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The Elections for the 17th Knesset were held in Israel on 28 March 2006 , following an agreement between the Prime Minister , Ariel Sharon , and the new leader of the Israel Labour Party , Amir Peretz . BACKGROUND The decision to hold early elections followed Peretz's election as Labour leader and his immediate decision to withdraw from the Coalition government, in which Labour under its outgoing Leader, Shimon Peres , kept Sharon in office. It also follows Sharon's split from Likud to found his new party, Kadima , which Peres subsequently joined. "I'm letting him {Link without Title} choose a date in that period between the end of February and the end of March and whatever date he chooses is acceptable to me, the earlier the better," Peretz said. Sharon said: "As soon as it became clear that the existing political framework was falling apart, I came to the conclusion that the best thing for the country is to hold new elections as soon as possible." At the 2003 Elections , Likud under Sharon's leadership had a convincing win by Israeli standards, winning 38 seats in the 120-member Knesset (parliament). Labour, led by Amram Mitzna , won only 19 seats. Since that election Likud has suffered severe divisions over Sharon's decision to reverse his position on several campaign promises (Sharon stated then that “The fate of Netsarim Jewish town in Gaza is the fate of Tel Aviv.”). Sharon began to embrace a position similar to his 2003 election rival Amram Mitzna to withdraw Israeli settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip . This caused tension within the Likud party and in January 2005 Peres led Labour into a Coalition with Sharon to allow the Gaza withdrawal to go ahead despite opposition from a majority of Likud members. On 20 November Israeli media reported that Sharon would resign from Likud and form a new party, more politically centrist than Likud, to lead into the elections. Sharon would almost certainly have faced a leadership challenge from former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for the right to lead Likud. The election is now generally seen as a three-way contest for the Prime Ministership, between Kadima, Labour and Likud. This marks a sharp shift from Israel's recent tradition of elections dominated by Two Major Parties . On January 4 , 2006 , Sharon suffered a Hemorrhagic Stroke leaving him in a coma, and on 31 January 2006 the Kadima party list of candidates for the upcoming election did not include the incapacitated Prime Minister. Ehud Olmert , Acting Prime Minister and Acting Chairman of Sharon's Kadima party is now the party's candidate for Prime Minister. Polls conducted from January through March showed Kadima led by Olmert still enjoying a commanding though somewhat reduced lead over both Labour and Likud. Former Labour party leader Shimon Peres , who joined Kadima citing Ariel Sharon's leadership skills, remained in the party and is second on the list of candidates. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is third on the Kadima list and would become Vice Premier if Kadima forms the next government. In the Shinui primaries, Tel Aviv council member Ron Leventhal defeated Avraham Poraz for the number 2 spot. Poraz, a close ally of party leader Yosef Lapid , subsequently resigned from Shinui, as did most Shinui Knesset members, forming a breakaway party called Hetz (ha-Miflaga ha-Hilonit Tzionit or 'the Secular Zionist Party'). Lapid resigned as party leader on 25 January 2006 , and Leventhal was subsequently elected the new party leader. Neither Shinui nor Hetz received sufficient votes to win any seats in the 17th Knesset. Shinui won 15 seats in the 2003 election and was the third largest party in the 16th Knesset. On 30 January 2006 the right-wing National Union (Halchud HaLeumi), a coalition of three small parties ( Moledet , Tkuma , Tzionut Datit Leumit Mitchadeshet ), submitted a joint list with the National Religious Party ( Mafdal ). The merged list is headed by Binyamin Elon . The largely Russian immigrant Yisrael Beytenu (Israel, Our Home) party has separated from National Union and is running a separate list. This separation was conducted due to polls that predicted that, when running separately, these two major rightist blocs will receive between 20 to 25 seats (in the previous elections, they had received only 7), and it turned out to be true: the National Union bloc received 9 seats and Our Home - Israel got 11. KEY ISSUES The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Fighting Palestinian Militancy During the Al-Aqsa Intifada , more than a thousand Israelis were killed in Palestinian militant attacks. Israel's security policy during that time was focused on arresting or killing members of the militant organizations, through frequent military excursions into the Palestinian Territories and (somewhat controversially) targeted Assassination s, and to curb the movement of suspected militants - especially would-be suicide bombers - through the use of checkpoints. This policy won the support of the Jewish mainstream, but elements in the Jewish left, as well as the vast majority of the Arab population, vehemently opposed what they saw as excessive response to the security threat. Some claimed that Israel's policy was in fact encouraging more violence from the Palestinian side. Despite the decrease in violence during 2005 and 2006, or perhaps because of it, popular support for the security policy remained high among the Israeli public, which continued to fear suicide bombings and Qassam Rocket attacks. During the 2006 electoral campaign, the center and right parties are vowing to continue the relentless fight against the Palestinian militants. Even Labour , which was traditionally known for its dovish views, has put "combatting terrorism" at the top of its agenda on the Conflict. Opposition to the current security policy, especially the use of targeted assassinations and the existence of checkpoints on Palestinian soil, comes mainly from Jewish left parties such as Meretz and from the Arab parties. Solutions to the conflict In the wake of the (unofficially nicknamed "Blues"), and those who wish for that area to remain under Israeli control (so-called "Orange"). In particular, Ariel Sharon and his faction left Likud to form Kadima because of their support of ending Israeli control over the West Bank. However, the two groups are also divided internally as to what practical steps need to be taken during the next few years.
Economic and social issues Since Israel's establishment, the political scene has been dominated by security and peace issues. The major parties were mainly divided by the different approaches with regard to the Israeli-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. The 2006 elections mark the first time a major party - the Israel Labour Party - has placed economic and social issues on top of its agenda. This is mainly attributed to Amir Peretz 's surprise victory over Shimon Peres in the November 2005 ILP leadership election; Peretz had left the party a few years earlier to form the socialist Am Ehad , which had only recently merged into Labour. Labour's Social Democratic approach, which includes promises to raise the Minimum Wage and allocate a Pension for every worker, now stands in sharp contrast to the Neo-liberal agenda promoted by Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu . Serving as Finance Minister from 2003 to 2005, Netanyahu led a policy that encouraged Economic Growth and lower taxes at the expense of Israel's long-running welfare mechanism. This has alienated him from many Likud supporters, which traditionally hail from the lower and middle classes. In the campaign, Netanyahu claimed (backed by several economics experts) to have done this to "save the Israeli Economy from collapse." In addition to Labour, the orthodox religious Shas , which has always claimed to champion the poor in Israeli society, also attacked Netanyahu's policies during the campaign, as did a number of small (and often new) socialist parties. Israel as a Jewish and Democratic state Relations between the Jewish religion and the state From 1948 to 2003, religious parties played a part in every coalition formed in Israel. Zionist Religious parties focused on maintaining the balance between observants and seculars in issues such as Education , Kashrut , keeping the Sabbath and Matrimonial Law , while Haredi parties demanded funds for religious scholars and the continued exemption of their followers from military service (decided on by David Ben Gurion in 1951.) All of this alienated many secular Israelis, who felt their personal freedoms were being infringed upon and that they were unfairly carrying most of the burden. This led to the rise of Shinui , which at the 2003 Elections won 15 out of 120 seats and joined Ariel Sharon 's coalition. Shinui failed in making significant changes to the status quo on religious issues, and quit the government in 2005 after Sharon decided to transfer funds to the orthodox United Torah Judaism party. An internal quarrel caused most Knesset members from Shinui to form a new party ( Hetz ); both parties ran in the 2006 elections, although neither of them received any mandates. Shinui , Hetz, Meretz , and Ale Yarok wish to promote what they see as key secular and democratic principles:
The various religious parties, both Zionist ( Mafdal ) and Haredi ( Shas , United Torah Judaism ) strictly oppose these changes. They wish to see Israel's Jewish character strengthened through further enforcement of the Sabbath and changes in the educational system. Relations between Jews and Arabs Israeli Arabs constitute roughly 20% of the population in Israel. There is continued institutional and social discrimination against them in Israel. Because they are not Jews and identify ethnicaly with Palestinians their identity often clashes with their citizenship in the Jewish state. There are large disparities in general living standard and education between Israeli Arabs and the non-Arab Israeli population; they also have a lower participation rate in the workforce. Discrimination and a lower proportion of females in the workforce are often cited as reasons for this. See Israeli Arab . The Arab parties, the largest of which are Raam , Balad and Hadash (a Jewish-Arab communist party, with mostly Arab composition and electorate), advocate abolition of all forms of ethnic inequality, and the establishment of a democratic bi-national state. Most Jews in Israel see the clear inequality that exists as a natural result of Israel being a Jewish State . They lament that the Arabs, who demand equal rights, do not take on equal obligations (especially military service), and that some of them are disloyal and show solidarity and offer aid to the Arab terrorists which fight Israel. For example, one Arab member of the Knesset publicly called for Israel's destruction, a number of Israeli Arabs have been convicted in court of collusion with terrorists. Herut and National Jewish Front , two extreme right-wing parties, support Transferring the Israeli Arabs to Jordan and other Arab countries. Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beytenu party advocate an exchange of territory which would place most Arab settlements currently in Israel in a future Palestinian state, in exchange for Jewish settlements in the West Bank which would become an integral part of Israel. PROCEDURES ''See also: Elections In Israel '' The elections will allocate the 120 seats in the Knesset by Party-list Proportional Representation , using the D'Hondt Method . The Election Threshold is set at 2% (up from 1.5% in previous elections), which is a little over two seats. Once the official results are published, the President Of Israel will delegate the task of forming a government to the Member of Knesset with the most chances of doing so (usually the leader of the largest party.) He will have up to 42 days to negotiate with the different parties, and then present his government to the Knesset for a Vote Of Confidence . Once the government is approved (by a vote of at least 61 members), he will become Prime Minister . OFFICIAL LIST OF PARTICIPATING PARTIES Note: traditional Left - Right divisions in Israel are different than in most countries, being mostly based on the different positions with regard to security and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict . For example, the left-wing Meretz-Yachad mainly advocates negotiations with the Palestinians along the lines of the Geneva Initiative , while the right-wing National Union is opposed to any territorial concessions, yet both parties have strong histories of tabling social/welfare laws. PRE-ELECTION OPINION POLLING Numbers in the table below are seats, out of a total of 120, as predicted by opinion polls prior to the election. As the Electoral Threshold stands at 2%, it is impossible for a party to receive only one seat in the Knesset. Note: Most Israeli pollsters lump the "Arab" parties together, so that the listed number is the total number of seats that the three main Arab lists (Raam, Balad, Hadash) are expected to obtain. In the event that one or more of the three lists does not pass the 2% threshold, the representation of these parties will be one to three fewer seats than listed by the polls. 1 National Union and Yisrael Beytenu together have 7 seats. 2 Dahaf - published in Yediot Aharonot (and/or its affiliate site Ynet ) with the remark "The votes of the undecided were assigned to parties on the basis of additional questions." RESULTS Other parties that did not pass the minimum threshold (2%, 62,741 votes) to enter the knesset:
The Turnout was the lowest in Israeli legislative election history, 63.6% of ''eligible'' votersThe official turnout is based on the number of eligible voters, however, that number is somewhat misleading since the count of eligible voters includes a significant number of Israeli citizens who in fact cannot vote. This consists mainly of a large number of citizens residing or travelling abroad on the day of the election (and are thus prohibited from voting, unless they are members of the diplomatic corps who are allowed to vote abroad; otherwise they must travel to Israel on election day if they wish to exercise their right to vote). It also includes some deceased voters who have yet to be removed from the voter registration rolls. All Israeli citizens are automatically registered to vote, and thus in Israel there is no distinction between registered voters and eligible voters, as there is in the U.S., for example. Moreover, the rules defining who is allowed to vote by absentee ballot are much more restrictive than those in the U.S., for example. When these factors are taken into account the actual voter turnout is about 5% higher than the figure cited above., compared to 68.9% in 2003 and 78.7% in 1999 . The turnout of 62.5% in 2001 prime-ministerial election is the lowest in nationwide elections. IMMEDIATE IMPACT AND COALITION PROSPECTS For the second time in Israeli history (previously in 1999), no dominant party will sit in the Knesset, only two medium (Kadima and Labour) and small-sized ones. The most likely coalition appears to be a government led by Kadima, with Labour as a senior partner. Olmert has already stated that he prefers entering into a coalition with Labour, and that Peretz is a "suitable partner." The coalitionary stage could be seen to be divided into two dimensions which will impact the system chronologically: the socio-economic one, which will come decisively into play in the Budget Bill that is required to be passed by the end of June 2006 or new elections are called, and the national dimension, underscored by Olmert's plan to disengage, Unilaterally if necessary, from the West Bank. This may result in two different coalitions for each stage. The former could include virtually every Zionist party except Likud. The latter event, expected to take place in a year or two could at a minumum include: Kadima, Labour, Gimlaim, and Meretz, giving an Olmert a coalition of 60 seats in the Knesset consisting solely of non-Arab, secular, centre-left parties and depending on the support of acquiescence of at least one other party. He could opt for this coalition from the very beginning but with only 60 seats, one short of an Absolute Majority in the Knesset, in order to swear-in a government it would be necessary to find another party willing to support the coalition at both stages. Thus, the impact of this election can be highlighted in having the lowest voter turnout and in being a decisive blow to the right-national block in the Knesset. On April 2, both the Pensioners' Party and Meretz recommended to Katzav that Olmert become Prime Minister. The next day, at a joint appearance, Olmert and Peretz announced that Kadima and Labor would be coalition partners and that Peretz would advise the President to tap Olmert as Prime Minister {Link without Title} . On April 6, President Katzav formally asked Olmert to form a government officially making him Prime Minister-designate. Olmert has 28 days to assemble a coalition government, if he fails to do so in this period he can ask for a two week extension {Link without Title} .. SEE ALSO NOTES EXTERNAL LINKS
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