Middle Israel: How Likud’s primaries poisoned Israeli politics - opinion
The 18-year fencing match between Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin came to a sudden end, thanks to an invention Israel had never seen: primary elections.
Assessment
The piece argues that Likud's adoption of primary elections introduced a destructive dynamic into Israeli political culture, replacing coalition-building with internal factional warfare. The reader should consider how this mechanism shifted loyalty from party institutions to individual political survival. The key question is whether the current system can be reformed without destabilizing the parties themselves.