Israel goes to the polls on October 27, and most Americans will get the headlines without the context. In this episode, Pastor Todd Stavrakos sits down with Lazar Berman of The Times of Israel for a plain-language guide to an election that, in Lazar’s words, comes down to “yes Bibi” or “no Bibi.”
Lazar explains who is on the ballot, from Netanyahu’s coalition with the ultra-Orthodox and the far right to the opposition built around Bennett, Lapid, and former army chief Gadi Eisenkot. He walks through why a party with five percent of the vote can bring down a government, why neither side can reach 61 seats without the Arab parties, why a few hundred violent settlers can shape Israel’s relationship with the Christian world, and why a two-state solution is on no one’s agenda this cycle.
If you want to understand what happens on October 27, and why, start here.