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• Serving Delicious Glatt Kosher Cuisine • Olympic
Heated Pool - Private Beach • 0o3antront Boardwalk
• Exciting Entertainment-Dancing-Shows • Color TV in
MI Rooms • Private Tennis Courts • Rooms With
Balconies • Health Spa-Solarium Steam Room-Sauna
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Start at your iront door
avoid the hassle at the
airport and getting there!
ROYAL CAB
wooing voters back to the cen-
trist mainstream and away
from the smaller parties and,
of course, away from each
other.
But, according to Professor
Yitzhak Galnoor, a political
scientist at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, new
faces however bright or
fresh — are no substitute for
policy.
"The big parties have gone
to town on new faces which is
fine, because some of the new
faces are quite impressive.
But the parties are deluding
themselves if they think that
new faces are enough to win
an election.
"I believe that the public is
yearning for a solution to the
current situation in the ter-
ritories. What people want is
a real debate on the situation,
a genuine Labor/Likud clash
of ideas and a straight choice
between two real
alternatives.
"If the big parties can come
up with strong, clear solu-
tions, they have a chance of
winning back votes that will
otherwise go to small parties
and they will have a chance
to secure a result that gives
an unequivocal mandate to
one bloc or the other!"
Israeli politics have always
been intense and volatile, but
during the early decades of
the state, the system of two
major political blocs and a
number of smaller parties
■
worked well.
So why, in Israel's 40th
year, does the system look in-
adequate to the challenges it
faces? Neither of the major
parties is capable of muster-
ing a decisive majority, and
polls predict that the next
election results will not alter
this situation radically.
The result is political
deadlock over many vital
issues and disproportionate
power for small parties, par-
ticularly the religious parties.
In the past, explains Pro-
fessor Peter Medding, a
political scientist at the
Hebrew University of Jeru-
salem, Israel's major parties
were strong and blessed with
powerful leaders who had a
clear vision of where they
wanted to steer the country.
"Until 1967, the Labor Par-
ty represented the dominant
forces in the society," says
Medding. "David Ben-Gurion
was able to invite other par-
ties to join his cabinet on his
own terms. It was unthink-
able for a minister to public-
ly criticize government
policy!'
Today, the major parties are
weak and their leaders are
beset by internal challenges
and intrigues. Many of the
problems they face appear
unsoluble.
"At the same time, there is
less agreement on fundamen-
tal issues, greater intensity of
debate and disagreement.
People are less interested in
collective sacrifice than they
were in the past.
"We are almost at the stage
of overload," he said. "The
system is overburdened with
problems. It's a mess!"
Last month, the Knesset
took its first step toward un-
tangling the mess when it
gave a comfortable majority
to the first reading of a
private member's bill calling
for electoral reform.
The reform, as envisaged by
the bill, would introduce a
mixed system of constituency
and proportional elections
which would have the effect of
squeezing out many of the
smallest factions while
strengthening the major
political blocs.
It would also give Israeli
voters a constituency Knesset
member who would act to ad-
dress grievances and be an
advocate for local interests.
The bill did not get any fur-
ther than its first reading
mostly because the major
blocs feared antagonizing the
smaller parties which they
will soon be courting as
potential coalition partners.
Reform, therefore, is not
around the corner. The next
government could choose to
take the bill further under
the Continuity Law, but this
is unlikely, particularly if one
of the major blocs is able to
form a government without
the other.
With both major parties
joined in a government of
national unity, the proposal
seems to have lost the best
chance it ever had.
Much will depend on the
degree of power wielded by
the religious parties in the
next government coalition.
Fearing that reform will
harm their interests, the
religious parties have vowed
to throw all their combined
weight into the fight against
reform they have done ef-
fectively for the past 30 years.
While Medding concedes.
that reform is necessary, he
cautions that the Knesset
must tackle the issue with
great care: "Any electoral
system is a reflection of socie-
ty," he says. "That doesn't
mean we can't change the
system. We certainly need to
look for ways to limit the
issues and differences and
maximize areas of agreement.
"We have to ask ourselves if
the present system is not bet-
ter suited to the realities of
this country, for while I don't
know how we live with what
we've got, we manage
somehow."
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
59