Proposed Law: Term Limits

By Gldmeier @gldmeier
The parties of the Opposition have gotten together to propose a new law that would create term limits for the Prime Minister of Israel.
The heads of all the Opposition parties drafted and submitted a law proposal that would limit the Prime Minister to a maximum of two terms, similar to the term limits for President of the United States.
In order to not propose a "personal" law - i.e. just to get rid of Netanyahu, they are proposing the law and would be putting it into effect as of the 22nd Knesset (2 from now).
source: Ynet
Obviously I like this idea, as I have mentioned the need for it a number of times.
The one problem with it, without knowing all the details, is that in the United States the President serves a set four yer term, and can get elected a second time to another four year term. He does not have to worry about coalitions and governments being brought down. If he doesn't have a majority in the House he might have difficulty with legislation, but it does not force new elections.
In Israel a term is technically four years, but because of the style of government, it rarely actually makes it the full four years - often as short as 2 to 2.5 years.

So, if we limit the Prime Minister to two terms, while that looks like 8 years it could actually be as little as 3 to 5 years. Or maybe even less. In a system such as the coalition government system Israel's government operates, term limits cannot be simply qualified by the number of terms, but must also be quantified by the number of years. Why should one prime minister hit his max limit at 8  years and another at 4 years?
Such limits, qualified only by number of terms, can allow the Knesset to "easily" remove a prime minister by forcing new elections quickly instead of letting him serve his full term.
The term limits must be defined by number of years, in a government system such as Israel's, even if it means any specific prime minister might serve 3 or 4 terms.
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