Israel Speaks
General elections will be held in Israel on January 22, 2013.
In this program we will look at the political map of Israel
before the elections.
Traditionally, there are two big and many small parties in Israel.
The biggest right-wing party is the Likud
represented by the current Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Its greatest challenger is the Labor under Shelly Yechimovich.
Professor Avraham Diskin has studied Israeli politics for 40 years.
He is a lecturer of political science at the Hebrew University,
and a statistician in the Central Elections Committee.
The right wing have parties with a harder line on security issues
and the Israeli-Palestinian issue, as well as religious parties.
The left wing have parties with more compromising views on security
and also parties supported by the Arab public.
At the moment there are 12 parties.
The main right wing party is the Likud,
which is also the biggest party in Israel.
On the left there was a strong centrist party called Kadima,
which was the biggest party in the last elections,
but it is now fallen apart,
and it seems that there will be competition between
many centrist parties and the Labor Party.
The State of Israel is very similar to other multi-party systems.
It is quite similar to the Finnish Eduskunta, for example.
There are many parties and proportional representation.
But unlike in Europe, the main issue in Israel is the security.
The Israeli right wing parties in regard to the security
are also more conservative,
and the parties that have a leftist view on security issues,
are more social democratic and liberal.
For example, the Avoda is similar to the Labor,
a leftist social democratic party,
and the Likud is on the right also in economic and social issues.
It is typical also in Europe, but the main issue in Israel
is not society and economy, because of the security threats.
But also in Finland the Labor is less aggressive in security,
and during the World War II the National Union was rightist
both in security and in economy.
So there are no big differences,
only the importance of issues is different.
We asked people in the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem
about the elections.
- What are the main issues in the coming elections?
- Of course the economy and the society,
but unfortunately also the security
because of the existence of the State of Israel.
We want security and peace with our neighbors,
but there should be more social equality
between different population groups,
so that there would not be rich and poor people.
No inequality between the races and the religions.
- What is the most important issue for you?
- Security, because I live in Tel Aviv,
and during the last operation my sense of security was lost.
Going to the shelter with three children
made me nervous and restless. I didn't sleep at night.
I am breastfeeding and my hormones flipped out.
The security is important for me
because we live in a 50-year-old building
and I felt very unsecure running to the shelter with young children.
That is most important for me now.
In addition to the Palestinian terrorism,
Israel has also other security problems affecting the elections.
David Essing is a senior political journalist.
He has worked over 30 years in national TV and radio channels.
He is currently the head journalist of the Isracast internet site.
David Essing - political journalist isracast.com
Most Israelis support the two state solution,
but at the same time most of them don't believe
that there is a real chance of peace.
Most of the Israeli public support the negotiations
with the Palestinian Authority,
but they don't believe that the PA really wants peace.
I think that there was a change in the last Knesset.
The Likud moved strongly towards the center.
For example, it agreed to freeze the settlements,
which no other goverment has done in the past.
Prime Minister Netanyahu was the first Likud prime minister
to recognize that a Palestinian state has to be established,
two states for two peoples.
Of course also the center and the left agree to that,
so the difference between the parties is not great.
In Israel, the security is always central in election campaigns.
This time many parties concentrate on social and economic issues.
- How much does the politics interest you?
- Very much. It's interesting, who will lead the country,
what will happen with the Iranian threat,
with Egypt and Syria. That's what bothers us most.
- What about social and economic issues?
- They are not so important.
When our existence is threatened, social issues are not important.
We have to have security first. People have to open their eyes.
There are so many small parties.
Yair Lapid is a handsome man, but this is not America.
America chooses handsome people, but we need to think
and give power to the right or the left. I choose right,
but verybody should vote for the Labor or the Likud,
small parties are a waste of votes.
- How much do the elections interest you?
- Less than before, because we are tired.
We are tired of all those new go-getters, who come and go.
Some of them are good, some of them bad.
They care only about their salaries.
- What are the issues that interest you?
- Education and social issues.
- So which party is good?
- The Labor Party is the best.
Its ideas are closest to what I am concerned in.
David Essing - political journalist isracast.com
The primaries of the Avoda labor party.
Where's the admission of guilt
on what you have brought to the State of Israel?
Minister Erdan, you blame the Kadima that says this and that.
Why blame Kadima, when your own prime minister...
- Knesset member... - Your prime minister...
Among the small parties, religious parties are dominant.
They get about 20% of the votes.
- What is the most important issue for you?
- For us religious people, the complete Land of Israel
and the army draft of the Haredim.
The religious always vote for the right wing.
We hope that the right and the religious block will be strong.
- Is there a party that fits your views?
- We do what the rabbis tell us.
We vote for one of the three major religious parties.
We vote for what the rabbis tell us without questions.
- What do you think will happen in two months?
- We expect that Netanyahu and Lieberman will form a goverment.
We don't pin our hopes and trust only on them,
but we give them the authority and ability to act.
David Essing - political journalist isracast.com
Every country has its specialities.
In Finland, the amount of athletes in the parliament
is uncomparable to any other country.
In Israel we have religious parties,
but their status has changed.
I don't think Israel is different from countries like Holland,
which always have had religious parties.
There they have much more power than here, even the prime ministry.
The religious parties are usually cooperating with the right.
There is a link between Judaism and Nationalism.
Nationalistic parties are more connected to religion.
This is not unique to Israel.
In Germany for example the conservative parties
are called Christian Democrats and Christian Socialists.
There is an interesting phenomena which is often overlooked.
The religious parties actually moderate the conflict,
because if the right block doesn't have the majority,
which has happened several times in the past,
the religious parties join the leading leftist party.
This happened in almost all governments until 1977.
We have seen it also after that.
This game of the religious parties have been often criticized,
but I don't think the picture is correct.
The big question of every campaign is,
will the supporters go to the ballots.
This will determine the status of the parties.
In Israel, an especially large part of the society
takes part in politics.
Our voting turnout is a little over 60%, but this is misleading,
because 10% of this number are voters
who live outside the country and can't vote.
In reality, the turnout is over 70%, which is a high turnout.
On the other hand, there is a great dissappointment
towards many politicians in Israel,
and therefore the turnout is only 70%
and not 80% as it used to be.
I happen to be the one who checks the turnout percentage
on the election day.
I can't predict what it will be,
but I don't believe it will rise because of the dissappointment.
David Essing - political journalist isracast.com
The Israeli voters have to choose mainly between two platforms -
the security platform of the Likud
and the social and economic platform of the Labor.
Translation: Hannele Tainio