Editing Prime Minister of Israel (section)

==History==
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2021}}
The office of Prime Minister came into existence on 14 May 1948, the date of the [[Israeli Declaration of Independence|Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel]], when the provisional government was created. [[David Ben-Gurion]], leader of [[Mapai]] and head of the [[Jewish Agency for Israel|Jewish Agency]], became Israel's first prime minister. The position became permanent on 8 March 1949, when the [[1949 Israeli Constituent Assembly election|first government]] was formed. Ben-Gurion retained his role until late 1953, when he resigned to settle in the [[Kibbutz]] of [[Sde Boker]]. He was replaced by [[Moshe Sharett]]. However, Ben-Gurion returned in a little under two years to reclaim his position. He resigned for a second time in 1963, breaking away from Mapai to form [[Rafi (political party)|Rafi]]. [[Levi Eshkol]] took over as head of [[Mapai]] and prime minister. He became the first prime minister to head the country under the banner of two parties when Mapai formed the [[Alignment (Israel)|Alignment]] with [[Ahdut HaAvoda]] in 1965. In 1968 he also became the only party leader to command an absolute majority in the Knesset, after [[Mapam]] and Rafi merged into the Alignment, giving it 63 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.

On 26 February 1969, Eshkol became the first prime minister to die in office. He was temporarily replaced by [[Yigal Allon]], whose stint lasted less than a month, as the party persuaded [[Golda Meir]] to return to political life and become prime minister in March 1969. Meir was Israel's first woman prime minister, and the third in the world (after [[Sirimavo Bandaranaike]] and [[Indira Gandhi]]).

Meir resigned in 1974 after the [[Agranat Commission]] published its findings on the [[Yom Kippur War]], even though it had absolved her of blame. [[Yitzhak Rabin]] took over, though he also resigned towards the end of the [[1973 Israeli legislative election|eighth Knesset's]] term following a series of scandals. Those included the suicide of Housing Minister [[Avraham Ofer]] after police began investigating allegations that he had used party funds illegally, and the [[Yadlin affair|affair]] involving [[Asher Yadlin]] (the governor-designate of the Bank of Israel), who was sentenced to five years in prison for having accepted bribes. Rabin's wife, [[Leah Rabin|Leah]], was also found to have had an [[Dollar Account affair|overseas bank account]], which was illegal in Israel at the time.

[[Menachem Begin]] became the first right-wing prime minister when his [[Likud]] won the [[1977 Israeli legislative election|1977 elections]], and retained the post in the [[1981 Israeli legislative election|1981 elections]]. He resigned in 1983 for health reasons, passing the reins of power to [[Yitzhak Shamir]].

After the [[1984 Israeli legislative election|1984 elections]] had proved inconclusive with neither the Alignment nor Likud able to form a government, a [[national unity government]] was formed with a rotating prime ministership – [[Shimon Peres]] took the first two years, and was replaced by Shamir midway through the Knesset term. Although the [[1988 Israeli legislative election|1988 elections]] produced another national unity government, Shamir was able to take the role alone. Peres made an abortive bid to form a left-wing government in 1990, but failed, leaving Shamir in power until 1992. Rabin became prime minister for the second time when he led [[Israeli Labor Party|Labour]] to victory in the [[1992 Israeli legislative election|1992 elections]]. After his [[Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin|assassination]] on 4 November 1995, Peres took over as prime minister.

===Direct election===
{{Politics of Israel}}
During the [[1992 Israeli legislative election|thirteenth Knesset]] (1992–1996) it was decided to hold a separate ballot for prime minister modeled after [[United States presidential election|American presidential elections]].  This system was instituted in part because the Israeli electoral system makes it all but impossible for one party to win a majority.  While only two parties—Mapai/Labour and Likud—had ever led governments, the large number of parties or factions in a typical Knesset usually prevents one party from winning the 61 seats needed for a majority.

In 1996, when the first such [[1996 Israeli general election|election]] took place, the outcome was a surprise win for [[Benjamin Netanyahu]] after election polls predicted that Peres was the winner.<ref>[http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART/977/618.html Prime Minister Netanyahu. Remember?] Maariv, 30 August 2005</ref> However, in the Knesset election held at the same time, Labour won more votes than any other party (27%). Thus Netanyahu, despite his theoretical position of power, needed the support of the religious parties to form a viable government.

Ultimately Netanyahu failed to hold the government together, and early elections for both prime minister and the Knesset were called in [[1999 Israeli legislative election|1999]]. Although five candidates intended to run, the three representing minor parties ([[Benny Begin]] of [[Herut – The National Movement]], [[Azmi Bishara]] of [[Balad (political party)|Balad]], and [[Yitzhak Mordechai]] of the [[Center Party (Israel)|Centre Party]]) dropped out before election day, and [[Ehud Barak]] beat Netanyahu in the [[1999 Israeli general election|election]]. However, the new system again appeared to have failed; although Barak's [[One Israel]] alliance (an alliance of Labour, [[Gesher (1996 political party)|Gesher]], and [[Meimad]]) won more votes than any other party in the Knesset election, they garnered only 26 seats, the lowest ever by a winning party or alliance. Barak needed to form a coalition with six smaller parties to form a government.

In early 2001, Barak resigned following the outbreak of the [[Second Intifada|al-Aqsa Intifada]]. However, the government was not brought down, and only elections for prime minister were necessary. In the [[2001 Israeli prime ministerial election|election itself]], [[Ariel Sharon]] of Likud comfortably beat Barak, taking 62.4% of the vote. However, because Likud only had 21 seats in the Knesset, Sharon had to form a national unity government. Following Sharon's victory, it was decided to do away with separate elections for prime minister and return to the previous system.

===2003 onwards===
The [[2003 Israeli legislative election|2003 elections]] were carried out in the same manner as prior to 1996. Likud won 38 seats, the highest by a party for over a decade, and as party leader Sharon was duly appointed Prime Minister. However, towards the end of his term and largely as a result of the deep divisions within Likud over [[Israeli disengagement from Gaza|Israel's unilateral disengagement plan]], Sharon broke away from his party to form [[Kadima]], managing to maintain his position as prime minister and also becoming the first prime minister not to be a member of either Labour or Likud (or their predecessors). However, he suffered a stroke in January 2006, in the midst of election season, leading [[Ehud Olmert]] to become acting prime minister in the weeks leading to the elections. He was voted by the cabinet to be interim prime minister just after the [[2006 Israeli legislative election|2006 elections]], when Sharon had reached 100 days of incapacitation. He thus became Israel's third interim prime minister, only days before forming his own new government as the official Prime Minister of Israel.

In 2008, amid accusations of corruption and challenges from his own party, Olmert resigned. However, his successor [[Tzipi Livni]] was unable to form a coalition government. In the [[2009 Israeli legislative election|election in the following year]], while Kadima won the most seats, it was the Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu who was given the task of forming a government. He was able to do so, thus beginning his second term as Prime Minister of Israel.

In the [[2013 Israeli legislative election|2013 election]], the [[Likud Yisrael Beiteinu]] alliance emerged as the largest faction. After forming a coalition, Netanyahu secured his third prime ministership. In [[2015 Israeli legislative election|2015]], Netanyahu managed to stay in power. Multiple disagreements with his coalition members led to the [[2018–2022 Israeli political crisis|2019–2022 Israeli political crisis]].

In 2021, [[Naftali Bennett]] became prime minister. He was succeeded in July 2022 by his coalition partner, [[Yair Lapid]]. In December 2022, Benjamin Netanyahu returned to the prime ministership, as a result of the [[2022 Israeli legislative election|previous month's election]].