ONE TAKE ON THE ELECTIONS

          Two mornings after the eLection we had the privilege of starting the day with a lecture from Reuven Hazan in regards to the results.  His presentation was not only clear, but even to a group of fairly sophisticated and knowledgeable American rabbis he presented insights that brought some light to an unclear and murky political system and in regards to the most recent results.  The first thing he emphasized was that just as there are so many other differences between Israeli and American society that is also the case in the political realm.  Our presidential system emphasizes the individual even more than the party.  In Israel, even when they try to sell the leading figure in a party, it is still the party platform as a whole that matters most to the voters. Israel in reality does not base its elections on individuals.  It is also not a pure winner and loser situation.  A vote for a smaller party that doesn’t earn a majority (in fact no party earns a majority) even if they come in 2^nd, 5th or 7^th place, still gets someone elected and allows them a voice in running the country.  He asked us which is more democratic, winner take all or shared representation based on percentages of voters.  In the US a one vote differential can give 100% power to only one candidate.  In Israel parties with 10 to 20% of the vote can have a significant amount of status in the government.

          Although Prime Minister Netanyhu received a much smaller share of the vote than was predicted, he will still be the one to create the coalition for the next government.  His choice will be which parties he will bring into his government.  Will it be strongly right wing Hawks or centrist moderated?  Will he need to include any ultra-religious (Haredi) parties or not?  What was born out of the election results was first the implosion of the Kadima party which in the previous election actually had one more seat than Netanyahu’s Likud.  Second, Likud’s merger with the more hard right Yisrael Beiteinu actually hurt their results. Third, the issue of social problems and Israelis looking for some sort of change was evident.

          He was not making any hard predictions of what the new government will look like or what they might do.  Rather he presented an understanding of the system and the possibilities of how things may proceed.

          At the conclusion of his talk I told Hazan I was from Rochester.  He told me he has enjoyed his visits.  Next time he comes I highly recommend him.