PS 217 Day 16: Israel

“Yiheye Tov,”

Lyrics by Yonatan GefenMusic by David Broza

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIphEtttLcA “I look out the windowand it makes me very sad,Spring has left;Who knows when it will return.The clown has become a king;The prophet has become a clown;And I have forgotten the way;

CHORUSBut I am still here.All will be better, yes -all will be better.Sometimes I breakBut this night,O this nightI will stay with you.

Children wear wingsAnd fly off to the armyAnd after two yearsThey return without answers.People live with stressLooking for a reason to breatheAnd between hatred and murderThey speak about peace.

And all will be better…

Yes, above in the heavensClouds learn to fly,And I look upAnd see a hijacked plane.A government of generalsDivide the landscape,To what is theirs and ours,And we know not the end.

And all will be better…I look out my window -Maybe it will come,Maybe it has come,Yes it has come -A new day.

Here comes the prince of Egypt.O how I rejoiced for him.There are pyramids in our eyesAnd peace in his pipeAnd we said let’s complete it,And we’ll live as brothersAnd he said let’s go forward.Just get out of the territories.

And all will be good…

We will yet learn to live togetherBetween the groves of olive trees;Children will live without fearWithout borders, without bomb shelters.On graves grass will grow,For peace and love,One hundred years of warBut we have not lost hope.I look out the windowPerhaps a new day will come.”

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• 1948: Israeli independence and war• 1967: 6-day war; acquisition of the occupied territories• 1973: Yom Kippur war, a scare for Israel• 1977: Likud triumph in the Knesset• 1979: Peace with Egypt• 1982: Invasion of Lebanon• 1984-1992: Government of National Unity• 1989: First intifada• 1991-1995: Peace negotiations with PLO; peace with Jordan• 1992: Labor returns to power• 1995: Rabin’s assassination/Peres takes over• 1996: Netanyahu and Likud take power in 1st direct PM election• 1999: Barak and Labor take power; second attempt at peace negotiations• 2000: Pull out of Lebanon• 2000: Sharon visits the Haram al-Sharif; second intifada erupts• 2001: Sharon becomes PM in National Unity govt• 2002: West Bank barrier planned• 2005: Pull out settlers from Gaza; Sharon establishes the Kadima party• 2006: Sharon suffers a stroke; Ehud Olmert becomes PM as head of Kadima• 2008: Tzipi Livni takes over as head of Kadima; holds early elections• 2009: Likud wins elections and Benjamin Netanyahu becomes PM again• 2013: Likud Yisrael Beitenu wins elections; Netanyahu remains PM with new

coalition

Timeline of Israeli Politics

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• Knesset (Parliament)– 120 seats (small) for 4-year terms– Has the most power in Israeli politics– Prime Minister emerges from leading party—most likely to form a government and

exercises executive power

• President– Figurehead president (currently

Shimon Peres)

• Courts– Mixed secular and religious courts

• Electoral System– National, closed-list PR system– Very close representation of voter preferences in Knesset seats—but what about

governments?– Low electoral threshold (1%, then 1.5%, now 2%)– Short lived experiment with directly elected Prime Minister in 1996—Netanyahu

Israeli political institutions

Knesset

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• Party system– Principal characteristics:

• Extremely fragmented• Historically stable competition between two main centrist Zionist parties • The question of the Israeli center: recent innovation with Kadima as a “bridging” party

and then newer parties– Israel as a “party state”—politics is done through parties, and parties are usually quite

strong at responding to their constituencies– Challenges of coalition politics

The Israeli party system

• Principal party orientations and leaders– Likud: Binyamin Netanyahu– Labor: Ehud Barak—now Shelly Yachimovich– Kadima: Ariel Sharon, then Ehud Olmert, then Tzipi Livni– Yisrael Beitunu: Avigdor Lieberman– Yesh Atid: Yair Lapid– Habayit Hayehudi/Jewish Home: Naftali Bennett

• Smaller parties– Left-wing, liberal parties (like Shinui “change”, Meretz “vitality”)– Orthodox religious parties (like Shas—Sephardic; National Union—advocates transfer

of Palestinians out of Israel)– Arab parties (like Hadash—far left-wing/anti-Zionist, Balad)– Hatnuah-Tzipi Livni at it again!

Political Parties, Government and Opposition 2013

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Key party leaders

Avigdor Lieberman Yisrael Beiteinu

Binyimin Netanyahu Likud

Tzipi Livnipreviously Kadima;now Hatnuah

Naftali BennettHabayit Hayehudi

Yair LapidYesh Atid

Party Votes % Seats +/–Kadima 758,032 22.47% 28 −1Likud 729,054 21.61% 27 +15Yisrael Beiteinu

394,577 11.70% 15 +4

Labor Party 334,900 9.93% 13 –6

Shas 286,300 8.49% 11 –1United Torah Judaism

147,954 4.39% 5 –1

United Arab List–Ta'al

113,954 3.38% 4 —

National Union

112,570 3.34% 4 [A]

Hadash 112,130 3.32% 4 +1New Movement-Meretz

99,611 2.95% 3 –2

The Jewish Home

96,765 2.87% 3 [B]

Balad 83,739 2.48% 3 —

Total seats in the Knesset 120

February 2009 Israeli Legislative Election Results

January 2013 Israeli Legislative Election Results

Party Votes % Seats +/–Kadima 79,081 2.09% 2 -26Likud Yisrael Beiteinu

885,054 23.34% 31 -11

Yesh Atid 543,458 14.33% 19 NEW

Labor Party 432,118 11.39% 15 +7

Shas 331,868 9.12% 12 +1United Torah Judaism

195,892 5.16% 7 +2

United Arab List–Ta'al

138,450 3.65% 4 0

Hatnuah 189,167 4.99% 6 NEW

Hadash 113,439 2.99% 4 0Meretz 172,403 4.55% 6 +3

The Jewish Home/Habayit Hayehudi

345,985 9.12 12 +9

Balad 97,030 2.56 3 0

Total Number of Seats in Knesset: 120

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• The nature of the state– What is a Jewish state?– European vs. Middle Eastern state

• Absorption and integration of immigrants– Ashkenazi vs. Sephardic Jewry, with very different cultures– Where do new immigrants live and how are they incorporated?

• Security and national defense– How to defend the state in the possibility of international attack– Massive numbers of citizens with military experience– Perceived threats from Iran, Hizbullah, Hamas

• Relationship with Arab populations– Arab population within Israel and in the occupied territories—what rights

should they have?

• International relations– Balance of peace and balance of threat with Arab states– Ensure appropriate allies for support (active courting of the US)

• Economic development– Create a sustainable economy that thrives in the areas of agriculture,

technology, tourism

Key Israeli political issues

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• Key elements of political culture– Zionism is non-negotiable– Deep attachment to land and ties to the Biblical past– The world is against us, “siege” mentality– Egalitarianism and democracy?

• The role of Judaism in the state– Only about 20% of Israelis think of themselves as particularly religious– Rise of the role of elite religious figures– Role of halakha (Jewish law) in many aspects of society

• Does halakha contradict democracy?

Political culture and religion

Working Group Exercise- What are the top three economic challenges facing Israel?

- If your working group was Israel’s government, what policies would you propose to address these challenges?

- Which domestic coalitions would support your proposals and which would oppose them? Why?

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Lecture terms—April 15

Zionism

Menachem Begin

Yitzhak Rabin

Binyamin Netanyahu

Ariel Sharon

Knesset

Proportional Representation

Closed List System

Labor Party

Likud Party

Ashkenazi vs. Sephardim

Kadima Party

Halakha

2013 Israeli Elections