In an electoral bombshell, the consequences of which are now being debated, Israel’s governing Likud party announced that it would be running in the upcoming election on a shared list with coalition partner Yisrael Beitenu. The merger between the two parties, headed respectively by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, has reportedly been in the works for over a year. In the broadest sense, the move signals a shift in Israeli politics away from smaller parties, a dynamic which Liberman insists creates “a new political reality of big parties” and facilitate necessary political change.

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