Who knew that norms more than laws protect the vitality of democracies? Imagine being indicted while in office and continuing to run in order to avoid jail. Netanyahu, Trump, etc, have no shame. I think many people in both countries are at least as surprised as they are dismayed or outraged.
1
Great article. This is why I subscribe to the Times.
This article only tangentially mentions the presence of Arab parties. How many NYT readers know that Israel's Arab citizens have voted and served in the government from the founding of the state? The rise of the Arab voting bloc is a major component of the current stalemate. The united Arab bloc is the third largest party in the country. I wonder if journalists choose not to emphasize this fascinating development because it would highlight voting equality in Israel and undermine the old apartheid canard.
2
"Palestinians living in the occupied territories are not allowed to vote."
Absolutely incorrect. They do not vote in Israeli elections. They do vote in Palestinian elections. Mahmoud Abbas was elected President of the Palestinian National Authority on 9 January 2005, for a four-year term ending on 9 January 2009. Well January 9, 2009 has long passed, but Mr. Abbas has not faced elections yet. His 4 year term continues. The last elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council were held on 25 January 2006.
So Palestinians could vote in Palestinian elections, if there were Palestinian elections. Israelis of course do not vote in Palestinian elections. Why would anyone think that Palestinians should vote in Israeli elections.
6
Ranked choice/instant runoff voting would certainly resolve this situation. All voters rank the parties on their ballot. Everybody's first choice is tallied. If no party gets a majority, then the party with the fewest votes gets dropped, and all that party's voters get reallocated to their second choice. Repeat until a party gets >50%.
Of course, IMPLEMENTING this would be extremely difficult, since the small parties, which have become used to having a kingmaker role, would fight tooth and nail to stop it.
Israel should extend citizenship to all residence of the area it controls, extend the "Right of Return" to Palestinians who have been forced out of their homeland since 1948 and grant them citizenship and voting rights.
Then have a real democratic election and let all the people decide what sort of government they want.
1
One of the 'biggest questions' absent from this article is how Arabs in Israel perceive their future role within Israeli politics. It could have been important to note how the Arab Joint List parties are expected to increase their seats (to 12.5%). Rather than mentioning how 'Palestinians living in the occupied territories are not allowed to vote' (they're not Israelis and incidentally aren't allowed to vote very much by their own Palestinian Authority...)
If Orthodox parties' seats are reducing and Arab Israeli seats are increasing, that is a noteworthy testament to the balancing act of democracy in Israel and a success within that country's complex political landscape. Obsessive focus on Netanyahu as if nothing else happens misses an important point. Perhaps next elections the Joint List will advocate national investment and over 50% of Arabs will finally vote. And perhaps the Palestinians in the occupied territories would be allowed by their own government to vote their chance as well ...
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@Jiri
Arab joint list got 14 seats per exit polls. 3rd largest party in Israel.
As you point out, Arabs in West Bank can't vote because THEIR government doesn't hold elections.
2
I feel like Netanyahu has been in power far too long. Obviously he's somewhat corrupt, and grimly hanging on to power to avoid being prosecuted for bribery and other scandals. Clearly he doesn't care about the plight of the Palestinians at all.
But, Israel has had plenty of opportunities lately to get him out of power, and refused to do so every time. So, this is what they keep choosing, and it seems to me because Netanyahu is consistently set on crushing the Palestinians, adding settlements to the Palestinian areas, stomping out violence with ultra-violence, and so on.
The majority of Israel is choosing this path, so let them reap the whirlwind. I just can't be bothered to care anymore, because the Middle East as a whole has no future anyway, seeing as how sometime this century it will run so low on water, it will become uninhabitable.
I look at Mr. Netanyahu and see:
A man who is now Israel’s longest-serving and arguably most-successful-ever Prime Minister;
Whose country remains surrounded by enemies on all sides who after more 70 years are still sworn to uproot and do-in his people;
A country that experienced serious Iranian-sponsored attacks by Hamas just a few days ago;
A man who presides over an intensely democratic country known to be full of highly contentious and vociferous people who constantly feud among themselves and with their coreligionists elsewhere;
A nation that is now widely recognized as a world leader in science, technology and medicine that was recently ranked in a landmark publication of the United Nations as the 13th happiest country in the world. The U.S. ranked 19th.
A man being asked by the N.Y. Times and many of its readers to negotiate with self-appointed, never-elected Palestinian "leaders" who have frittered away the many billions of dollars they have received in international aid in the past 70+ years on arms, graft and terrorism.
A man who is currently telling Palestinians in the clearest possible terms that their game is over;
And that by obstinately refusing to come to the peace table with an offer to Israel of permanent recognition as the Jewish State with its capital in Jerusalem -- including meaningful land trades and security provisions -- means accepting the dreary, difficult conditions they are now living in and the permanent loss of their dream.
2
Recipe for a truly spicy political messiness:
Mix any Religion within your goverment.
Let stand for a couple of decades,
and you'll get a perfect mess.
Enjoy.
Democracy is messy, yet it’s hands down the best form of government on the planet. However, talking of messy, Israeli democracy is the worst of all democracies in the world. Israel is having its third election today in one year and still there is no clear winner to form a stable government. The entire country knows that they have a crook, a fraud and a cheat at the helm, and yet the voters cannot vote him out office. When I look at the Israeli, American and British democracies, I wish there was another better form of government, but unfortunately, there is none! Thanks to the inherent flaws of democracy that we have leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump and Boris Johnson in Israel, the U.S. and Britain respectively, at the helm.
1
As a kid I used to marvel at Israel and its democratic process. It seems so perfect and so simple. I remember Golda Mier, like I would my own grandma and how she rode the bus to work everyday. Boy things have changed. Now it is as messy as the rest of the democratic world. Where did we all go so wrong?
2
@TheniD Will someone please remind me when they last heard of elections among the Palestinians, or the Saudis, or the Qataris, Emiratis, etc, etc, etc?
1
Israel, like many other Western Democracies, faces similar turmoil to the USA. On one side a populist demagogue with irrational and aberrant behavior, on the other are groups of politically inept disparate parties incapable of unified opposition. The consequence is political paralysis and no clear path or agenda for urgent problem solutions. When 50% of the population is under the ether of a con man it's tough to have dialogue.
4
First of all, why does the photo accompanying this article look like the cover of the Beatles album "Abby Road." That's nuts, but I guess, given the state of Israeli politics, "nuts" is appropriate.
John of NH NH asks a good question: Is this the end result of democracy. Whatever the outcome of this election, Israeli politicians should come up with a new method of electing the Knesset. William F. Buckley's observation about pulling a legislature out of the phone book would be an improvement over the current Israeli system.
3
Corrupt leaders shake hands and support one another in these dark days. Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu are but two of the most egregious examples. I mourn and pray for a day when leadership of a country is given to the honest and the moral humans, those with a vision for honesty and a love for their people, not blind ambition supported by corruption to serve themselves. If not now, when????
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So many countries in the world have elections: why should we care about one, but not all the others?
5
@RonRich how many have had 3 elections in less than a year?
5
@RonRich Who does not care about all the others?
The Israeli election is newsworthy because it is a third attempt to elect a parliament. Not many countries need three tries to elect a parliament.
In South American countries, inconclusive elections are settled by armies. And sometimes even conclusive elections are re-settled by armies.
Part of what is newsworthy about Israel's third parliamentary election is that a country so thoroughly divided has held together with a lame-duck parliament.
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@RonRich
How many others have nuclear weapons?
How many others are the major military power in their area?
How many others supply critical pieces of our technology?
How many others . . . ?
5
What we are seeing in Israel today is the weakness of the Parliamentary system and its multi-party framework, where no one seems able to cobble together a workable coalition, hence election after election, all with inconclusive results.
On the other hand, our two-party system, aided by the antiquated electoral college system which has worked as designed only once, in the election of 1800, and badly at that, is also being put to the test, allowing an entrenched minority party, the Republicans, to control government despite its minority status in many parts of the country, like Wisconsin. I don't know how our friends, the Israelis will resolve their governing problem, but I know how the American voting public can solve theirs. A decisive win for Democrats in November would send a much needed shock wave through the GOP, telling them that their behavior, particularly their refusal to repudiate their undiagnosed, sociopathic President will not be tolerated. I hope you will join me November 3, 2020. Your country needs you.
14
I cannot understand how anyone can vote for candidate who currently is under investigation for corruption. PERIOD.
Netanyahu has not brought Israel any closer to peace with Palestine and I believe enhances division in the country.
Israeli, get out to vote!
25
@JGC On Dec. 2, 1947, just days after the UN General Assembly passed a resolution to partition historic Palestine into Jewish and Arab-ruled sections, the Ulama or chief scholars of Sunni Islam of Al-Azhar University in Cairo– the leading university of the Arab World– issued a fatwa calling on the world’s Muslims to launch a Jihad to destroy the incipient Jewish state. It was reiterated by the Ulama, in April 1948, days before the Egyptian Army and three other Arab armies attacked Palestine, giving the campaign a “religious imprimatur.” The fatwa was reissued later that year.
“It was clear the Arabs had lost the war,” Morris said, but reissuing the Fatwa signaled it was meant “to stand for future years, for future generations, for whatever bout there will be against the Jews.”
As noted in his book and repeated at the conference, Matiel Mighannam, a Lebanese Christian woman who headed the Arab Women’s Organization in Palestine, affiliated with the Arab High Command, told an interviewer: “The UN decision has united all Arabs as they have never been united before, not even against the Crusaders.” She added that a Jewish state had no chance to survive and “All the Jews will eventually be massacred.”
http://www.theseniortimes.com/1948-was-a-holy-war-for-arabs-historian-says/
As long as most Palestinians are devout Muslims (85% of Palestinian Muslims want sharia law.) and as long as the Jewish State controls even one square inch of land, peace is impossible.
@JGC I am pretty sure most of the people voting for Bibi do not believe peace is possible with the Palestinians. They prefer strong security in place of it.
1
Is Israel a vision of the endgame for democracy in this cycle, in the sense that the country is divided into fragments unable to reconcile with each other and unmotivated by a vision that has any ability to pull people together to get things done? Today, Israel looks like the warlord division of pre-revolutionary China or feudal Europe, where each 'big man' has his group of adherents and there can be no unity, no common purpose, because the big man's power derives from the fear of his followers of being at the mercy of 'others' with whom there can be no overlap of interest or respect. Where is the vision, the leadership, to create a 'One Israel' that could motivate a solid majority to come together for common purpose? Isn't that a major purpose of government, the basis of legitimacy longer term?
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@John
I agree with your analysis. Sounds a bit like a dis-Trumpian state of affairs.
1
@John
Sometimes, in times of crisis, a person arises who, by the force of personality alone, can make things happen. Think of Moses Ben Amram, the Teacher; George Washington; FDR; Winston Churchill; David Ben Gurion.
Sometimes, there arises Donald Trump; Boris Johnson; Bibi Netanyahu.
1
@John Sometime "Stay the course." is the best policy especially when things are going well.
Israelis are the 13th happiest people, the 29th highest per capita GNP, the 28th on the Democracy Index.