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THE PEOPLE AND THE LAND ISRAEL INSIGHT

Steve Kramer

ISRAEL’S FAST-APPROACHING ELECTION The Celebration
A Short Primer of Eretz Yisrael

srael recently announced its fourth the right side of the political spectrum. of the world’s most powerful nations,
election in two years, following According to the latest Jerusalem Post brought the world’s attention to Iran’s
Ithree dysfunctional governments poll, the (left) Labor party – which nuclear weapons development, secured
in a row. Unlike in the US, if the state ruled Israel for decades – might fail to peace treaties with four (and counting)
budget is not passed within a certain win a single seat in the next Knesset. Arab countries, and led Israel to be
amount of time (it wasn’t), the govern- The left could be represented by only 18 foremost among all Western nations
ment falls. This is but one way of several seats in the 120-member Knesset, and in vaccinating its citizens.
that the government can dissolve itself that would be mostly due to the United
before its four-year term finishes. Arab List, augmented by the tiny, far- Although the election is on March
Another difference from the US is left, Meretz contingent. Another two 23, it’s too early to make predictions
from inexact polls. (In Israel election
that here there are not just two major parties of observant and ultra-orthodox campaigns are conducted in months,
political parties, but many. No party Jews usually join with the right-wing, not years like in the US.) There is only
has ever won a majority of the voters. but might be excluded this time. a short time before the various parties
Therefore, coalition governments must submit their party lists to the
consisting of numerous parties are the This time around, center and right election authorities in early February.
rule. In past decades, either Labor or parties, without Likud, may total We expect more tumult on the part
Likud have usually been the largest more than 60 seats, leaving Bibi out of of current politicians and political
party, requiring many disparate parties a job and out of the ruling coalition. wannabes, the latter including retired
to join a coalition to achieve a majority The latest polls show a former Likud IDF generals/chiefs of staff. Some of
of 61 MKs. member, Gideon Saar, heading the new,
second-largest party behind Likud. the generals serving as MKs may quit,
Now, after three previous elections in There is the possibility that other leave their party for another, or even
which Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu of party members may opt-out of Likud, form their own new parties. Tel Aviv’s
Likud became Prime Minister, there prompting the remaining members to incumbent mayor just threw his hat in
is a real possibility the mold will be push Bibi aside to allow Likud to join the ring. Whatever the result of this
broken. Bibi has already served as Prime its ostensible allies on the right, sans election, Israelis can only hope for a
Minister more years than any other, Bibi. (However, early polls tend to be functioning government to serve its
eclipsing David Ben-Gurion for that inaccurate.) full four-year term. Stay tuned…
title. And he is currently on trial with An earlier version of this article appeared on
three indictments against him, which Bibi Netanyahu has failed to form a israelseen.com.
– if found guilty – could result in jail. successful, functioning government
after three serial elections. These were
Consequently, Bibi must divide his prompted by his decision to prematurely
time between running the government dissolve the previous government two
and defending himself in court. Many years ago. It’s tempting to believe that
people, including me, believe this task Bibi is following a long line of successful
is too much, even for an accomplished heads of state who lingered on past
politician still thought to be the most their “sell-by” date, failing to leave office
qualified leader by a plurality of Israeli at the top of their game and thereby
voters. Consequently, breakaway diminishing their legacies.
politicians from various parties are Steve Kramer grew up in Atlantic City and
opening up possibilities of a government However, Bibi is still the politician most moved to Israel from Margate, NJ in 1991
that excludes Bibi. Israelis prefer to be Prime Minister. His with his family. Since making aliyah, he has
historic leadership has brought Israel written more than 1100 articles about Israel
Israeli voters are overwhelmingly on into the 21st century, made Israel one and Jews.

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