Volume 67, Issue 4

Primer in Israeli Politics

by Gavri Butler, for the YU Israel Club

Recently, the Labor Party pulled out of Ariel Sharon’s national unity government, a move that threatens to force new elections.

The average Yeshiva student’s response to this bit of news is, “Huh? National what? New elections? Don’t they do that every four years like in America?” Due to the complicated nature of the Israeli political system, the average person is at a disadvantage when reading Israeli political news. We at the Israel Club feel that it is our responsibility to inform students of the basic structure of the Israeli government, so that we can better understand how our country (Israel) operates.

The Israeli parliamentary system differs from the American government on many levels. Most notably, the American system addresses the unique interests and concerns of individual Americans by having a regional system. Members of Congress represent a particular region or state, and tend to focus on issues that concern their local constituents. Israel’s system is national rather than regional. Therefore, rather than voting for candidates who will share regional concerns, Israelis vote for specialized parties with independent interests. While there are 2 major parties – Likud and Labor – there are currently 18 other parties represented in Knesset. They range from religious – including Shas, Yahadut HaTorah, and the National Religious Party – to Arab parties. There are even super-specialized, one-issue parties such as Shinui, whose platform is strictly anti-Haredi.

Additionally, the American government is made up of three branches – Legislative (Congress), Executive (President), and Judicial. So, while party balance is not inconsequential, the President’s role is not defined by each party’s relative representation in Congress. Furthermore, the American system’s bipartisan nature makes it very clear which party is in control. In contrast, in the Israeli government – except for the president whose position is mostly ceremonial – the Prime Minister and his entire cabinet are also members of Knesset.

These two characteristics, small national parties and an intraparliamentary Executive, lead to the current dilemma. In order for a Prime Minister to be in power he must form a National Unity Government. This means that the Prime Minister must form a coalition of 61 members of Knesset (a majority of the 120 seats) so that he will be able to pass the bills that are vital to his government. Furthermore, the Prime Minister needs the majority to prevent a Vote of No Confidence in order to stay in power. That is a declaration by the Knesset that they are unsatisfied with the current administration, and are initiating new elections. Without that majority, the Prime Minister possesses no authority.  If the Prime Minister cannot form a government coalition, he or she is forced to call elections 90 days from that point.

That defines the immediate problem in Israeli politics. When Ariel Sharon took office, he formed a National Unity Government of 80 seats, which included Labor’s 23 seats.  The personal antipathy between the Labor and NRP leaders, and the government’s choice of allocating $147 Million for settlements rather than social services has caused the Labor Party to pull out of the National Unity Government. Now, Sharon is forced to make a decision. He can try to form a government made up of far-right parties that had previously been alienated by Labor’s left-leaning policies, or he can call for reelections. It would seem that Sharon would prefer a makeshift coalition, because new elections would require him to contend for leadership with Benjamin Netanyahu.

But we’ll leave that for next time.

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