"There are something like 600,000 Arabs in Israel.
Forced of course - as we all know - to live there!
Forced to stay? As we all know? All know what? They can leave whenever they want.....They don't want to..They'll be worse off in any other Arab country.
Your post "I know nothing about the Israeli system of governance. Perhaps you could enlighten me."
You know nothing about Israel...fullstop!
You then post "Do the Palestinians have the right to vote in Israeli elections? Are there any exclusions on voting based on faith, race, or locality within Israel? What basis of representation does the Israeli government system use, and are there any eclusion on representation?"
The answer is that Israelis irrespective of their backgrounds can vote and do. There are Arab MP's in the Knesset. Only Palestinians who hold Israeli ciizenship can vote....i.e Israeli Arabs......... Nobody in Gaza or the West Bank.
There are no exclusions based on race, colour,religion or locality within Israel.
Israel uses the proportional representation system.
Now read on.......
1. What kind of political system does Israel have?
Israel has a parliamentary system. There is only one chamber, known in Hebrew as the Knesset (http://www.knesset.gov.il/main/eng/engframe.htm), which has 120 members. The public elects all 120 members by secret ballot. A coalition of parties, led by the Prime Minister, forms a Government to run the country's political affairs as long as it has the confidence of the Knesset members or until its term of office is ended by agreement or by a time limit of four years (see #10, below).
2. What is "the Government"?
The Government is the executive authority of the State of Israel. It is composed of the Prime Minister and other Ministers. Although the Prime Minister appoints the Ministers, it is the Knesset, which must endorse their appointment. The number of members of the Government, including the Prime Minister, cannot be greater than 24, nor fewer than eight.
3. What are the significant factors going into the elections?
Because Israel does not have a directly elected President or Prime Minister, it is the make-up of the Knesset that determines who will lead the country. The President will empower the head of the party receiving the largest number of seats to form the next Government (see #7, below). Smaller parties will need to clear a 1.5% threshold of votes in order to qualify for any seats at all. However, once in they can exact demands from the major parties in order to help form the coalition.
4. Who can vote?
All Israeli citizens over the age of 18, who are officially resident, may vote. Recent immigrants who have been resident fewer than three months are not eligible. Shlichim (emissaries of the State) and government representatives, who live abroad, vote at their local consulate. There are no absentee ballots for individuals who are abroad for non-government related reasons.
5. Who is elected?
Voters cast ballots for parties, not individuals. The parties present their list of 120 candidates, so the Knesset members elected depend on the proportion that each party receives. The country is considered one electoral district, so all the votes are divided up proportionally. Thus, if a party receives 25% of the vote, in theory it would be awarded 30 seats.
However, all votes cast for parties that fail to pass the 1.5% threshold in order to make the Knesset are thrown out, and the leftover seats are divided among the remaining parties. Some parties sign sharing agreements to improve the chance that at least one would receive an extra seat. Hence, in the above example the party receiving 25% of the vote could end up with 31 or 32 seats. Sharing agreements have also created a rare phenomenon when one party receives more seats than another that received more votes but had signed no sharing agreement!
There will be no separate ballot for the Prime Minister this year (see #7, below).
6. Which parties are running for election and who will be Prime Minister? Some 20 parties have already registered and more are expected before the early December deadline. One can refer to main parties and access most of their websites via http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/actual/elections/2003/parties.html. The two leading candidates for Prime Minister are current PM Ariel Sharon of Likud (http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/100/people/BIOS/sharon.html) and Haifa Mayor Amram Mitzna of Labor (http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/100/people/BIOS/mitsna.html).
7. What happens after the election?
The President of Israel, Moshe Katzav, who holds a mainly ceremonial position and is appointed by the Knesset, will nominate the leader of the largest faction to form a coalition government numbering at least 61 seats, i.e., a majority of the Knesset. The party leader, who is considered the Prime Minister Elect despite not having been voted for directly, will have sixty days to form the government. Once the government is approved, the Knesset will officially confirm the party leader as Prime Minister by the Knesset.
8. What has changed since the last election?
In the previous Knesset election, held in May 1999, the public directly elected the Prime Minister. Before 1996, the electoral system was similar to the current one, but it had been critiqued as leading to instability. Smaller parties were perceived as wielding too much bargaining power in forming coalition governments or bringing them down. So, the Knesset enacted the Direct Election Law in time for the 1996 elections. However, the new system was no better and perhaps even worse. The Netanyahu government lasted less than three years and the Barak government elected in 1999 lasted less than two years. In March 2001 the Knesset voted to repeal the Direct Election Law. (see: http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/03/08/News/News.22603.html)
The repeal did add one innovation in hopes of creating more political stability than had existed prior to 1996. Taking its cue from Germany, the Knesset added an amendment requiring that who ever intends to pass a no-confidence motion in the government must first present an alternative candidate for Prime Minister. In this way, smaller parties can no longer bring down governments in order to force early elections as they had done previously (see #9, below). The Prime Minister, however, may still dissolve the Knesset, in consultation with the President.
9. How will this new law affect Israeli voting patterns?
Prior to the 1996 elections, the Israeli public generally voted for one of the two main blocs, Likud or Labor, though this trend was already in decline by 1992. For example, 95 of the 120 seats went to one of these two parties in 1981, but only 76 did in 1992. Still, this number represented a majority of the Israeli public. The general wisdom was that voting for one of the two leading parties constituted the best way to ensure one's pick for Prime Minister. Ironically, the two parties supported the Direct Election Law thinking that the public would see the futility in voting for a smaller party and award even more votes to them.
However, the new system actually diminished the power of the two main parties. Voters took the opportunity to cast the Prime Ministerial vote as a referendum on the political process and the Knesset vote based on social platforms. By 1999, Likud and Labor only commanded 45 seats, barely one-third, between them, while social issue parties had gained from 22 seats in 1992 to 47 seats in 1999.
It is unclear to what degree the Israeli public has internalized the new change. However, the latest opinion polls indicate a definite swing back in the direction of the major parties. One of the leading polls projects a recovery for the two major parties back to 59 seats and a slide among the socially oriented parties to 39. These figures suggest that some of the electorate is returning to its pre-1996 voting patterns, but that the glory days of dominating the Knesset are over.
10. How long is a term of office?
The Basic Law: Knesset (1958) states, "Section 8: The term of office of the Knesset shall be four years from the day on which it is elected. Section 9: The elections to the Knesset shall take place on the third Tuesday of the month of Cheshvan (October/November) in the year in which the tenure of the outgoing Knesset ends." Thus, while the term lasts four years, the gap between elections is longer. During the period between the end of the government's term and elections, a caretaker government is officially in charge.
However, it is a common trend in Western parliamentary democracies that governments have fallen during the year preceding an election year. Such has been the case in Israel in 1977, 1984, 1999, and 2002. These governments have fallen because either the Prime Minister felt that he could not maintain a stable government, needed a new mandate from the electorate, or was voted out of office by an expression of "no-confidence".
11. What is an Expression of No-Confidence?
The Knesset may, by vote of a majority of its members, i.e. sixty-one members, can pass a no-confidence motion against the government. With the German amendment to the Government Law, the majority needs to present an alternative candidate. If that candidate cannot form a coalition government, the Knesset would dissolve itself and go to early elections.
If no budget law is passed within three months after the beginning of the fiscal year, the expiration of that period will also be considered a decision by the Knesset to dissolve itself before the end of its term of office.
