Although Benjamin Netanyahu is no longer Israel's prime minister, the ideological and structural changes fostered by his right-wing governments have had a lasting impact on Israeli democracy. Dr. Gayil Talshir will discuss the "Netanyahu era" and its transformational legacy. This event is co-sponsored by the UCLA Center for Middle East Development. This event was recorded on February 2, 2022.

About the Talk

This event was recorded on February 2, 2022. After 12 years of uninterrupted rule and a total of 15 years in power, Benjamin Netanyahu was removed as Israel’s Prime Minister. The bitter struggle manifested in four rounds of elections in just over two years (2019–2021), which in the end brought a new coalition government to power. But the “Netanyahu era” has had a lasting effect on Israeli democracy, which amounts to an actual transformation of the rules of the political game itself.

Though the man himself is fodder for many a talk, in this presentation Dr. Gayil Talshir will focus primarily on the ideological transformation and structural changes brought about by Netanyahu’s right-wing governments, particularly from 2015-2019: recreating the Jewish collective identity, refashioning the relation to the Supreme Court and civil rights, developing a new paradigm in Middle-Eastern diplomacy, and attempting to control the public media by establishing 'an Israeli-Fox news'.

 About the Speaker

Dr. Gayil Talshir is a senior lecturer in political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Professor Talshir's research focuses on the crisis of legitimation of advanced democracies, party system change, political ideologies, and Israeli politics. She founded the Center for Top Government Officials and developed programs for newly elected mayors, civil servants and senior leaders of Israel's public sector. She is the author of several books, including Taking Ideology Seriously (Routledge, 2006), and editor of Governability or Democracy (Resling 2020, in Hebrew). Her new book Judocracy: the Netanyahu Era is forthcoming in 2022 (SUNY Press). Dr. Talshir received her Ph.D. from the University of Oxford. In Winter/Spring 2022, she is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. 

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