Guide to the Politically Perplexed: Israeli Elections 2019, 5779, Redo, More Info Clarification

Bli eyin haraa, not to tempt the "evil eye," tomorrow I plan on voting in the Israeli Elections 2019, 5779, Redo.

Unlike previous elections, so far, even though the voting stations will be open in about 24 hours, I've noticed relatively few signs and potential trash. There could be a simple reason, money or lack of it. The political parties and wannabes just can't find the money they had a half a year ago for the first Israeli Elections 2019, 5779. Generally loans are taken out, or the government provides political parties with a certain amount, which will be covered if the party wins enough seats. If they don't win the required amount, then the money must be returned... somehow.

Yesterday I posted about the Israeli political system, which is rather misunderstood. Likud and Blue & White are, davka, taking advantage of people's ignorance. To simplify and repeat:

In Israel we don't vote directly for a Prime Minister. We vote for lists of potential Knesset Members. The party leader who can negotiate a ruling coalition of at least 61 Members of Knesset becomes Prime Minister of the State of Israel.

People, especially those raised abroad, ask if having districts would make it easier to form stable governments. My answer is a firm "NO."

There are two very simple reasons for this:

1. GERRYMANDERING. Gerrymandering is the "art" of drawing election districts to achieve goals in favor of, or the detriment of specific political parties. 
2. In a country like Israel, especially with gerrymandered districts and the fact that we have many established political parties, there can still be a variety of political parties and not a simple two party system.

It may help to return to the one-time "experiment" of two ballots, one for Prime Minister and the other for the Knesset. This sort of system exists in Israel in municipalities. People vote separately for the mayor and city council members.

Sometimes the mayor and his party's council members do well, so he has an easy time making a working coalition. Other times, like Moshe Lion, Mayor of Jerusalem, the winning mayor doesn't have council members from his party, and he/she must make a coalition with those who had wanted him/her to lose. A skilled politician can pull it off.

Politics is the art of compromise. People/politicians have to work together for the good of the people/country/city/state.

Whether prime minister, president, governor, mayor etc one must be fair also to those with different opinions, not just to supporters.

I'm voting Yemina, and davka one of the reasons is because the various factions now running together for the Knesset have shown that despite their "bad history," they are willing to work together. Even though many times I've said that I wouldn't vote for NRP-Jewish Home, this time I am, since they're working with politicians I support. Nobody's perfect, especially in politics. We have to vote and then pray that the winners will do the right thing for the good of the country.

Israeli Political/PM Election System Made "Simple"

Last night I caught a few seconds of the TV news from which I heard Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu saying that unless his coalition partners insist otherwise, he plans on having them serve out their full term. That would give them another year and a half in government.

The Israeli Electoral System makes polling very risky. That's because you vote for a political party, and its list of potential Knesset Members. The head of the party which, post-elections, can form a coalition becomes Prime Minister. That's one of the reasons why in recent elections many more people end up voting Likud than voting for the party they had indicated for the poll, if asked.

You may like the ideology/platform of a certain party, but its leader seems totally incompetent as potential Prime Minister. So, a certain percentage of voters find themselves taking the Likud ballot, even though it's not their prefered party.

Here I am voting in the 2015 Knesset Elections

This trend can be seen very easily if you read the polls. Taken from Jeremy's site.

Panels conducted a poll that was broadcast by Walla News on March 8 2018.

Current Knesset seats in [brackets]

30 [30] Likud

Who is most suited to be Prime Minister?

39% Netanyahu, 34% Don’t know/Other, 16% Lapid, 11% Gabbai

Can Netanyahu fulfill his job as Prime Minister?

52% Yes, 42% No, 6% Don’t know

A poll, like this, showing thirty 30 seats, out of the one hundred and twenty 120, for Likud means that only one quarter, 25% of the voters are thinking of voting Likud. But in that very same poll, you see that 39% of those polls see Netanyahu as "most suited to be Prime Minister," and his runner-up is "34% Don’t know/Other."

And please don't claim that "voting districts" will make the system easier. That would be a totally hellish nightmare. Have you ever heard of GERRYMANDERING?

The VOTE! The Israeli System is Good

In just a few hours, less than twelve 12, the polling stations will be open in Israel for Knesset Elections.  We must choose from the wide variety of mostly boring and repetitive, if not rude and insulting political parties.  Each has chosen, whether through a committee of sorts or primaries a list of people that party hopes to send to the Knesset to represent its priority or priorities.

Dry Bones

Considering that I've been voting in Israeli Elections since the Elections of 1973, which took place just over 39 years ago, I consider the system rather normal.  I must admit that this is the only system I've voted in, outside of student councils and youth movements of my youth and our local Shiloh elections, which I keep being appointed to run, or at least be on the committee.

Every electoral system has its problems and unique ways of distorting the essence of democracy.  Unlike most immigrants from the United States, I don't think the system there is perfect.  It has its faults, too.  The best thing about the American Government is its system of "checks and balances" which is supposed to prevent any one of the three governmental authorities, executive, justice and legislature, from dominating the other two.

There are two inherent weaknesses in the American voting system for the President, executive and also the legislature, Congress and Senate.

• gerrymandering- districts and even states can be very uneven in terms of population making a mockery of  democracy, since each district has the same vote.  People from densely populated districts have less power than the less populated districts. This can cause someone to be elected President who received fewer popular votes, since the Electoral College is based on the districts.
• winner take all- Even in the closest of races, the loser has no position, no power and no influence.

Israel, as the Jewish Nation is a country of varied opinions.  We need all of those, or at least most of them, in the Knesset, our legislature.  And in Israel, "winning" the elections does not mean that the party received more than 50% of the vote, sixty-one MKs or more.  A party leader must be a good enough political leader to convince other parties to join him/her to form a coalition government.

Let's pray that democracy and our ordinary Israeli citizens don't let us down tomorrow.

Electoral Reform, Britain, Israel, Same Words, Opposite Meaning

Like Barack Hussein Obama's brilliant election slogan about  "Hope," both Israelis and the British want "electoral reform."  Ironically, as the saying goes, the grass is always greener over the hill or in your neighbor's yard.  So, here we are in two democratic countries, people are dissatisfied with the election results and are sure that electoral reform is the cure to their democracy's ills.

Great Britain has three main political parties, but the power yoyos between only two of the parties, Labour and Conservatives.  The Liberal Party gets just a tiny fraction of the seats in Parliament compared to their national support. It just doesn't seem fair, to those who support Liberal policies.   That's because the elections are for districts.  Electoral reform would give a national vote and more seats by ideology.

In Israel the system is national proportional elections, like what some British want, because then the results are in accordance to ideology.  But in Israel there are people who want "electoral reform," which means the opposite of the British.  They want districts, so the winner will owe their Knesset seat to the district.

When I think of districts, I think gerrymandering, the art of drawing districts to predict/control specific results.  I have no doubt that if Israel adopts the district system we will have the dirtiest most creatively antidemocratic elections possible.

So, I'd rather stick with what we have.