Benjamin Netanyahu
Rumors have circulated online claiming that Benjamin Netanyahu has been killed. The Israeli government has rejected these claims as false and says he is alive. However, we all know that even if he had died, the government would not admit it immediately. But as we stand, Netanyahu has NOT been confirmed dead.
Benjamin Netanyahu first became Prime Minister in 1996. However, he lost power in 1999 when new elections were held.
He returned to power again in 2009 and stayed in office until 2021, when a coalition government briefly took over for just over a year.
Then, in 2022, new elections were held and he returned to power. He has been running the government ever since.
In Israel, the Prime Minister usually comes from the party that is able to form a majority in parliament. This can happen if a party wins many seats, or if several parties join together to form a coalition.
It is rare for one party to win an outright majority in Israel. Because of this, coalition governments are very common. Netanyahu has often returned to power by forming coalitions with smaller parties after elections.
Israel does not only have a prime minister. It also has a president.
This is because Israel uses a system similar to the one Zimbabwe used between 1980 and 1987. During that time, Robert Mugabe was Prime Minister and Canaan Banana was President.
Similarly, in Israel today, Benjamin Netanyahu is the Prime Minister and Isaac Herzog is the President.
This system is called a parliamentary system.
Under this system, the president is the head of state, while the prime minister is the head of government.
However, the person who actually runs the country is the prime minister, not the president. The president is mainly a ceremonial figure. His role is mostly symbolic, such as signing bills into law and inviting the winner of elections to form a government.
The prime minister, on the other hand, has executive power. He runs the country through the cabinet and parliament.
That means the current president of Israel has no authority over Benjamin Netanyahu. As prime minister, Netanyahu is in charge of the government and effectively runs the country. He answers to parliament, not to the president. Because of this, the president cannot fire the prime minister. In fact, the prime minister is actually the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. This shows how powerful the prime minister is compared to the president. It was a similar situation in Zimbabwe when Robert Mugabe was prime minister.
The president of Israel serves only one term of seven years and is elected by Parliament. The prime minister has no fixed term limit. He can remain in power for as long as parliament supports him. Benjamin Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history, surpassing the country’s founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion who served for 13 years.
The modern state of Israel was established in 1948. Before this, the land was part of a region known as Palestine for many centuries. I will write a separate article explaining the full history of this land going back roughly four thousand years, including the ancient kingdom of Israel, and the events that eventually led to the name Palestine being used for the region. This story is very key to understanding the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Israel’s parliament is called the Knesset. It has 120 members elected through nationwide proportional representation, where voters choose political parties rather than individual candidates. This is similar to how South Africa elects its Members of Parliament. Because the Parliament of Israel has 120 seats, a government must control at least 61 seats to remain in power.
Israel does not have a single written constitution. Instead, it uses a set of laws called Basic Laws. These laws together function as the country’s constitutional framework. Basic Laws are special laws that deal with the structure of the state and fundamental rights.
Examples include laws about: the president, the parliament, the judiciary, human dignity and liberty, Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
Together, these Basic Laws act like a constitution.
Adapted from the article written by TAFFY THEMAN, a social commentator, as shared via his Facebook yesterday, Sunday 15 March 2026.
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