The Government and Politics of Israel

1. By: Benedict Gombocz

2.  Government (
): Parliamentary
republic and multi-party
democracy
 President (
): Shimon Peres
 Prime Minister
(
): Benjamin
Netanyahu
 Knesset Speaker: Reuven
Rivlin
 Supreme Court President:
Dorit Beinisch

3.  Kadima
 Likud
 Yisrael Beiteinu
 Shas
 Labor
 United Torah Judaism
 Independence
 National Union
 Hadash
 United Arab List-Ta‟al
 The Jewish Home
 New Movement-Meretz
 Balad

4.  1949: Mapai
 1951: Mapai
 1955: Mapai
 1959: Mapai
 1961: Mapai
 1965: Alignment
 1969: Alignment
 1973: Alignment
 1977: Likud
 1981: Likud
 1984: Alignment
 1988: Likud

5.  1992: Labor Party
 1996: Labor Party
 1999: One Israel
 2003: Likud
 2006: Kadima
 2009: Likud

6.  Centrist and liberal party
 Founded on 24 November 2005
by moderates from Likud
largely to endorse the issue of
Ariel Sharon‟s unilateral
disagreement party
 Became the largest party
represented in the Knesset
after 2006 elections with Ehud
Olmert as party chairman
following Sharon‟s stroke and
won 29 out of 120 total seats
 Won most seats in 2009
elections under Tzipi Livni‟s
leadership, but became an
opposition party for the first
time after Likud-led
government was created

7.  Major center-right party
 Founded in 1973 by Menachem
Begin in an alliance with both
right-wing and and liberal
parties
 Its victory in 1977 elections
was a big turning point in
Israel‟s political history; was
the first time the left lost
power
 Was the ruling party for most
of the 1980s, but lost the
Knesset elections in 1992
 Saw a major split in 2005 after
a convincing win in 2003
elections, during which its
leader Ariel Sharon abanonded
the party to create the Karima
Party

8.  Nationalist party founded in
1999
 Describes itself as “a national
movement with the clear vision
to follow in the brave path of
Zev Jabotinsky”, the founder
of Revisionist Zionism
 Traditionally represents
immigrants from the former
Soviet Union
 Takes a hard line toward the
peace process and Israeli Arabs
with its 2009 election slogan
“No loyalty, no citizenship”
 Won 15 seats in 2009
elections, its most to date; is
third largest Knesset
represented party

9.  Ultra-orthodox religious party
 Founded in 1984 under the
leadership of Rabbi Ovadia
Yosef, an ex Israeli Sephardi
chief rabbi
 Primarily represents the
interests of religiously
observant Sephardic and
Mizrahi Jews
 Currently the fourth largest
Knesset represented party
 Has joined coalition
governments with Labor and
Likud since 1984 ; holds four
cabinet posts in Benjamin
Netanyahu‟s coalition
government

10.  Social-democratic and labour
Zionist party
 Founded in 1968 by merger
of Mapai, Ahdut HaAvoda and
Rafi
 Observer member of both
Socialist International and
Party of European Socialists
 All Israeli Prime Ministers
were associated with the
Labor movement until 1977
 Split in the party in 2011
resulted in election of Shelly
Yachimovich as party leader

11.  Alliance of Degel HaTorah and Agudat Israel, two
small Israeli Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) parties
represented in the Knesset
 Founded in 1992
 Joined Ariel Sharon‟s coalition in 2004 and split
its two constituent factors of Degel HaTorah and
Agudat Israel
 Degel HaTorah and Agudat Israel revived their
alliance under the banner of United Torah
Judaism to not waste votes and get maximum
representation in the 17th Knesset; they united
again for the 18th Knesset elections in 2009 and
won give mandates, which lost them one seat

12.  Center-zionist party
 Founded on 17 January
2011 by Defense Minister
and former Prime Minister
Ehud Barak after he and
four other Labour Party
MKs declared their
secession from the caucus
 In the words of the
announcement, it aims to
be “centrist, Zionist, and
democratic” and to form
itself as a separate party

13.  Alliance of nationalist
parties
 Founded in 1999
 Consisted of four parties
in 2009 elections:
Moledat, Hatikva, Eretz
Yisrael Shelanu, and
Tkuma
 Brought into the National
Unity Government after
Ariel Sharon won the 2001
Prime Ministerial elections
 Was opposed to the
withdrawal from the Gaza
Strip

14.  Jewish and Arab socialist front
of organizations that runs for
the Knesset
 Founded in 1977
 Currently has four members in
the 120-seat Knesset
 Won five seats in its first
electoral test but was reduced
to four seats in elections of
1981
 Kept all four of its seats in
1984 elections
 Promotes evacuation of all
Israeli settlements, a complete
withdrawal of all territories
captured in Six-Day War, and
establishment of a Palestinian
state in those territories

15.  Israeli Arab and Islamist Party representing and supported
by Israeli Arabs; not related to the original United Arab List
from the late 1970s and early 1980s
 Founded in 1996 and was joined in an electoral alliance by
the Arab Democratic Party (which held two seats in the
outgoing parliament elected in 1992 legislative election)
and the southern faction of the Islamist Movement
 Originally went under the title of Mada-Ra’am, with Mada
as the acronym and common name for the Arab Democratic
Party
 Entered an alliance with Ahmad Tibi‟s Ta‟al party in 2006
elections; the alliance received four seats, three of which
were taken by the United Arab List
 Endorses creating a Palestinian State in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as a capital; and equal
rights for Israel‟s Arab minority

16.  Israeli-Arab and anti-Zionist party
 Founded in the mid 1990s
 Ran in 1996 elections under the name Arab
Union, but gained only 2,087 votes (0.1%)
 Ran on the Balad list in 1999 elections in which it
received a seat and broke away from Balad on 21
December
 Ran on a joint list with Hadash in 2003 elections
 Abandoned the alliance with Hadash on 7
February 2006 and ran on a joint list with
United Arab Front in 2006 elections; ran as
Ra‟am-Ta‟al (Ra‟am is the Hebrew acronym for
the UAL)

17.  Right-wing national religious Zionist party
 Founded in November 2008 by a merger of National
Religious Party, Moledat and Tkuma
 Was originally without a name; five names were proposed:
HaBayit HaYehudi (“Jewish Home”), Shorashim
(“Roots”), Atzma’ut (“Independence”), Shalem
(Whole), and Amihai (“My Nation Lives”)
 “Jewish Home” was chosen in an on-line ballot
 Five of the top six slots went to former NRP members when
Jewish Home announced its candidate list for the
upcoming elections
 Won three seats in 2009 legislative election

18.  Left-wing, Zionist, Green
, social democratic party
 Founded in 1992; previously
known as Meretz, then
Yachad, and then Meretz-
Yachad
 Emphasizes peace with the
Palestinians, human rights
(particularly for ethnic and
sexual minorities), religious
freedom and
environmentalism
 Was formed by an alliance of
three left-wing parties:
Ratz, Mapam and Shinui

19.  Arab nationalist, democratic socialist, anti-Zionist party;
sometimes referred to as the “National Democratic
Alliance”
 Founded in 1995
 Its stated purpose is the „struggle to transform the State of
Israel into a democracy for all its citizens, irrespective of
national or ethnic identity‟
 Opposed to the idea of Israel as a solely Jewish state and
favors its recasting as a binational state
 Also advocates that Israel grant recognition to the
Palestinian Arabs as a national minority
 Has objected to all proposed state budgets on the grounds
that they have discriminated against the Arab minority

20.  Ninth and current President of
Israel
 Born on 2 August 1923 in
Wiszniew, Poland (now
Vishneva, Belarus)
 Previously served twice as the
eighth Prime Minister of Israel and
once as Interim Prime Minister; has
been a member of 12 total cabinets
in a political career spanning more
than 66 years
 Was elected to the Knesset in
November 1959 and, excluding a
three-month-long hiatus early in
2006, continued to serve in
2007, when he became President
 Is the world‟s oldest de jure head
of state at 88 years old

21.  Current Prime Minister of
Israel; also served as Prime
Minister between 1996 and
1999
 Born on 21 October 1949 in
Tel Aviv; is the first Israeli
prime minister born after the
state‟s establishment
 Also serves as Chairman of
Likud; Knesset member;
Health Minister of Israel;
Pensioner Affairs Minister of
Israel; Economic Strategy
Minister of Israel
 Received worldwide
attention when French
President Nicolas Sarkozy
called him “a liar” at the
2011 G-20 summit in Cannes

22.  Current Knesset speaker
 Born on 9 September 1939
in Jerusalem
 Ran in the election for
President in 2007
 Withdrew after the first
round of voting when it
was clear that Shimon
Peres would inevitably win
in a run-off
 Served in the 12th, 14th,
15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th
Knessets

23.  Current President of the
Supreme Court of Israel
 Born on 28 February 1942
in Tel Aviv
 Was appointed to be
President of the Supreme
Court of Israel on 14
September 2006 following
Aharon Barak‟s retirement
 Is the first woman to be
President of the Supreme
Court

25.  Kadima: 22.47%
 Likud: 21.61%
 Yisrael Beiteinu: 11.70%
 Labor Party: 9.93%
 Shas: 8.49%
 United Torah Judaism: 4.39%
 United Arab List-Ta‟al: 3.38%
 National Union: 3.34%
 Hadash: 3.32%
 New Movement-Meretz: 2.95%
 The Jewish Home: 2.87%
 Balad: 2.48%