Israeli General Elections

Tpek · April 10, 2019, 06:27:23 AM

Yep, Netanyahu so far seems to have won.

@SirSlash, Netanyahu's nickname is Bibi (no joke), Benny is actually what Gantz goes by :P

Sir Slash · April 10, 2019, 09:29:50 AM

That's where I heard the, 'Benny' part from. Thanks for fixing that for me.

airboy · April 25, 2019, 09:52:36 AM

I don't keep up with Israeli politics but I read much of the foreign events/policy pages of the Wall St. Journal.

The WSJ's take was that the Israeli public decided that the Palestinian's would not take "yes" for an answer on a peace deal. As a result the voting support for the Labor Party collapsed and they have become a minor party despite having held the Prime Minister's position a number of times. Two different parties, Likud and Benny Gantz's party dominated the voting and both had similar foreign policy views. Labor has also been hurt over time because the birth rate of less religious families has been lower than that of more Orthodox families and over time their voter pool has shrunk.

Is this largely accurate? I'm not terribly interested in how Israel runs their domestic economy but their Foreign Policy impacts the USA. And it seems for now according to the WSJ that Israeli voters changed their foreign policy preferences.

Sir Slash · April 25, 2019, 10:47:53 AM

I was there 10 years ago and the concern then amongst older Israelis was that the younger, secular population was growing too fast and losing touch with their past History and Religious Customs. Also, the domestic Arab population was growing fast as well.

Tpek · April 27, 2019, 06:24:13 PM

@airboy, The whole situation is pretty complex, and even a lot of the greatest local experts have hard time fully explaining it.

@SirSlash, The actual problem was the (orthodox) religious population growing too fast and getting considerably more powerful. This is bringing a lot of changes to the demographics, the politics and causing ever increasing friction between the secular (and lightly religious) population and the heavily religious one.

Tpek · May 31, 2019, 06:24:21 PM

And we're going for re-elections, due September 17th.

Sir Slash · May 31, 2019, 10:42:58 PM

Why not? The first time was so much fun. <:-)

Tpek · September 15, 2019, 02:21:51 PM

2 days to the re-elections.
And I've just had it with all that political propaganda spam that goes around (just with SMS, I'm receiving over 20 a day).

Tpek · March 01, 2020, 02:45:24 PM

Round Three is tomorrow.
Still don't know when Round Four will take place

airboy · March 03, 2020, 04:10:49 PM

I've read that Bibi was within 2 seats of an absolute majority. So this time can he form a government and you can avoid national elections for 12 months?

demjansk1942 · March 03, 2020, 07:01:34 PM

The system they have is terrible

Tpek · March 04, 2020, 04:02:33 PM

@Airboy, Netanyahu has the support of only 58 (out of 120) MPs. He's actually losing the election again.

@demjansk1942, It's not perfect but I prefer it by far to the American one.

Seems like we'll be getting a fourth attempt at elections soon. Hopefully this time the situation will be different seeing as Netanyahu's trials begin in less than 2 weeks.

airboy · March 04, 2020, 11:02:18 PM

Today I read that the Blue & White Party and the Arab Party (exact name escapes me) want to have a law that if a Prime Minister candidate is under indightment they cannot form a government. This is aimed at Netanyahu - and dislike of him seems to be the only real unifying factor of the Blue & White Party.

I'm sure it is more complex that this. Parliamentary systems often seem to lead to chaos. How many governments has Italy had since 1946? The US system to select a President at least gives you a pretty clear winner or boils the dispute down to a single State. Unfortunately, the left in the US wants to scrap the electoral college & the Senate so our elections can be as chaotic as much of the rest of the West.

solops · March 04, 2020, 11:02:57 PM

Wow. I want to be in the election business. Printing companies must make a fortune.

Tpek · March 05, 2020, 01:40:54 PM

Quote from: airboy on March 04, 2020, 11:02:18 PM
Today I read that the Blue & White Party and the Arab Party (exact name escapes me) want to have a law that if a Prime Minister candidate is under indightment they cannot form a government. This is aimed at Netanyahu - and dislike of him seems to be the only real unifying factor of the Blue & White Party.

I'm sure it is more complex that this. Parliamentary systems often seem to lead to chaos. How many governments has Italy had since 1946? The US system to select a President at least gives you a pretty clear winner or boils the dispute down to a single State. Unfortunately, the left in the US wants to scrap the electoral college & the Senate so our elections can be as chaotic as much of the rest of the West.

There's a very good reason many people dislike Netanyahu.
Mind you, Netanyahu himself promoted the same law when he was in the opposition and tried to oust a democratically elected PM.

The U.S enjoys a far more stable government than parliamentary democracies, but the cost of which is inevitably it is also less democratic.
There is always a compromise between how stable and how democratic a system is, and different people have different preferences.