Lecture
Philip Rubenstein
Thursday 12.11.2026
Philip Rubenstein
Israel’s Prime Ministers, Part 10: How Do You Govern a Divided Nation?
Thursday 12.11.2026
How to watch
This lecture starts on 12 November at 7:00pm (UK).
Summary
Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid brought together an unlikely coalition spanning Israel’s right, centre, and left, alongside Mansour Abbas’s Arab Ra’am party. Their short-lived government (2021–22) raised larger questions about Israel’s political future and the fractures threatening to pull it apart: How can political opponents become governing partners? What gives a leader the legitimacy to govern? Is there any leadership that can bridge the nation’s deep divides?
Philip Rubenstein
Philip Rubenstein was director of the Parliamentary War Crimes Group, which, in the mid-to-late 1980s, campaigned to bring Nazi war criminals living in the UK to justice. Philip was also the founder-director of the Holocaust Educational Trust and played a role in getting the study of the Shoah onto the national school’s curriculum in the UK. These days, he works with family businesses, advising on governance and continuity from one generation to the next.