A Jewish Democracy

The founders of the modern state of Israel had to answer a difficult question regarding the governing system of the new Jewish state. How would the state rule democratically while still maintaining its Jewish nature? Their solution was to create an unprecedented system of government based on the multi-party parliamentary model, while still empowering the Rabbinate to monitor public adherence to certain Jewish laws including Kashrut (Jewish dietary laws), Sabbath, marriages, Jewish conversions, and laws relating to the Sabbatical year and Jubilee year.

 The Legislative System

In their new system, the laws would be made by the legislative branch known as the Knesset. The 120 members of the Knesset, or MK’s, vote on each bill to decide if it passes. For a bill to pass, a majority is required. This means that 61 MK’s must get their acts together if they wish to accomplish anything. They must all be connected somehow. One way would be if they were all part of the same party. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), no single party has ever won a majority of the “seats” in an election. Every election, parties must get together and form a coalition to create the government that will govern for a four year term or until the coalition dissolves.

The Electoral System

The electoral process is simple. In a nationwide election, all citizens ages 18 and older vote for a party. There is no limit to how many parties can run. There are currently 10 parties holding seats in the Knesset, including two religious parties, the usual Likud (right-wing) and Labor (left-wing)  parties, two centrist parties, a few single issue parties, and a large Arab party. The parties receive seats in the Knesset based on the number of votes they receive in the election. If a party receives 50 percent of the votes, it receives 60 seats. The only rule limiting the number of parties in the Knesset is that a party must receive at least 3.25 percent of the votes to earn seats. The party with the highest percentage of votes is then given the task of “making alliances” with other parties and forming a coalition. In the occurrence of a tie, the sitting president decides who should get the first crack at forming a coalition. A coalition must include at least 61 MK’s.

Change the Brand

In a world where people repeatedly ignore facts, Israel supporters and advocates must understand that not everyone knows of Israel’s democratic nature. As the only democracy in the region, Israel possesses a huge advantage in the human rights column. It is the job of Israel advocates to stress this all-too-ignored bit of information whenever speaking about the Jewish democratic state of Israel.

Written by Kevin Lefkowitz