Political Pluralism Paper II

Michael Kadish
Political Philosophy of Pluralism
6/10/99
Paper II

I don't think you can find anybody who will tell you that the Israeli political system is ideal, it has many flaws, and is corrupt in a number of places. However, it seems extremely close to the desires of the pluralists. It is not complete pluralism, but it does seem close. People who have similar priorities form a party, and if that party receives enough votes from the people, it must be dealt with in the Knesset. A few select groups are refused entry, but for the most part, any group can try, and almost any can succeed to an extent.

The Knesset does seem to be a product of the joke that ten Jews will have eleven opinions. A new opinion creates a new party. In Israel, all special interest groups are there own party. Each party tries to get as many seats as possible in the Knesset, which has 120 seats. A law passed while Shamir was PM says that a party can only be in the Knesset if it receives at least two seats, or 1.6% of the vote. For every .82% received by the party on top of the 1.6, another seat is earned for the party.

Once the puzzle pieces of the Knesset have been created following a tallying of the votes, pluralism works. The two largest parties try to take the smaller parties into a coalition that contains more than 61 votes. The parties are then forced to listen to these other views. Dialogue is not only a possibility in the government; it is essential.

According to the official results for the fifteenth Knesset, there were 31 parties that ran. In true pluralistic style, they were given equal time and funding on television and radio for their campaign commercials. This may have even gone to the point of ludicrousness as any party had their commercials, including the seemingly joke parties, such as Miphleget Zion, which was fighting for male rights, Aleh Yarok, whose sole platform was for the legalization of cannabis, or the Negev Party, which tried to get votes out of a sparsely populated desert. None of these parties received a seat, (although Aleh Yarok was close with 1% of the vote) but they were still permitted to voice their opinions and put them out on the table.

According to the results, a little over a third of the voters (34.3%) voted for one of the two main parties. At the same time, 13 parties did not even receive .82% of the vote (ten of those at .1% or less), and another three did get enough to receive one seat but had to forfeit due to the minimum requirements of two seats. That still leaves fifteen parties in the Knesset, with fifteen different views and ideals.

It's not a perfect pluralistic government. Parties that have been considered detrimental to other citizens, such as Kach, are outlawed. Groups that desire the destruction of the state, such as the PLO or Hamas are banned. For the most part however, virtually all views are allowed.

There is another problem, but not a legal one. The Arab parties cannot join a coalition. There's no law against it. The problem is the stigma. Bibi won the previous election by telling the Israelis that they could join the Arabs and vote for Peres. However, with nine seats divided by two parties, the Arabs have a great deal of power in their vote and can swing the votes quite easily.

There have been times when the government has shown to be a misrepresentation of the desires of the people. The case of Sharon Levine in '82 was an example. A French millionaire, he was wanted for a number of felonies in France. In order to avoid extradition from Israel, this Frenchmen, who did not even know enough Hebrew to converse, was able to buy enough votes to get two seats. (This was before the minimum of two seats was established.) This came as a bit of a shock to him, as he never decided on another member for his party. He gave up the second seat, and in the end was deported, but not before he read speeches to the Knesset from a transliterated paper.

So, there are abuses, but the nation seems to maintain a rather pluralistic attitude. With this government, it will be even more than normal. The results of the election were very unusual.

The election campaigns this past year were especially dirty, it seemed that most parties were simply telling the voters to vote for them, so that X wouldn't gain power. The Likud party, the rightwing party, formerly in power started it off by showing TV advertisements with bus bombings, saying that this was what had happened the last time Labor (Leftwing, opposition group) was in power. Following that, the Likud leader went into shuqs and told the people as an impromptu campaign slogan, ��� ���� ����, ��� ���� ����,"" {hoo soneh otcha, who seneh otcha}, or "He hates you, he hates you," referring to then opposing candidate, and now Prime Minister Elect, Ehud Barak.

Labor did the same things. Barak took a very cheap shot when he said to Bibi that, "Your brother would not be proud of you," referring to Yoni Netanyahu, an Israeli hero whose legacy may or may not have propelled Bibi to the Prime Ministership. Then a supporter called the Likud, "������" {asafsuf} or riff raff. With James Carville's help, Barak also focused a great deal of the animosity against the rightwing opposition, focusing on the privileges the rightwing gives to the Ultra Orthodox.

A lot of the groups came out of specifically against the Ultra Orthodox. Meretz and Shinui, both secular parties openly opposed the religious parties. Meretz went to the extent that they initially asked on their stickers, "Meretz or Shas?" (Shas is the much larger of the two Ultra Orthodox parties.) Towards the end, Meretz's last attempts were by telling the people not to vote for the other leftwing parties, they should just vote for Meretz to fight Shas. Shinui's leader, Lapid, made statements towards the Haredim that have been compared, (accurately, in my opinion) to Nazi statements against Jews. The major Arab party had on their commercial a caricature of a Haredi with a negated circle around it. The biggest attempt was by the Russian party, Yisrael B'alliya, whose five word Russian battle cry has been memorized by nearly every Israeli, as "Shas control? Nyet! Nash Control!" Or, "Shas in control? No! Us in control."

Then Shas brought in voters, who came in directly opposing the Shas bashing, or who were opposing the government, protesting that the government is still unfair to Sephardim.

Mafdal ran, asking "Are you going to vote for Shas? They're not Zionist. Are you going to vote for Meretz? They're not religious." And, of course, Zion ran, attacking all women.

With the exception of Zion, all of the above got in. However, this year, the two main parties got record low numbers, 26 seats for Yisrael Achat (Labor by another name) and 19 for Likud. Shas managed to surprise everybody with 17 seats. Due to the small numbers, Barak, leader of Yisrael Echad, wanted the Likud in his coalition. The problem is, that with 19 for shas, six for Mafdal, and six for Shinui, all rightwing, and intending to be in the coalition, there is enough to make half a coalition with 31 seats.

In order to stop such a powerful force in his own coalition, Barak has to call forth the 17 seats of Shas, which will be highly opposed by the supposedly victorious leftwing parties.

In other words, all the opposing parties will be forced to sit down and work it all out. That is ideal pluralism.