Transcript [00:00] Hey everyone. So today we're going to [00:01] talk about the Israeli electoral system, [00:04] how it works. U you know there's an [00:06] election coming up. October 27th is the [00:09] date that was set for it. And every time [00:11] there's an election in Israel, I get [00:12] similar questions from my American [00:14] friends. They want to know why we have [00:16] uh you know two dozen different parties [00:18] running. Uh and they want to know uh [00:20] what schedule elections are on. Why do [00:22] they seem to happen every couple of [00:24] years? uh and they want to know who's [00:26] running for prime minister, which is uh [00:29] kind of an inexact question when it [00:32] comes to Israeli politics. I'm going to [00:33] explain all of that in this video, how [00:35] the government is formed, how the [00:36] electoral politics work. What I'm not [00:39] going to do in this video is talk about [00:40] the mechanics of our election uh in [00:43] terms of uh what what what actually [00:45] happens in a polling booth, how a person [00:47] actually votes, how votes are counted. [00:49] I've been in the counting room. I've [00:52] been a I've been a poll observer, poll [00:53] watcher. uh uh a pole worker in a number [00:56] of elections. So, I know that that [00:59] process intimately, but that's not what [01:01] I'm going to be dealing with in this in [01:02] this video. This video is going to be [01:03] more of an overview of the Israeli [01:06] electoral system. Now this election is [01:08] actually quite significant because on [01:09] October 27th when we go to elections [01:11] this will be the first time since 1988 [01:15] that's right 1988 almost 40 years since [01:18] we had an election from because a [01:21] Knesset already actually went to its [01:24] full term. Uh every other election since [01:27] 1988 has been the result of the [01:29] government falling or being dissolved [01:31] ahead of time. We're going to find out [01:33] what that means in this video. So stay [01:36] with me. Okay. Um, [01:40] now there was things have changed over [01:42] the years over the decades in Israeli [01:45] electoral in the laws that govern [01:46] Israeli electoral politics. So for [01:48] example, there was a period of Israeli [01:50] history where you could have a party [01:51] with only one seat in Knesset. That's [01:53] impossible today. We'll find out about [01:55] that soon in a few minutes. Um uh there [01:59] was also uh a long stretch of Israel's [02:01] history where there was one dominant [02:03] party that basically ran the country for [02:06] like the first 30 years of Israel's [02:08] history. And we're going to understand [02:09] all of that. Here we go. First of all, [02:12] the basics. The Knesset is Israel's [02:14] parliament. It's its legislature and [02:16] it's 120 members and it's only one [02:19] chamber. It doesn't have two houses like [02:21] America's House and Senate. It's just [02:24] one body, the 120 members of the [02:26] Knesset. [02:27] And Israel has a parliamentary system, [02:29] not a presidential one. And that means [02:32] that u that it's different than what [02:35] Americans are used to. Many other [02:37] countries have parliamentary systems. [02:39] So, let me spell out what it means. In [02:41] America, you vote separately for your [02:44] president and for your Congress. In [02:46] Israel, you do not. There is no separate [02:49] ballot for prime minister. You don't [02:51] vote for a prime minister. When I said [02:53] in in my intro to this that the [02:55] question, who's running for prime [02:57] minister, is a bit of an inexact [02:58] question in Israel or a vague question, [03:00] it's because you don't actually vote for [03:02] a prime minister. You cast one vote and [03:04] the vote that you cast is for a party. [03:07] Period. That's it. That's the entire [03:09] election like what you're used to if [03:10] you're from the United States where you [03:12] go in and there's a whole bunch of [03:13] different things that you're voting on. [03:14] You're voting for congressmen, you're [03:15] voting for senators, you're voting for, [03:17] you know, there's other there's [03:19] different positions you're voting for. [03:20] You're voting for uh for secretary of [03:23] state of your state. Whatever it is, [03:25] that's not what you're voting for in [03:28] Israel. In Israel, you cast one vote and [03:30] it's for a party. And the party's [03:32] strength in the Knesset will determine [03:35] who gets to try to become prime [03:37] minister. The government which is the [03:40] prime minister and the cabinet is [03:43] assembled out of the Knesset itself and [03:47] the Knesset can remove that government [03:49] with a vote of no confidence. So if at [03:51] any point while while a government is in [03:54] power if 61 Knesset members vote a vote [03:57] of no confidence they bring down the [03:59] government and we go to new elections. [04:02] Now, there is a president of Israel. [04:05] That is a that is a role, but it's a [04:08] ceremonial figure. It's not voted on by [04:10] the public. Uh it's really just a a [04:13] ceremonial it's a ceremonial figure kind [04:15] of uh you know, similar to, you know, [04:18] royal family members in, you know, in [04:21] the UK. A little bit more than that. He [04:22] has a he has a few duties, but it's [04:24] basically a ceremonial figure, largely [04:27] symbolic. The real power, the real [04:28] political power sits with the prime [04:30] minister and the Knesset. Okay, [04:34] now here, let's get into how you [04:35] actually vote. Here's where it's [04:37] different from almost anywhere else in [04:38] the democratic world. Israel is a is one [04:41] single national voting district. Okay? [04:45] We don't, you know, like in Canada, uh [04:47] you have, you know, writings, which is [04:49] like uh congressional districts and what [04:51] you're voting for in the parliament is [04:53] you're voting in your district for who's [04:55] going to represent your district, right? [04:57] You have that in many, many countries. [04:59] Um, Israel does not have that. The whole [05:03] country is one district as it were. It's [05:05] one constituency. And you're not voting [05:07] for a person. You're voting, as I said [05:10] before, for a party list. It's a closed [05:13] list. That means that the party the [05:15] party decides when they register their [05:18] party. Not when they register the party, [05:20] but when there's a date prior to the [05:23] elections. It's usually about a month [05:24] and a half before the elections. uh [05:26] there's a date prior to the elections [05:28] where they have to submit their list and [05:30] their list is an order of its own people [05:34] uh who you know listed one two three [05:36] four five it's a list u and that and [05:39] that they submit that list and you just [05:41] vote for a party you vote for a party [05:43] list um you know as a voter you have [05:47] zero ability to move someone up or down [05:49] the party list okay that could happen in [05:54] parties that have that have primary [05:56] primaries. Some parties have primaries, [05:58] some don't in Israel. That's up to the [06:00] party itself. How a party determines [06:02] who's on its list can involve a primary [06:05] uh a primary system where a voter who's [06:08] a member of that party who's eligible to [06:10] vote in the primaries can move someone [06:12] up or down the list. But on election [06:13] day, you have no impact on that. You're [06:16] just voting for a party. Okay? So, [06:19] you're either voting for likabid, [06:23] whatever party you're voting for. and [06:26] you're voting for a list. And now often [06:29] on the slip of paper that you're using [06:31] to vote, meaning because you have these [06:33] slips of paper and you take one and you [06:34] put it in an envelope and you vote. [06:36] We'll get into that in a different [06:37] video. Sometimes the the u the leader of [06:40] the party's name might be listed there [06:41] also, but you're not voting for a [06:42] person. Every vote, so here's what [06:45] happens. Everyone votes, one vote. All [06:47] they're doing is voting for a party. It [06:50] all then gets tallied up [06:53] into one one tally of all the votes [06:57] nationally. Remember, it's all one big [06:58] district. And then the 120 Knesset seats [07:03] are divided up proportionally [07:06] to the parties based on how many votes [07:08] they got. So hypothetically, [07:11] uh let's say a party gets 10% of the [07:13] national vote, then it would get 10% of [07:16] the 120 seats in crescent. It would get [07:17] about 12 seats. Okay, that's in theory, [07:20] but here's how it really works. There's [07:22] a threshold to get in. A party has to [07:26] clear the threshold of 3.25% [07:30] 3 and a4% of the total vote of of the [07:35] vote total of the entire nation. You [07:37] take all the votes that were cast and if [07:40] and a party has to have at least 3.25% [07:43] of the total votes cast in order to get [07:46] in. That's what's called the threshold. [07:49] If you cross the threshold, you're in [07:51] the Knesset [07:52] and you then get four seats. That's the [07:56] minimum number you get. Okay? 3.25% of [07:59] 120 seats, you get four seats if you get [08:02] in. If you get below 3.25%, [08:06] you don't get anything. You don't get a [08:08] fraction of a seat. Um the and that [08:11] threshold number, that 3.25% is the [08:13] single most important number in Israeli [08:15] politics. I'm going to come back to it [08:17] because it hasn't always been 3.25%. It [08:19] used to be a lot lower and that changed [08:21] everything about what the Knesset looked [08:22] like. [08:24] Now, here's a detail that a lot of [08:27] people almost no one outside of Israel [08:29] does not know. If a party does not clear [08:32] the threshold, its votes don't get [08:35] redistributed to anyone. They're simply [08:38] gone. They're thrown out. They're [08:40] removed. Which means that the first [08:42] thing that happens after the election is [08:44] we check to see which parties reach [08:46] 3.25%. Those parties are in with a [08:49] minimum of four seats. All the parties [08:51] that didn't reach the threshold, all of [08:53] those votes get essentially thrown in [08:56] the trash. They're gone. And then the [08:59] remaining [09:01] uh all the votes from parties that made [09:03] it in then get divided by 120. Okay? So, [09:08] a party that gets 3% of the national [09:10] vote and misses the 3.25, [09:13] you know, they miss that extra 0.25%, [09:16] they get zero seats. All of those votes [09:18] just vanish from the calculation. [09:21] But it work but once a party does get [09:23] in, [09:25] okay, once a party does get in, they'll [09:28] get however many votes they get and then [09:30] they're going to get their seats in the [09:31] Knesset. But no party's vote total is [09:33] going to divide evenly into whole seats, [09:37] right? You're not going to have where [09:39] there's 120 seats and there's an exact [09:41] number that divides perfectly into 120. [09:44] There's always going to be leftover [09:45] fractions. [09:47] Once we determine how many votes is a [09:49] seat, there's going to be leftover [09:50] fractions of seats. There's going to be [09:52] extra votes that parties have beyond [09:55] what was needed for the seats that they [09:56] won. So, what happens here? Listen [10:00] carefully. before the election takes [10:03] place, parties that are running are [10:06] allowed to sign a vote sharing [10:08] agreement. [10:09] Okay? And it's named after the it's [10:11] called the bad offair method. It's named [10:13] after the two lawmakers, one from Leikud [10:16] and one from Labor way back in the 1970s [10:19] who wrote this law. and this vote [10:22] sharing agreement. Under these [10:23] agreements, when it comes time to divvy [10:26] up the leftover fractions of seats, two [10:29] parties that signed an agreement with [10:31] each other get to pull those votes. And [10:36] the the one whichever of the two parties [10:39] had more surplus votes which which mean [10:41] in other words whichever of the two [10:43] parties was closer to having the next [10:45] seat gets the votes of the other party [10:48] that it signed an agreement with which [10:51] can which can sometimes tip the balance [10:54] and bring another seat to that party. [10:57] Now why would they do that? Well, they [10:59] you know was why would a party that you [11:01] know, of course, every party hopes that [11:03] it's going to be the winner and get the [11:04] extra seat. But parties do that so that [11:07] votes don't go to waste because they [11:09] sign these agreements with parties who [11:11] they are ideologically close to, parties [11:13] that or in terms of policy, they're [11:15] close to, parties that they would want [11:16] to be in a coalition with. And this [11:18] helps the the block, whether it's the [11:20] right-wing block or the left-wing block, [11:22] it helps them um, you know, conserve [11:26] votes and not have votes go to waste. [11:28] and and that could and that could make a [11:29] big difference. It could sometimes tip [11:30] the scale about whether or not there's [11:32] there's a majority, there's a coalition. [11:34] So, you'll see this right before an [11:35] election. Let's say like, you know, uh [11:38] you know, two right-wing parties or two [11:40] religious parties or two parties on the [11:42] left will announce a vote sharing [11:43] agreement with each other. Um and again, [11:45] they're always ideologically aligned [11:47] because you're trusting your leftover [11:49] votes to boost a party that you would [11:50] actually be comfortable sitting in a [11:52] coalition with. Now only a small handful [11:56] of developed democracies do things this [11:58] way. Meaning one national district, a [12:01] closed list, no personal, you're not [12:04] voting for any person. You're not voting [12:06] in a district or a region. Uh the [12:08] Netherlands does something similar. [12:10] Spain and Portugal use closed lists [12:12] also, but they have regional districts. [12:14] So, Israel is actually the only [12:16] developed democracy that has neither a [12:18] personal component where you're voting [12:20] for particular people um nor a regional [12:23] breakup uh where it's all just one [12:26] that's only Israel. Uh now, this [12:31] explains a lot about what frustrates [12:32] outside observers about Israeli politics [12:35] and sometimes it frustrates Israelis [12:37] because you you you live in Israel, you [12:40] don't have a local congressman or a [12:42] local representative. There isn't a [12:43] member of Knesset that represents you by [12:45] district. It's it's it's almost like a a [12:48] theoretical representation like you [12:50] voted for someone who's ideologically [12:52] aligned or you like their policies and [12:54] then they get a bunch of seats but [12:55] there's no way for you to verify with [12:57] them that they represent you. It's not [12:59] like when you live in a congressional [13:00] district. You call your congressman, you [13:02] say, "I live in your district. I'm one [13:04] of your voters." You don't have that [13:06] relationship with lawmakers in Israel [13:08] because it's proportional. [13:10] Okay. um you know all the votes are just [13:13] in one enormous national bucket now [13:17] because no party in history has ever won [13:20] 61 seats which is a majority of the [13:22] Knesset um and that's the majority you [13:25] need to create a coalition to set up a [13:27] government [13:29] every single government has has been a [13:31] coalition okay so so far what have we [13:35] done thus far we've taken all the votes [13:38] we've eliminated the parties that didn't [13:40] cross the threshold We've taken the [13:41] remaining votes. We've divided them by [13:43] 120 more or less. And then there's the [13:46] the extra votes go to different parties. [13:48] And we figure out who has how many [13:50] seats. Okay? Then we have all these [13:52] different parties and they have a whole [13:53] bunch and they all have different seats. [13:55] And now we have to put together a [13:57] coalition of minimum 61 [14:00] majority that is going to become the [14:04] government. Okay? So because no party in [14:06] Israel's history has ever won 61 seats, [14:10] every single Israeli government in [14:12] history has been a coalition government. [14:14] So after the election, the president, [14:16] this ceremonial position, what this is [14:19] where he actually plays a role. Um he's [14:22] similar in his in his duties to like the [14:25] vice president of the United States [14:26] where he can do diplomacy and does [14:28] sometimes get involved in things but [14:30] doesn't really have any authority over [14:33] anything. [14:34] So after the election, the president [14:36] meets with every party [14:40] with every party that got in and he asks [14:42] essentially three questions. Who do you [14:45] want to have as prime minister? [14:48] Who will you sit in a coalition with? [14:50] Who are you willing to sit in a [14:51] coalition with? Like for example, um [14:54] right-wing parties, religious parties, [14:56] most parties in Israel won't sit in a [14:58] coalition with the Arab parties that are [15:00] openly anti-Israel that are in the [15:02] Knesset, right? they won't sit with [15:03] them, for example. Or there's numerous [15:06] um secular parties, there's always [15:08] secular parties that don't want to sit [15:10] with the religious parties, right? [15:12] Things like that. So they'll so the [15:14] president will ask, "Who do you [15:15] recommend for prime minister? Who will [15:17] you sit in a coalition with? And who [15:19] will you absolutely not sit with?" And [15:21] based on the answers that he gets, he [15:23] determines who is most likely to be able [15:27] to form a government. Um, and he hands [15:30] the mandate, the job of trying to form a [15:33] government of getting a 61 majority. He [15:38] hands it to one Knesset member. And [15:41] usually, almost always, that person that [15:43] he hands it to is the n is the person [15:46] who's number one on the list of the [15:48] largest party that made it into Knesset. [15:50] Now, it's not always the case. Naftali [15:52] Bennett became prime minister in 2021 [15:55] leading a party that had only seven [15:57] seats because he was the person who [15:59] could stitch together 61 [16:02] 61 votes to form a government. Didn't [16:04] last very long that government but [16:06] that's an example. You don't have to be [16:08] the head of the biggest party. Now was [16:09] Natali Bennett running for prime [16:11] minister in that election? No. He he he [16:13] ran a very small party. They only got [16:15] seven seats. And that's why I say that [16:18] like this question are you running for [16:19] prime minister? So, Prime Minister [16:20] Netanyahu is running for Prime Minister [16:22] only by virtue of the fact that he's the [16:24] head of what is probably going to be the [16:26] largest party, one of the two largest [16:29] parties. It will probably be the largest [16:31] party. Um, so that's what it means to be [16:33] running for prime minister. Now, the MK [16:36] who was chosen by the president to form [16:38] a government then has a limited window, [16:41] uh, it's a few weeks or a month, he has [16:43] a limited window of time to negotiate [16:45] coalition agreements. And that means [16:47] he's talking to the heads of the other [16:48] parties about who gets which ministry, [16:51] what policies the government will pursue [16:53] and pres and then he presents a [16:54] government, you know, once he he he's [16:56] got the 61, he's got the majority who [16:59] are all signed on to be part of the [17:01] coalition. They then convene the Knesset [17:03] and they have a confidence vote. If a if [17:07] a if a plural if a plurality of that [17:10] vote uh you know is win if if he wins [17:14] with a plurality of that vote the [17:16] government wins. So the government [17:18] starts functioning. The government is [17:19] seated. Those ministers take their [17:21] roles. This is now the government. This [17:22] is the cabinet and we have a government. [17:25] Okay. Uh if every attempt fails, if they [17:28] can't pass it, if they can't get 61, [17:31] then the Knesset dissolves and you go [17:32] back to elections. You might remember a [17:34] few years ago, we had a whole bunch of [17:35] elections in quick succession because [17:37] they couldn't form a government. We were [17:38] having elections, we could not form a [17:40] government. This is part of why Israeli [17:42] elections happen so often because, [17:46] you know, even once you have the [17:48] government up and running, there could [17:49] be a faction within it, a few Knesset [17:50] members or one party within it that [17:53] suddenly doesn't like something the [17:55] government does or or is disgruntled for [17:57] whatever reason and decides that they're [18:00] leaving the coalition. They call a vote [18:02] of no confidence. 61 vote against the [18:06] government. They vote with they vote no [18:08] confidence and then the government falls [18:09] and you have to go to new elections. [18:11] Since 1996, [18:13] so the last 30 years, Israel's gone to [18:16] the polls on an average of every 2.4 [18:19] years, more frequently than any other [18:21] parliamentary democracy on earth. Now, [18:23] the last time an Israeli election [18:25] happened on the four-year schedule, as I [18:27] mentioned at the beginning of this [18:28] video, did I mention it? was 1988, [18:31] right? It's the last time government [18:34] actually went the full four years. Every [18:36] election other than that, every election [18:38] since then, since 1988, has been early [18:41] for one reason or another. Maybe the [18:43] budget didn't pass, maybe the coalition [18:44] collapsed for some other reason, or the [18:46] prime minister resigned. We had that. [18:49] Um, [18:51] now here's where I want to take you back [18:52] because the Knesset you see today with [18:54] roughly a dozen parties is actually more [18:56] stable and more consolidated than it [18:59] used to be. And uh, that's not an [19:01] accident. It's a it's a it's the direct [19:03] result of deliberate policy decisions. [19:06] For decades, Israel's electoral [19:08] threshold was not 3.25%. It was 1%. 1%. [19:13] And that meant you could get one seat. [19:16] Right? Right? If you have a 1% [19:17] threshold, combine that with a single [19:19] national bucket of all the votes where [19:22] anyone can register a party and it [19:25] produces what you would what you'd [19:26] expect, which is a huge number of tiny [19:29] factions, tiny parties running because [19:31] the threshold is so low. If people think [19:32] that they could get 1% of the vote, they [19:34] can get into Knesset. Um, and and [19:37] sometimes there would be parties that [19:39] were built around [19:40] no ideology at all. There's one crazy [19:43] example that I always give people. from [19:45] the 1970s. There was a guy named Shmu [19:47] Flat Shaon and in 1977, this is a real [19:50] story. [19:52] He was a French um he was a French [19:55] Israeli businessman and he was facing [19:58] embezzlement charges in France for [20:01] allegedly defrauding investors out of [20:03] tens of millions of dollars. And he [20:05] formed his own political party, ran a [20:08] campaign in which he promised that if [20:10] elected he would provide apartments [20:14] two young voters, which is of course [20:17] nonsense. [20:19] And he enough people believed him and he [20:22] won enough of the vote to take a single [20:24] Knesset seat. And then he used the fact [20:27] that he had a Knesset seat uh to avoid [20:30] extradition to France because there's a [20:32] legal immunity from extradition that [20:35] Knesset members have. And that's why he [20:37] ran and he got in. It's crazy. I know [20:40] this is not an exaggeration. It's not a [20:42] footnote. It's a real story and it was [20:44] legal because the barrier to enter the [20:46] Knesset was 1% of the vote. Okay. Now [20:49] that system stayed in place through [20:51] 1988. Then starting in 1992, [20:54] Israel raised the threshold to 1.5% and [20:57] then it went up again in 2003 to 2%. And [21:01] finally in 2014, it was raised to where [21:03] it is today, 3 and a4%. Each of those [21:05] increases was a conscious attempt by the [21:08] Knesset to solve the same problem. Too [21:10] many small parties made governing [21:12] coalitions unstable. Now, of course, the [21:15] parties in power have an incentive to [21:17] lock smaller parties out unless they [21:19] themselves are very small. But this [21:21] passed in the Knesset. [snorts] Now, [21:24] um when you have all these teeny tiny [21:26] parties of one seat, every little one [21:29] Knesset member has to be somehow [21:32] incentivized to join the coalition. And [21:34] that means he has to be given things, [21:35] ministries, whatever. It made it too [21:37] easy for a handful of of votes to hold [21:40] the entire government hostage. Raising [21:43] the threshold was Israel's way of [21:45] trading some representativeness for some [21:48] stability. Because by raising the [21:50] threshold, it means that there are like [21:52] let's say you have a party that's [21:53] running and they could get 2% of the [21:55] vote. That's still a lot of seats. You [21:57] can get a couple seats in Knesset and [21:58] you can't and you're not going to cross [21:59] the threshold. You won't be represented. [22:01] So they they gave up on some of the [22:04] representativeness of the system for [22:06] some stability. It didn't fully solve [22:08] the fragmentation problem. Israel still [22:10] has one of the most fragmented [22:11] parliaments in the world uh in the [22:13] developed world alongside places like [22:15] the Netherlands and Belgium, but it did [22:18] shut the door on like a scheme like this [22:20] guy Flat Chiron ran in the 1970s to get [22:23] out of being extradited to France. Crazy [22:26] story. Anyway, here's the other [22:28] historical piece that that people don't [22:30] know. It's actually the flip side of the [22:32] fragmentation story. For the first 30 [22:35] years of Israel's existence, from 1948 [22:38] till 1977, [22:40] one party dominated Israeli politics [22:43] almost completely. It was called Mapai. [22:45] It was David Bengorian's party. David [22:47] Bengorian, the first prime minister of [22:48] Israel. It was his party and it later [22:52] folded into what became the Labor Party [22:55] u through it got a new name. It became [22:57] called the Maharak, the alignment. Um, [23:00] but it wasn't just that they won [23:02] elections. Mapai, which was this again [23:04] this Labor Party, this left-wing sort of [23:06] socialist party. Mapai and its [23:08] successors didn't just control the [23:10] government. They had a hand in nearly [23:11] every major institution in this young [23:13] state. The Histadrut, which is the [23:16] National Labor Federation, which at the [23:18] time ran huge parts of the economy, [23:20] healthcare and employment. There was [23:22] also the Jewish Agency, which controlled [23:24] immigration and absorption. This was all [23:26] controlled by Mapai. [23:28] large parts of the military and the [23:30] civil service were controlled by them. [23:32] So if you were a new immigrant arriving [23:34] in Israel in the 1950s, your housing, [23:36] your job, and very often your health [23:37] care, your banking ran through [23:40] institutions that MAI effectively [23:42] controlled. Uh political scientists call [23:45] this a dominant party system, right? [23:47] where meaning elections happen, they're [23:49] still free and fair. You're still [23:51] voting, but one party's grip on the [23:54] machinery of the state made it almost [23:56] unthinkable that anyone else could [23:58] actually take power. And then in 1977, [24:01] this system broke. Manakim Bean uh as [24:04] the head of the Likud won the election [24:08] and Israelis call what happened that [24:11] year the Mahapak which literally means [24:13] like the upheaval or the revolution, the [24:16] overturning. It was the first transfer [24:18] of power to a different party since the [24:19] state was founded in 1948. [24:22] Began's um you know Bean's uh win it [24:26] reflected very very real very deep [24:28] changes in Israeli society. There were [24:30] waves of immigrants from Middle Eastern [24:32] and North African countries who felt [24:34] shut out by the old Ashkanazi [24:37] uh European labor establishment. There [24:39] was a there was a there was a growing [24:41] dissatisfaction with this socialist [24:43] state controlled economy. Um there was [24:46] also the aftermath of the trauma of the [24:48] Yonkipur war which was four years [24:50] earlier. Whatever the exact mix of of [24:53] causes, the effect was unmistakable. [24:56] After three decades of one party [24:59] dominance, that was over in a single [25:01] election. And Israeli politics has been [25:03] genuinely competitive between multiple [25:06] blocks ever since. Although the last [25:08] couple of decades, we've now seen [25:10] something similar where the right-wing, [25:11] the Likood, and the and the right-wing [25:13] parties have been quite dominant. not to [25:15] the extent that labor was. We're never [25:17] going to go back to that because like I [25:18] said, they controlled a lot of the [25:20] apparatuses of the state. Anyway, you [25:23] put all this together and you can [25:25] understand modern Israeli politics a lot [25:27] better. There were 30 years where one [25:29] party's dominance was so complete that [25:31] elections were almost a formality. You [25:33] just knew that MAI was going to be in [25:35] power. And then you had a system with [25:36] such a low threshold to get in that [25:39] literally anyone could start a party and [25:41] get into the Knesset which fragmented [25:43] Israeli politics into dozens of tiny [25:46] factions. And the system Israel has [25:48] today this 3.25% threshold the coalition [25:52] government with fairly frequent [25:54] elections is really the attempt to find [25:56] a middle ground between those two [25:58] extremes. It's representative enough [26:00] that there's real ideological diversity [26:03] that gets a voice in the Knesset, but it [26:05] also has a high enough bar that you [26:07] don't get a legislature of a whole bunch [26:09] of one-man parties who are holding the [26:11] whole government hostage. It's not a [26:13] perfect system. Far from it. Israel [26:15] still holds elections more often than [26:18] almost anywhere else in the world. Uh [26:20] small parties still frequently end up as [26:22] kingmakers with outsiz leverage over the [26:24] government. But now when you you know [26:28] when you watch this next election unfold [26:29] on October on October 27th and you see a [26:31] dozen plus parties on the ballot and [26:33] then there's this lag time who and and [26:35] Americans always say who won it's not so [26:37] simple. You have to you have to let the [26:39] dust settle. How many seats did everyone [26:40] get? And then and then begins the [26:42] negotiation to form a coalition. When [26:44] you see all this happen you'll have a [26:46] better understanding of of what's going [26:48] on and understand that it's not just [26:50] chaos. I mean there's a lot of chaos but [26:52] it's not just chaos. It's the result of [26:54] 70 plus years of uh of this small [26:58] remarkable country trying to work out uh [27:01] how to govern itself. Okay, I hope this [27:03] was helpful and we're going to do more [27:05] videos like this. Like I said, I'm going [27:07] to do another video that's more about [27:09] the technicalities of the voting process [27:10] and the counting process, how votes are [27:12] counted, how integrity of the election [27:14] is uh is ensured. We'll do that [27:16] separately. Uh but I hope you found this [27:18] helpful. We'll be doing more. This is [27:20] all gearing up for the election [27:22] campaign. I'm also going to start [27:23] covering all of the different uh parties [27:26] uh that are running in the elections as [27:29] well. We're going to cover that as well. [27:30] Oh, one last thing. Make sure that you [27:32] uh are signed up for the webinar that's [27:34] coming on Wednesday. Mani's New York [27:36] City, a warning to America. We have [27:38] former mayor Rudy Giuliani sup one of [27:41] the great Americans, a great historic [27:43] figure. We have Chavez Castenbound, one [27:45] of the young [27:46] >> [snorts] [27:46] >> um you know bright uh public [27:48] intellectuals and communicators. Uh he [27:50] works for PragerU and uh he'll be [27:53] speaking as well. Robert Spencer, the [27:55] great author, he's written many books [27:56] about Islam, wrote a book about Mamani. [27:58] And Rabbi Daniel Shambach, who's been at [28:00] the forefront of the demonstrations and [28:03] the and the political uh activity uh [28:06] countering the all the damaging effects [28:08] of the Mamdani regime in New York. He's [28:10] been a very important voice. He's going [28:12] to be joining us as well next Sunday, [28:14] August 16th, 2:00 p.m. Eastern time, [28:16] 9:00 p.m. in Israel. Make sure you're [28:18] signed up. The link is in the [28:19] description of this video or go to [28:21] israel365.com/mdani [28:23] or click the QR code that is on your [28:26] screen. You don't want to miss this [28:27] webinar. If you can't make the time, [28:28] don't worry about it. If you are [28:30] registered, you will receive a full um [28:33] you you'll receive a link to the full [28:34] webinar in your inbox. All right, God [28:37] bless. Thanks for watching.
