The only thing Israelis are more passionate about than politics is
cottage cheese, a household staple whose spiking prices brought 300,000
to the streets in August 2011.
But next week’s election is a more tepid affair than usual, and even
inflammatory attack ads can’t put the voters’ zeal back on the boil, as
most see the results in advance. With days to go, Israelis are more
interested in last week’s cold weather than the usual issues.
“This election doesn’t have the same tensions and emotion as in the past,” says Haaretz analyst Anshel Pfeffer, who has widely covered the Jan. 22 election. “Polls said for a long time that (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s lead is so clear that it hasn’t managed to generate much excitement.”
It’s not that Netanyahu is overwhelmingly popular. Recent media polls show his right wing Likud-Beiteinu coalition leading with a lacklustre 34 per cent of the vote, centre-left Labor at 16 per cent and the newly created Zionist right wing religious party, Jewish Home, at 14 per cent.
And while international media focus on Israel’s turbulent relationship with the Palestinians, insecurity after the Arab Spring, anxiety over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and tensions with the Obama administration in the United States, the concerns of most Israelis are closer to the kitchen table than to looming conflicts.
“As much as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-Beiteinu might want to make this election about security and diplomacy, the voters are in large part speaking a different language — that of domestic socioeconomic issues,” writes analyst Stephan Miller, who conducted a poll with the online news site The Times of Israel.
The poll found that for 43 per cent of likely voters, economic issues are the top election priority. The fraying of Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians after their UN upgrade to observer state status — and Netanyahu’s announcement of new settlements that could undermine a future Palestinian state — is the main focus of only 16 per cent. The threat from Iran rates at 12 per cent, below worries over education at 13 per cent.
Voters’ response to Netanyahu is mostly lukewarm, and he is viewed slightly less favourably than Labor’s feisty Shelly Yachimovich as an economic leader, in a recent poll by Tel Aviv University. But he is supported by a margin of 76 per cent to 36 per cent as a safe pair of hands for security issues.
Though the winner of the poll is in little doubt, how votes translate into results is less certain.
In Israel’s complex political system, it’s the behind-the-scenes horse trading that will determine the next government’s direction. And with 34 factions — up from the previous 14 — vying for the Knesset’s 120 seats, no one party is expected to garner the required 61 seats needed to govern. Bargaining will be intense once the ballots are counted.
The leader of the party with the most support has four weeks to form a new governing coalition of at least 61 seats, and a two-week extension if needed.
A scan of Israel’s political landscape shows that Netanyahu will need all the time he can get. “He’ll have to build a jigsaw puzzle with the pieces he’s handed,” says Pfeffer.
“It is fascinating and unsettling to see that there are very few ethnic or political groups who feel naturally at home in Israel, and that most feel threatened in their identities,” writes Tel Aviv University psychology professor Carlo Strenger in Haaretz.
“Eastern European Ashkenazim feel disenfranchised, Sephardim (who originated in Spain and Portugal) feel humiliated, Russians disadvantaged, the ultra-Orthodox threatened by assimilation and secular Jews overwhelmed by anti-liberal trends. And we haven’t even begun to speak of Israel’s Arabs, who are the archetype of Israel’s ‘ethnic demon.’”
All have a party to represent them.
Likud-Beiteinu: A mini-coalition of two right-wing parties, Netanyahu’s Likud and hardline former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home). Lieberman resigned after an indictment for fraud and breach of trust, but is running again. Both parties take a hard line on Jewish settlements, talk tough on Iran and maintain that the Obama administration is unfavourable to Israel, in spite of the president’s unprecedented military support. Netanyahu’s economic policy is free-market conservatism, and he has come under fire for the country’s growing inequality.
Labor: Centre-left party that once dominated Israeli politics, now trails Likud-Beiteinu. Labor traditionally advocates peace with the Palestinians and decries the effect of expanding settlements. Its social democratic policies are favourably viewed by many economically challenged Israelis, but the party has slid in recent years as cynicism over the peace process increased, and Netanyahu was seen as better equipped to deal with instability in the Middle East, Iran and continuing rocket attacks from Gaza militants.
Jewish Home: The most high profile of the smaller party leaders, led by software millionaire Naftali Bennett, is a free-marketer with unapologetically ultra-conservative values, including opposition to unions. He’s also openly against a Palestinian state and for settlement expansion throughout the West Bank. His fledgling party shot into third place in the polls, and has vacuumed up votes from Likud’s far-right wing. He aims to hold the balance of power in a new coalition, and could push the future government even farther to the right.
Hatnuah (The Movement): Party is a split-off of a split-off, formed from the earlier Likud splinter, Kadima, after leader Tzipi Livni lost its leadership to Shaul Mofaz. Its platform is centrist, but criticized as weak. It embraces the peace process and environmental protection, but its ideas have failed to grab voters’ attention. In the 2009 election, Livni vied with Netanyahu for the prime minister’s job, but lost when she failed to form a coalition. This time she may not get a foot in the door.
Shas (guardians of the Torah): Led by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, this small but influential current coalition member is a muscular representative of ultra-Orthodox Jews, most of them Sephardic and from a lower-income sector. Known for its fierce anti-Palestinian rhetoric, it gained strength and influence in the current Israeli coalition. It opposes homosexuality as “a plague.” Its YouTube election ad satirizing Israel’s growing community of secular Russian Jews caused an outcry.
Yesh Atid (There is a Future): A relatively new centrist party led by a former TV host, Yair Lapid, Yesh Atid has a platform of equality that would undermine the privileges of the ultra-Orthodox and end support for illegal outposts. With his party neck-and-neck in the polls with Shas and Hatnuah, at around 10 per cent, Lapid says he wouldn’t enter a right wing coalition if asked. He favours a two-state settlement with the Palestinians and pitches to the more secular, liberal middle class.
United Torah Judaism: A coalition of two small European-originated ultra-Orthodox parties with sometimes competing views of Judaism. Mainly devoted to religion, they are guided by spiritual leaders and led by Yaakov Litzman and Moshe Gafni.
Israeli Arab parties: Balad, Hadash and the United Arab List are polling at 11 per cent as a group, though their individual ratings are small. They hold 17 seats in the Knesset currently, but have never been included in a government coalition. According to a recent Haifa University poll quoted in The Economist, disgust with their lack of voice in the political process is likely to drive Arab voting turnout down to less than 50 per cent.
Original Article
“This election doesn’t have the same tensions and emotion as in the past,” says Haaretz analyst Anshel Pfeffer, who has widely covered the Jan. 22 election. “Polls said for a long time that (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s lead is so clear that it hasn’t managed to generate much excitement.”
It’s not that Netanyahu is overwhelmingly popular. Recent media polls show his right wing Likud-Beiteinu coalition leading with a lacklustre 34 per cent of the vote, centre-left Labor at 16 per cent and the newly created Zionist right wing religious party, Jewish Home, at 14 per cent.
And while international media focus on Israel’s turbulent relationship with the Palestinians, insecurity after the Arab Spring, anxiety over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and tensions with the Obama administration in the United States, the concerns of most Israelis are closer to the kitchen table than to looming conflicts.
“As much as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-Beiteinu might want to make this election about security and diplomacy, the voters are in large part speaking a different language — that of domestic socioeconomic issues,” writes analyst Stephan Miller, who conducted a poll with the online news site The Times of Israel.
The poll found that for 43 per cent of likely voters, economic issues are the top election priority. The fraying of Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians after their UN upgrade to observer state status — and Netanyahu’s announcement of new settlements that could undermine a future Palestinian state — is the main focus of only 16 per cent. The threat from Iran rates at 12 per cent, below worries over education at 13 per cent.
Voters’ response to Netanyahu is mostly lukewarm, and he is viewed slightly less favourably than Labor’s feisty Shelly Yachimovich as an economic leader, in a recent poll by Tel Aviv University. But he is supported by a margin of 76 per cent to 36 per cent as a safe pair of hands for security issues.
Though the winner of the poll is in little doubt, how votes translate into results is less certain.
In Israel’s complex political system, it’s the behind-the-scenes horse trading that will determine the next government’s direction. And with 34 factions — up from the previous 14 — vying for the Knesset’s 120 seats, no one party is expected to garner the required 61 seats needed to govern. Bargaining will be intense once the ballots are counted.
The leader of the party with the most support has four weeks to form a new governing coalition of at least 61 seats, and a two-week extension if needed.
A scan of Israel’s political landscape shows that Netanyahu will need all the time he can get. “He’ll have to build a jigsaw puzzle with the pieces he’s handed,” says Pfeffer.
“It is fascinating and unsettling to see that there are very few ethnic or political groups who feel naturally at home in Israel, and that most feel threatened in their identities,” writes Tel Aviv University psychology professor Carlo Strenger in Haaretz.
“Eastern European Ashkenazim feel disenfranchised, Sephardim (who originated in Spain and Portugal) feel humiliated, Russians disadvantaged, the ultra-Orthodox threatened by assimilation and secular Jews overwhelmed by anti-liberal trends. And we haven’t even begun to speak of Israel’s Arabs, who are the archetype of Israel’s ‘ethnic demon.’”
All have a party to represent them.
Likud-Beiteinu: A mini-coalition of two right-wing parties, Netanyahu’s Likud and hardline former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home). Lieberman resigned after an indictment for fraud and breach of trust, but is running again. Both parties take a hard line on Jewish settlements, talk tough on Iran and maintain that the Obama administration is unfavourable to Israel, in spite of the president’s unprecedented military support. Netanyahu’s economic policy is free-market conservatism, and he has come under fire for the country’s growing inequality.
Labor: Centre-left party that once dominated Israeli politics, now trails Likud-Beiteinu. Labor traditionally advocates peace with the Palestinians and decries the effect of expanding settlements. Its social democratic policies are favourably viewed by many economically challenged Israelis, but the party has slid in recent years as cynicism over the peace process increased, and Netanyahu was seen as better equipped to deal with instability in the Middle East, Iran and continuing rocket attacks from Gaza militants.
Jewish Home: The most high profile of the smaller party leaders, led by software millionaire Naftali Bennett, is a free-marketer with unapologetically ultra-conservative values, including opposition to unions. He’s also openly against a Palestinian state and for settlement expansion throughout the West Bank. His fledgling party shot into third place in the polls, and has vacuumed up votes from Likud’s far-right wing. He aims to hold the balance of power in a new coalition, and could push the future government even farther to the right.
Hatnuah (The Movement): Party is a split-off of a split-off, formed from the earlier Likud splinter, Kadima, after leader Tzipi Livni lost its leadership to Shaul Mofaz. Its platform is centrist, but criticized as weak. It embraces the peace process and environmental protection, but its ideas have failed to grab voters’ attention. In the 2009 election, Livni vied with Netanyahu for the prime minister’s job, but lost when she failed to form a coalition. This time she may not get a foot in the door.
Shas (guardians of the Torah): Led by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, this small but influential current coalition member is a muscular representative of ultra-Orthodox Jews, most of them Sephardic and from a lower-income sector. Known for its fierce anti-Palestinian rhetoric, it gained strength and influence in the current Israeli coalition. It opposes homosexuality as “a plague.” Its YouTube election ad satirizing Israel’s growing community of secular Russian Jews caused an outcry.
Yesh Atid (There is a Future): A relatively new centrist party led by a former TV host, Yair Lapid, Yesh Atid has a platform of equality that would undermine the privileges of the ultra-Orthodox and end support for illegal outposts. With his party neck-and-neck in the polls with Shas and Hatnuah, at around 10 per cent, Lapid says he wouldn’t enter a right wing coalition if asked. He favours a two-state settlement with the Palestinians and pitches to the more secular, liberal middle class.
United Torah Judaism: A coalition of two small European-originated ultra-Orthodox parties with sometimes competing views of Judaism. Mainly devoted to religion, they are guided by spiritual leaders and led by Yaakov Litzman and Moshe Gafni.
Israeli Arab parties: Balad, Hadash and the United Arab List are polling at 11 per cent as a group, though their individual ratings are small. They hold 17 seats in the Knesset currently, but have never been included in a government coalition. According to a recent Haifa University poll quoted in The Economist, disgust with their lack of voice in the political process is likely to drive Arab voting turnout down to less than 50 per cent.
Source: the star
Author: Olivia Ward
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