Yale Model Israeli Knesset

Twenty-eight student delegates from Yeshiva College and Stern College for Women represented Yeshiva University at this year's annual Yale Model Israeli Knesset (YMIK) in New Haven, Connecticut. According to Yana Dobkin, the party and committee coordinator of YMIK, as well as the co-vice president of the Yale Friends of Israel, the goal of YMIK is to "provide an intellectual and social forum for people who care about Israel."

By inviting a total of seventy-eight registered delegates from colleges across the country, ranging from UCLA, to Vassar, to YU, a group of delegates that could competently recreate the Knesset of 1949 at the birth of the state of Israel was formed. In past years YMIK has been a simulation of the contemporary Knesset focusing on current issues. This year, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the state of Israel, the 1949 Knesset was the model for the YMIK simulation.

Bills on various pertinent topics were prepared prior to the YMIK weekend. The goal was to debate and eventually ratify bills in committee sessions. The different forums to prepare the bills took the form of party caucuses, committee meetings, and plenary sessions.

To begin, each of the 78 Knesset Members were given name tags informing them of their political party and committee. The first order of business was to familiarize the party members with their respective party’s overall philosophy . The delegates broke up into party caucuses to discuss their respective viewpoints. The largest political party was Mapai, the predecessor of the Labor party of today, which had 46 seats in the first Knesset. Other represented political parties were Mapam, Herut and numerous other smaller political parties. Once the basic party philosophy and political standing on a number of issues was concretized, a packet of possible bills was perused and an official party standing on individual bills was discussed and established.

The next step was to go into committee meetings, each of which had representatives from most political parties. Each committee discussed 2 or 3 bills and voted on amendments. Each party, while trying to represent its own best interests, fought for the amendments that it found to be acceptable. Parliamentary procedure was in effect for these proceedings. These meetings lasted until about an hour before Shabbat, whereupon the conference adjourned until the following day.

Plenary sessions were the final step in the passing of the proposed bills into law. Most of Shabbat was spent in plenary sessions. These sessions were the first in which all 78 delegates met as one group to finally vote on each bill. Further emendations were disallowed at this point and the only possible change to the proposed bills was a "motion to divide the question," meaning that parts of the bill could be voted on separately. Most of the 25 or so proposed bills were passed into law in some form or other.

There were bills passed on the structure of the IDF (Israeli Defense Force), the constitution of Israel, Israel’s educational structure, and many other topics. The most interesting bill was probably the bill introducing a military affiliate named "Shhhhh..," whose objective was to infiltrate Arab countries with personnel such as Pinky and the Brain, Agent Orange, the Pink Panther and the like. Most bills, of course, were of a serious nature. After all the bills were voted upon and either passed into law or voted down into oblivion, YMIK’s political portion came to an end, as most of the YU and Stern delegates headed home to New York upon the conclusion of Shabbat.

YMIK met its goal of allowing delegates to gain insight into the challenges of the Israeli political climate. There was a great deal of enthusiasm shown by Yeshiva University delegates and as Elliot Lowenstein, president of the J.P. Dunner Political Science Society, put it, "YU certainly represented itself in a positive light."