Democracy in Action

By Rabbi Ed Romm
Director of Education and Campus Programs
Fuchsberg Center for Conservative Judaism in Israel

One of the foundations of democracy is allowing a platform for minorities to express their views freely.

Israel just finished elections and is in the process of trying to form a government. Israel is not a two party system like the United States and some other countries. Rather, it is a parliamentary system where the President (chosen by the Knesset and with a symbolic role) interviews the various parties after the national elections and decides which party will be invited to attempt to put together a coalition of at least 61 seats out of 120 in the Knesset. The head of the party chosen to try to form the coalition becomes the Prime Minister if he/she succeeds.

The various parties running in the election offer the broadest forum for free expression. This year there were 33 parties running in the elections. Sounds like chaos? It is. Many of the more established parties have representation of minority groups such as Arabs, Bedouin, Druze, etc. as part of their slate. In addition there are three non-Zionist Arab parties. The religious sector has two ultra-Orthodox parties, a right-wing religious Zionist party and a moderate religious party aligned with the Green party.

Now it gets more interesting. There is a "Green Leaf" party, not to be confused with the Green Party (ecology), that wants to legalize marijuana and teamed up with the Holocaust Survivors Party to run on the same ticket. Israel Hazakah's platform is to fight organized crime. There is a Men's Rights party that fights for divorced dads. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

In the end, 12 parties out of the 33 running received the minimum number of votes to be represented in the Knesset. However each of the 33 was presented with the opportunity on television and radio to present their message to the voters. It is not going to be easy to put together a government. The results of the election did not give a clear majority to either of the two leading parties. Nonetheless, the elections are a celebration of democracy in Israel!

[Posted 2/23/09]