It’s been more than two weeks since the Israeli elections and more than a week since the midterms.
On Tuesday night, a former Owings Mills man now living in Israel joined WBAL News Now to offer perspective on both elections.
LISTEN: Eric Rubin joins WBAL News Now on Tuesday night.
Eric Rubin moved with his family to Israel in October 2023, weeks after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
On the midterms in the U.S., Rubin has some concerns about some of the incoming Democratic representatives and senators.
“There were many moderate Democrats that do support Israel that either won reelection or were elected. The concern, as an American Israeli, is those Democratic Socialists of America or those also on the far left that are hell-bent on destroying the relationship between Israel and the United States,” Rubin said.
As for the Israeli election, Rubin — who ran for the Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset — and lost, says opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot will have trouble forming a government, having to win the support of both Arabs and religious conservative parties.
“I’m not so sure he’s going to be able to do it,” Rubin said.
As for his own run for the Knesset, Rubin ran with the Amcha Yisrael party which has among other things called for a formal indpendnet inquiry into the 2023 Hamas invasion. His party faced a lot of opposition from religious groups so it could not win a seat in parliament.
“We faced a lot of attacks from the far right side of the government that scared people that wouldn’t cross the threshold, and that created the dilemma that we have,” Rubin said.
The new Knesset was sworn in on Tuesday. Eisenkot has six weeks to form a new government, and if he doesn’t, new elections will have to be called.
To form a government, Eisenkot has to come up with a majority of 61 seats to fill the 120 member Knessett. Since his party did not win enough seats on its own, Eisenkot has to form a coalition with candidates from other parties, including an Arab party which won 19 seats.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains in office.
Eisenkot has promised to reverse many of Netanyahu’s policies.
