Israel’s First-Ever Election Rerun

Israel is going back to national elections. These elections, which will take place on September 17, will be Israel’s second election in less than six months.

In the April 9 election, Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party won 36 seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament, which was seen by many as an overwhelming victory for Israel’s incumbent leader. Following the election, Prime Minister Netanyahu had six weeks to join forces with other political parties and form a ruling coalition government.

In the lead-up to the deadline, Netanyahu was having an increasingly difficult time cobbling together enough seats in the Knesset to form a majority. Recognizing his inability gain a majority, the Knesset voted to go back to the public to try and get a more decisive result.

This is the first time in Israel’s 70-year history that a prime minister-designate has been unable to form a ruling coalition government.

There is so much that goes into why Mr. Netanyahu was unable to form a coalition, despite his election victory.

Like fellow Western democracies such as Britain and the United States, Israel is facing unparalleled dysfunction in its premier lawmaking bodies. What is the connection? For that, I encourage you to read Brad Macdonald’s article from yesterday, “Israel Is Falling Into Lethal Political Dysfunction.”

Democracy May Not Be Dead in Turkey

Earlier this month, the Supreme Electoral Counsel of Turkey declared the results of Istanbul’s March 31 election invalid. The winner, by a slim majority, was Ekrem İmamoğlu, who belongs to the rival party of Turkish strongman’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development party.

It is obvious that Erdoğan would want a do-over, considering, as he has said, “who wins Istanbul, wins Turkey.” Erdoğan himself started his political career as mayor over Istanbul back in the early 1990s.

And so, they are going back to a vote.

Yet recent opinion polls have İmamoğlu once again pulling ahead of Erdoğan’s preferred candidate.

The elections are slated for June 23, and no doubt, Erdoğan will pull out all stops to try and push his candidate to victory. However, the opinion polls and even the results from the first mayoral election in Istanbul show that democracy is not dead in Turkey—or at least not as dead as we thought.

We have often lumped Erdoğan into the strongman ruler category with the likes of Russian President Putin and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, and indeed Erdoğan is capable of ruling dictatorially like them. But the Turkish population is proving far more resilient and courageous to stand up against their leader.

Does this mean that Erdoğan’s rule over Turkey is more fragile than anticipated? The outcome of this second election in Istanbul will likely provide the answer.

While the Bible doesn’t indicate whether Erdoğan will rule Turkey or not, it does show that Turkey will be allied with European powers, rather than joining the political Islamic camp, which is the direction that Erdoğan has quickly taken Turkey.

Considering that the Bible says the alliance with Europe will trump all else, perhaps we will see Erdoğan’s power checked by the people. Or perhaps pressure from United States President Donald Trump will see Turkey once again swing back toward nato.

To understand more about Turkey’s future, and our long-standing forecast based on Bible Prophecy, please read “Is Turkey in the Bible?”