Prime Minister

   The prime minister is Israel's head of government. From 1948 to 1996, the president was empowered to designate a member of Knesset, almost always the leader of the party holding the most seats in the Knesset, to serve as prime minister and to form a government. Pursuant to the revised Basic Law: The Government (1992), the prime minister was chosen through direct popular election in 1996, 1999, and 2001. However, the dual-ballot system was discarded, and the traditional single-ballot method was resumed in time for the general election for the 16th Knesset in 2003.

   The prime minister must be a citizen of Israel, at least 30 years of age, and a member of the Knesset. The prime minister elect has 45 days within which to form a government and present that government and its guiding principles to the Knesset for a vote of confidence. If within that period a government cannot be formed, a brief extension may be granted, after which time the president is empowered to ask the Knesset member whom he or she deems most likely to be able to form a government, usually the leader of the second-largest party in the Knesset, to try to do so. If, at the end of this process neither individual is capable of forming a government, the president is empowered to either call for new elections or to use the prestige of his or her office to try to persuade the parties to achieve a viable compromise.

   While significant, the powers of the prime minister are not all encompassing. He or she is constrained by the need to accommodate the competing interests of the various parties that invariably are involved in forming governing coalitions in Israel. Unlike any other political institution in Israel, the office of the prime minister has been shaped by the men or women who have occupied it. Since independence, Israel has had 12 prime ministers: David Ben-Gurion (1948-54 and 1955), Moshe Sharett (1954-55), Levi Eshkol (1963-69), Golda Meir (1969-74), Yitzhak Rabin (1974-77 and 1992-95), Menachem Begin (1977-83), Yitzhak Shamir (1983-84 and 1986-92), Shimon Peres (1984-86 and 1995-96), Benjamin Netanyahu (1996-99), Ehud Barak (1999-2001), Ariel Sharon (2001-6), and Ehud Olmert (2006- ).

   Due to having held the office for most of the country's early turbulent years, as well as his dominance of the political institutions of the prestate Yishuv, Ben-Gurion established the standard of strong and decisive leadership against which all subsequent Israeli prime ministers have tended to be measured.

   See also Basic Law: the <