Episode description

Israel will soon have its first new prime minister in over 12 years if a freshly formed coalition holds. Benjamin Netanyahu is the country's longest serving leader, but in recent years he’s presided over an increasingly fractious political system. In a recent speech Israel’s largely ceremonial president repeated his warning that the country's population has evolved into four unique groups, often attending separate schools and living in separate communities. Israel’s had four elections in two years and there’s talk of another before the end of 2021. Mr Netanyahu has been criticised from the right for failing to stop rockets being fired into Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas, and is accused from the left of encouraging extremist nationalists. But internationally he’s forged new alliances with Middle Eastern countries through the Abraham Accords, successfully persuaded the United States to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, and celebrated the moving of the US embassy to Jerusalem. After 15 years of leadership by the man they call ‘Bibi’, Israel is at a crossroads - but where will it go next? Are the religious and cultural divisions making the country ungovernable? What changes are needed in order to encourage the formation of more stable governments? And what could such changes mean for the country’s Arab minority? Ritula Shah is joined by a panel of expert guests.