Insight into Voter Conflict

JEWISH CITIZENS

The Jewish population in Israel is very diverse.

 

Jews immigrated to Israel from nearly 120 different countries, with different cultural, political, and ideological backgrounds. There are liberals, Ultra-Orthodox religious, conservatives, and socialists. All wanting to have representatives in the government, which led to the formation of the many political parties.

Israel is a democracy and like most parliamentary democracies, the party that wins a majority of the vote typically ends up forming the government, asking a few of the smaller parties to join a coalition government if they have not received a clear majority. Relatively, Israel has a larger number of parties each competing for the biggest representation in the Israeli parliament.

Secular vs Religious

A major issue in Israel today is the influence, (and power) of the religious parties. They make decisions on many aspects of Israeli citizen’s lives regarding conversions, recognizing “who is a Jew,” marriages, and even burial in a Jewish cemetery. One religious ruling that is particularly annoying is their impact is upon public transportation which is discontinued on Shabbat. Public transport is essential in Israel, and for many citizens, their only means of travel. At the same time, the youth of the religious communities receive special waivers from the IDF regarding draft status, and religious communities receive significant tax considerations, as well as actual subsidies.

A major portion of the Israeli population has grown to resent this “special” consideration for the religious parties and their communities.

In the most recent elections, a popular dividing line was over the issue of the future place of these religious parties in Israeli society. The Blue and White party’s primary platform was the commitment of Gantz to greatly curtail, even possibly eliminate, the influence and special treatment of the religious parties. He pledged not to participate in a government that included the religious parties.

The religious parties have considered the focus on them and their communities to be an existential threat. Large numbers of Orthodox who had previously refused to vote in previous elections rallied to support one of the religious parties and/or Likud believing it was “life and death.”

 

ARAB CITIZENS

Israeli Jewish vs Israeli Arab citizens

The place of Arab citizen’s representation in Israel’s government

 

The Arab citizens in Israel make up 21% of Israel’s population. As a result of an increase in the percentage of Arab Israeli citizen’s electorates who cast ballots in this election (60% as opposed to 49% in the last election) the Joint Arab List, an alliance of predominantly Arab parties, won 13 seats in the 120-seat Parliament. Israel’s Arab parties are set to be the largest non-ruling bloc in parliament. If a national unity government emerges from this election, for the first time it is possible that the opposition leader in the Israeli Parliament could go to an Arab lawmaker. If Joint List head Ayman Odeh, 44, becomes opposition leader, he would receive monthly briefings from the Mossad intelligence agency and meet visiting heads of state, among other perks. That can be dangerous to Israel’s security, given the anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian stand of Odeh.

Joint List lawmaker Ahmad Tibi says his alliance would support a government ‘from the outside,’ even if they are not actually a part of a ruling coalition. 

Tibi said: “We are prepared to do so according to the [model of] the 1990s, negotiating with a written agreement to our demands.” Tibi said that the members of his party would not serve as government ministers “but chairman of the Finance Committee, what’s bad about that?”

Finally, Tibi was asked, hypothetically, whether his party would bring down the government if a military operation began in Gaza during a term of that coalition. “Unequivocally yes,” he answered.

Tibi is an anti-Zionist who supports Israel withdrawing to the pre-1967 borders and a two-state solution with an independent Palestinian state, including a Law of Return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants. He opposes the idea of Israel being a Jewish state and considers it racist. He opposes the Jewish national anthem, Hatikva (The Hope – of 2000 years in every Jewish heart “to be a free nation in the Land of Zion and Jerusalem.”) and the Israeli flag. He takes the Palestinian side and has even praised the Palestinian terrorists who murder Israeli soldiers and citizens, referring to them as “martyrs” at a ceremony held on “Palestinian Martyrs’ Day”. “The Palestinian shahid (martyr) is the height of glory,” Tibi said at the ceremony. “There is no higher value than death for the sake of Allah.”

In the last elections, both Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz and co-chairman Yair Lapid stated that they would amend the “National State Law,” something Tibi would love to see. “We want to topple the Right, we say it openly,” Tibi said. He stated his desire to one day become Israel’s prime minister, “and if not I then another Ahmed, Mohammed or Mahmoud,” Tibi said recently.