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Israeli Elections continued from page 26
To Israel Elections
Election Day, Israeli Style it:ola t i r :1 1.05, na"ve Israeli,
Larry Gunsberq, Farmington
First-time voter does double duty.
I
Don Cohen
Contributing Writer
Yavne, Israel
F
or Eran, 19, it was a day like
any other — except that he
would be voting in his first
Israeli election.
It was a beautiful morning in Yavne,
a city of almost 40,000 people 13 miles
south of Tel Aviv.
"I am happy to be voting:' Eran
tells me. "It is the duty of a citizen in a
democracy, and we are a democracy:'
I became friends with Eran's par-
ents, Hai and Tzvia, before he was
born. I am in here on an American
Jewish Press Association trip, but
came to Israel before the group arrived
to visit friends and family — and to
experience my first election day in
Israel.
The morning of Jan. 22, we hopped
into Hai's Mazda for a short drive
to Eran's former elementary school,
which houses several voting precincts.
Banners for about a quarter of the
34 Israeli political parties compet-
ing for a place in the Israeli Knesset
(parliament) hang from the heavy
metal fences surrounding the school.
Activists hand out campaign literature
and stickers, smiling and nodding,
and answering questions. The sun is
shining, and people greet each other,
giving no clue as to their political lean-
ings.
As we get close to the school's
entrance, it is clear we have entered an
informal "no-campaign zone" as the
signs disappear.
Pretty familiar so far.
Inside official posters in Hebrew
and Arabic explain voting regulations;
other posters display the letters that
represent each party as well as the
party names. It's 8:30 in the morning,
and there is a steady stream of voters.
No one seems rushed or harried, or
anxious to get to work, as we do in
America. In Israel, election day is a
national holiday, a day free from work.
Inside each precinct room, a person
checks IDs; another distributes ballot
envelopes. Two others sit and keep
an eye on the proceedings. They each
represent a political party.
Eran shows his identity card and
signs in. He is the youngest person
I see voting, and he's dressed in his
military uniform. After he votes, he's
returning to his base 40 miles south
near the Gaza Strip where he's been
28 January 31 • 2013
JN
"I keep up with news of
Israel. It is pleasant to see
Yesh Atid [Lapid's party]
do so well. A lot of people
didn't expect that. I think
the government has been
right wing enough. Yesh
Ben Harel
Atid is an ideologically
centralist party not affili-
ated with one side. It's a positive thing.
"Young people have had impact before,
but it was scattered. Look at Tel Aviv in this
election; Yesh Atid got 21 percent of the vote.
A couple of parties [that might appeal to
young people], like the Green Party, received
a smaller number of votes. A lot of people
voted for Yesh Atid.
"Israeli politics is a double-edged sword.
New parties might do well, and then disap-
pear in the next election. Kadima, Ariel
Sharon's party, had 29 seats in the 2006 elec-
tion, and now it is down to two.
Eran, 19, votes in his first Israeli
election.
stationed for months.
Once registered, Eran takes his
envelope and goes behind a blue
cardboard partition sporting the
menorah emblem of the State of Israel.
There are slips of papers for each of
the parties competing. There are no
candidate names. Parties get seats in
the 120-member Knesset proportional
to the votes they get, with the highest
vote-getter most likely being asked by
Israel's president to form a coalition of
at least 61 members.
Eran told me the day before that
he had narrowed his vote to two par-
ties. Now he has decided on one, and
takes its slip of paper and seals it in
the envelope before stepping out from
behind the partition.
The four people smile at him and
congratulate him for voting, as they let
me snap his picture placing the enve-
lope in the ballot box.
It seems surprising that such a high-
tech nation uses simple slips of paper
for voting.
The four of us take a leisurely stroll
back to the car. They greet their neigh-
bors as I snap more pictures of the
politicking going on. We stop back at
the house to pick up his overstuffed
backpack and his rifle. I turn to the
back seat to ask him a few questions,
but he's already asleep, catching a nap
before he assumes another impor-
tant responsibility of citizenship in a
democracy.
I let him sleep.
❑
"I think having a multiparty system is
more flexible, more interesting. Each party
can be very specific toward a goal; each
stands for an idea. In the U.S., there are only
two parties, but within each party are so
many different ideologies. It would be nice
for more choice here:'
"I follow events in the
country both religiously,
culturally and politically
because of my strong feel-
ings for Israel and the
importance it plays in my
life.
Larry
"I am not surprised by
the outcome. There are
multiple movements going
on in country, for example, the religious right
that wants to see more solidification of an
Israeli presence in the West Bank and even
those who advocate annexing the West Bank.
And there are young people in the center and
left of center who want to see societal, eco-
nomic changes to make it easier for them to
live in the country, which is very expensive.
Gunsberq
"Yair Lapid represents to me that younger
generation, and Bennett of the Jewish Home
party represents more of the far right.
Netanyahu is the glue that pulls them togeth-
er because of his experience. He's still right of
center and represents someone they can all
work with.
"I would have voted for Likud, but would
have given serious consideration to voting for
Bennett. I tend to take a more right-of-center
position:'
Israel's Center from page 26
will be achieved in the near term and have
turned their attention inward. Thus parties
like Labor and Yesh Atid focused on domestic
issues. Even the threat of Iran didn't seem an
issue in the election, perhaps because polls
show that most Israelis would not want Israel
to strike Iran without the support of the United
States. More people were concerned by their
inability to afford housing.
A new coalition with Yesh Atid is likely to
please the U.S. administration, as Yesh Atid
would support Israel withdrawing from most
of the West Bank in an eventual peace agree-
ment and would therefore allow Netanyahu
some maneuvering room to make concessions
on the West Bank if negotiations were to take
place. It is also likely, given Yesh Atid's concern
for reducing housing costs in Israel proper, that
they will want to constrain funding for settle-
ments on the West Bank.
However, given the past tension between
Netanyahu and President Obama, and the fact
that Lapid has stated he is unwilling to compro-
mise on Jerusalem in a future peace agreement,
the Obama administration still would not see
eye to eye with the Israeli government in any
negotiations.
It is also likely that Yesh Atid will increase
pressure on the government for more religious
plurality in Israel (Lapid attends a Reform syna-
gogue), an issue most Jewish Americans have
been hoping for for many years. On the other
hand, tensions with the United States would
be magnified if the more hawkish, religious
Zionist Habayit Hayehudi party was included in
the coalition.
Watch closely efforts to form a coalition gov-
ernment in the next several weeks, as the com-
position of the parties will determine whether
the government will be able to implement sig-
nificant domestic changes, move toward nego-
tiations and a peace agreement, and reduce ten-
sions between the Israeli and U.S. governments.
If parties whose agendas contradict one
another on key issues are included in the gov-
ernment, the result could be paralysis, and the
government may fall before the end of the four-
year term, as many Israeli governments have
done in the last 20 years. If that were to happen,
we would see a new set of elections sooner than
we think.
❑
Yael Aronoff is the Michael and Elaine Serling and
Friends Chair in Israel Studies, associate profes-
sor of international relations, associate director
of Jewish Studies, Michigan State University. Her
forthcoming book is titled "When Israeli Hard Liners
Opt for Peace: The Political Psychology of Prime
Ministers." She had lived in Israel for 10 years.