In Israel, lawmakers debate term limits for office of prime minister

The Knesset postponed by a week a final vote on a bill to limit a prime minister’s time in office to eight years on Wednesday morning, following an all-night session.  Because the bill is an amendment to a Basic Law, it had to be approved by at least 61 of the Knesset’s 120 members. It passed its initial vote in November with 66 MKs in favor and 48 opposed. The bill states that a prime minister cannot serve more than eight years in total, but the count will be reset to zero if more than four years elapse between one term and the next. Moreover, any time spent as prime minister before the law's passage won’t count toward the total, meaning it wouldn’t prevent former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from running again. [...] The Knesset Constitution Committee, which approved the bill three weeks ago, made several changes in the original proposal. Most significantly, the original version said that multiple terms as prime minister would count toward the eight-year total only if no more than three years elapsed between one term and the next. The amended bill says both terms will count even if four years elapsed between them.
Read the full article here: Haaretz