the question.

The first two elections of the crisis in April and September 2019 failed to produce a governing coalition, and the third election in March 2020 led to a unity government led by Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, before it was dissolved in December of that year, triggering a fourth election in March 2021. The 2021 election resulted in the thirty-sixth government of Israel, a diverse coalition of parties with various ideologies that was led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, but it was dissolved in June 2022. A fifth election in November of that year saw the victory of the right-wing bloc, returning Netanyahu to lead the thirty-seventh government of Israel.