Israel’s Election: Who Won, What Changed, What Comes Next — Yohanan Plesner, Tamar Hermann, and David Horovitz in Conversation with Amanda Borschel-Dan

Yohanan (Johan) Plesner has served as President of the Israel Democracy Institute since 2014.

Under his leadership, IDI has undergone a series of transformative changes, including the reorganization of the Institute around five centers of research and policy (including two endowed centers), the near-doubling of its annual budget, the creation of a new communications division, and the expansion of an impact-oriented government relations arm. In the wake of the social and political crisis of 2023, Plesner oversaw IDI’s emergence as a leading public advocate for constitutional reform.

Plesner grew up in Jerusalem and served in the IDF’s elite “Sayeret Matkal” unit, in which he still serves as an active officer in reserve duty. He graduated magna cum laude with a BA in Economics from the Amirim Program for Excellence at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He then went on to obtain an MPA in Political Economy and International Security from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

In 2005, after several years in private-industry executive positions, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appointed Plesner Head of Special Projects in the Prime Minister’s Office. In 2006, he was appointed Executive Director of the then governing Kadima Party. In 2007, Plesner was elected to the Knesset, where he served as an MK until 2013. Among other legislative responsibilities, he was a member of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, Co-chair of the Knesset Lobby for Higher Education, and Chairman of the Knesset’s permanent delegation to the Council of Europe.

In 2012, Plesner was appointed chair of the special governmental Committee for Equality in the Burden of Service, which produced a blueprint for incorporating the ultra-Orthodox community into military and national service, one of the most complex social-economic challenges facing the State of Israel.

Prof. Tamar Hermann is a Senior Research Fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and the Academic Director of the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research. The Center applies rigorous, innovative and pioneering research methods to document the attitudes of the Israeli public regarding thousands of issues in all aspects of life: politics, culture, ideology, religion, education and national security.

Since 2010, Prof. Hermann has headed the team which develops and produces the annual Israeli Democracy Index, and since 2018 – the monthly Israeli Voice Index. Between 1994-2018, she produced the monthly peace index in collaboration with Prof. Ephraim Yaar of Tel Aviv University. Prof. Hermann is a Professor of Political Science at the Open University.

In 2025 Prof. Hermann was elected as a member of Israel’s Council of Higher Education (CHE).

She previously taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University, and has been a guest lecturer at various universities, including Princeton (United States), Queens (Belfast), WZB (Berlin), Fabia University (Fabia, Italy) and Sciences PO (Paris).

David Horovitz is the founding editor of The Times of Israel. He is the author of Still Life with Bombers (2004) and A Little Too Close to God (2000), and co-author of Shalom Friend: The Life and Legacy of Yitzhak Rabin (1996). He previously edited The Jerusalem Post (2004-2011) and The Jerusalem Report (1998-2004).

Deputy Editor Amanda Borschel-Dan is the host of The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, A Mandatory Listen and The Reel Schmooze podcasts, and heads up The Times of Israel’s features.