Howdy, fellow escapists. If you care enough to enter the thread, you probably know what Israel is. Great, that's a start. Over there we have a Parliamentary Representative Democracy. One house of representatives, holding 120 seats. Any party that can go through the necessary bureaucracy can run for elections. Each party presents a list of candidates (some even up to 120) - those on the top of the list will get into Parliament, depending on how many votes the party garnered (if the party got enough for 12 seats, the first 12 will become Parliament members). There's a minimum line for votes (you need to get at least 2 seats to even enter Parliament). The 'value' in votes of each seat is calculated relatively to the overall amount of votes in said elections.
Composing a coalition of parties occurs after the elections. The head of a party is nominated to head a coalition by other parties (that either signed deals with them or are planning to be in the same coalition), and s/he later creates a coalition of parties. For the most part, it's best to have at least 61 seats (50%+1) in a coalition so to avoid fears of failing a vote that could spell ruin for the coalition (if a large enough party breaks away, the opposition can pass a law to dissolve the coalition with enough votes). The bigger the coalition, the stronger and more stable the government.
General elections are at the 22nd of January.
Right... where was I? Oh, yes, the parties that are running. I'll show the most prominent ones, but there are some which can't get past the minimum (like the 'green' party and the 'pirate' party).
1. Likud & Israel, Our Home - The two parties are running on the same ticket. This is a political stunt by the leader of the Likud party, Benjamin Netanyahu, that was threatened by the growing poll numbers for the Labor party. Israel, Our Home has its roots within the Likud (since it was started by people leaving the Likud), and it seems rather natural to have them on-board. However, politics can be a battle of opportunists, and by doing this the Likud had nearly assured itself that it will be the next party to lead the coalition in the Israeli government. Before the merger, the Likud had 27 seats and Israel, our home had 15. Their numbers have dropped significantly from 42 to around 34 (this is recent polls) due to center and right parties stealing away their voters that couldn't stomach the two parties' "merger".
2. Labor - Our sweet, sweet, Labor party that fell into ruin in recent years. I think they had about 13(!) seats in the last round, and its situation worsened after their head broke away with four other members so he could stay in the coalition and keep his job as minister of defense. They strengthened significantly in the past year due to the shock-waves felt by a wave of protests that happened in Israel in the summer. The Labor party just started riding that wave of resentment and anger (and even got some activists on its roster) and now they're polling at around 18-20, depending on the season. I _hate_ that the Labor party became a populist movement, and it turned from a left party to a center, and even center-right party just to be more mainstream and garner more votes.
3. Shas - A political movement that burst into the scene by harnessing the previously untapped natural resources of disgruntled Sephardi Haredi Jews. Over the years they became a party that "encompassed" all of the Haredi sphere, and somehow lost some of its color. Nowadays accusations of corruption and decadence are thrown at it from every direction. Ex-members talk about how their supposed leader, an elderly great rabbi, is being "held hostage" by a court of plotters that tell them what they want him to hear and nothing else. Then again, they can all just be mad. They get around 11 seats, and because their audience almost never changes, the numbers stay at around 13-9 in every election. They've been the "balance" party for a few consecutive times now, going with whoever will give them the most privileges and helping the coalition of their choice. There is some interesting history about this party, lots of bad blood.
4. Jewish Home - after some conniving and backstabbing, we have the 'mostly' reunified Religious Nationalist party in place. They're polling at a surprising 15 seats (because they got a new face to lead them). These guys are... interesting. The leader of the party goes out to speak not only to his crowd (Religious Nationalists) but also to Secularists and others. It was interesting to see them grow from around 7 seats to 15 in such a short time. They owe a lot for the image of their new chairman. He's a charismatic, relatively young, handsome, special forces army veteran, wealthy businessman (he pulled an 'exit') and seemingly "uncorruptable". Damn it he's sexy. Just look at him. You think he's not? Look at our President. There. I told you.
5. There is a Future - The 'wind' party, as in "they're blowing wind", and in "it'll be gone as the wind next elections". We get those from time to time. It was founded and headed by a nice gentleman that came from Israeli Journalism, Yair Lapid. He has a list of journalists, experts in their field and a rabbi with a respectable name (god knows why. yes, it was a joke. carry on). His father became infamous as a politician because he and his party 'fought' against the ultra-religious in Israel politics, which is why people expect him to kinda do the same. He's not as decisive as others expected, because he knows that going on the offensive like a twat can get you disqualified in the eyes of a lot of people. What is he running on? well, first and foremost - change. Change the system, change the education, change the welfare, change the current regime. That's all to it - motherfucking populists. Yes, you can see I don't like them. Oh, and they've been polling as high as 18 - and as low as 8. At the moment they're at around 10-11 seats, but from now to elections they can be wiped out or be as big as the Likud. My money goes on wiped out.
6. Meretz - Woo, our lovely confused Leftist party. I say confused because sometimes it might forget it's Zionist. Oh well, things happen. So what's new with them? A little is new - they seem to be polling better than last elections, with a new wave of lefties coming disappointed from last year's protests. They're polling at around 5-6 seats, while they are currently holding 3. Meretz... used to be much bigger (four times bigger). They go for social justice, human rights, a two state solution (They did it when it was COOL) and environmentalism. What happened? Two things - the temporary PA solution was at a halt, and this fiasco. Go on, preach tolerance and peace while buses and malls are being suicide bombed and we'll see how you're polling.
7,8&9. Hadhash; Balad; Raam-Tael. All three are Arab parties. Hadash has 4 seats. It used to be a non-marxist left party (social justice, equality, and all that) but turned towards the issue of Arab Palestinian nationalism in the early 2000s (woo, non-Zionist). I blame Tibbi. They too became populists. They support complete withdrawal of Israel back to the green line, recognition of a special minority status for Palestinians within Israel (I still don't know what that means), and... I think that's it. Oh, and social justice. Balad is a party that has a clear non-Zionist agenda - make Israel into a democracy and remove the special status for Jews (the law of return is an example of what they claim gives Jews more rights than others in Israel), thus turning Israel into a democracy not unlike the USA (...good luck with the constitution). They have 3 seats. Raam-Tael has 4 seats. I feel like I'm repeating myself - they're basically a party for the welfare of their public, the Israeli Arabs.
10. The movement headed by Tzipi Livni - this is... new. This is also very strange. Tzipi Livni used to be at the head of Kadima before she was outst in internal elections. She then decided to retire from politics... she returned a few weeks ago after she found out Ehud Olmert wouldn't run with her (Our current Attorney General's office is quite... hateful, of the man.). She is heading a movement which its sole purpose is being "NOT LIKUD, NOT BIBI". Seriously. That's what they're basically running on... and they're polling at ~9 seats. It's madness, I tell you. It's also a "wind" party of sorts.
Other notes - Kadima was CRUSHED into dust. It was a debacle, I tell you, a disaster of epic proportions, that a party which had more seats than the Likud became one that could barely go over the 2 seat minimum. If you want to learn more, just ask. It's a long story.
Hanin Zoabi, who was disqualified from participating in the elections in the Parliamentary committee for party registration... her case is being debated in Israel's high court of Justice (the Supreme court) at the moment. Meh, it also happened last time, but she won in court. What I love about it is that they're using a law that was put in place to disqualify a Jewish racist right-wing party from participating to disqualify her from running, and she then calls the law racist. She also likes to call them fascists. Interesting woman indeed, she has an eventful life.
There is barely a left... left in this country. The only ones left are Meretz and the Arab parties (just because they're not Zionist). All of the other parties are either center-left, center-right, a bunch of opportunists or crazy ass right-right. Before you ask, Likud is center-right. Oh, the horror. Menachem Begin would turn in his grave.
ANYWAY, do you gals and guys have any questions for me? I still haven't decided who I'm voting for. I can also talk about their political campaigns which are kicking into gear nowadays.