The election of Israel’s 22nd Knesset will take place Tuesday, five months after the last election, which was also held earlier than originally scheduled. The political dead end wasn’t over the drafting of yeshiva students into the army. The real reason the political system is faltering — why the Knesset was dissolved for an early election and quickly dissolved itself again and scheduled a second vote — is the legal situation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
For two years Israel has lived with the constant background noise of the corruption investigations into the prime minister, the noise of the draft indictments, the noise of the list of witnesses for the prosecution and their statements, and the noise of the malign attempts by Netanyahu and his partners to evade justice.