The Israeli elections 2009

Résumé du document

Last week was Rabin week, in memory of the former Labor Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin. During this week, most of the political parties, especially Kadima, Meretz and Likoud, tried to use the image and the political heritage of the very popular prime minister. It underlines the importance of Rabin in politics. He was not only the man of the Oslo Agreements but he was also the man of the siege of Jerusalem in 1948 and a very respected prime minister. He was a responsible leader that tried to pave a path for the country in a dangerous neighborhood. With the death of Rabin and Sharon, a book is closed, the book of the people born in the diaspora and who immigrated to Israel after the birth of the State. A new book must be written by the tzabarim or sabra, the people born in Israel. Israelis miss a lot Rabin, especially when they compare the devotion and career of Rabin. Since the last few years, the Israeli political sphere is tarnished by many scandals. Both the left wing and the right wing parties are involved. Israelis used to deal with it and now don't care so much anymore if one politician or another is accused of corruption. They don't have any illusions anymore about politics. The last episode of such inquiries in the political sphere involved the Prime minister, former leader of Kadima, Ehud Olmert . Great politician, moderate and talented, he is accused of being involved in many scandals when he was minister under the Likoud government and mayor of Jerusalem. He was more or less forced to resign from the office, under the pressure of the foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who firmly condemned his leadership and his strategy during the second Lebanese war in 2006. After a primary election inside the party Kadima, Tzipi Livni was elected as the new leader. According to the Basic Law, the president decided she would be able to form the new coalition government. Unfortunately, she failed, so Shimon Peres called for new general elections on February 10th, 2009.

Extraits

[...] Great politician, moderate and talented, he is accused of being involved in many scandals when he was minister under Likoud government and mayor of Jerusalem. Everyone heard about it. He was more or less forced to resign from the office, under the pressure of the foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who firmly condemned his leadership and his strategy during the second Lebanese war in 2006. After a primary election inside the party Kadima, Tzipi Livni was elected new leader. According to the Basic Law, the president decided she was able to form the new coalition government. [...]

[...] The claims of Shas Actually, they could have reach an agreement with Meretz, a very progressive political plateform, and Avoda because their moto was “everything but don't let Likoud to pass”. Avoda and Katima wanted to avoid new general elections whereas all the polls gave the victory to Benjamin Netanyahu. The problem was with Shas. Shas is a political party with a very populist social program that seduces a lot of Mizrahim voters. Shas came up with an increase of of the budget for next year and an agreement about the status of Jerusalem. [...]

[...] According to the last polls, Benjamin Netanyahu might win the general elections. According to a poll published in the newspaper Israel Hayom (Israel today), Likoud might reach 33 seats at the next Knesset against only 12 nowadays. Kadima should still have around 28/29 seats whereas Avoda should fall at 11 seats (19 nowadays). Finally, the religious parties (Israel Beteinou = Israel is our home) might reach 28 seats and Meretz, from the left wing seats. Consequently, Benjamin Netanyahu could be more able to reach a coalition agreement with the religious parties in order to become the next Prime minister than Kadima. [...]

[...] Those parties are Shas and many religious parties, especially the National Religious Party. They have their own agenda and, like Shas that served in all governments from 1984 to 1993 and again from 1996, belong to most of the coalition governments. Those parties have never won more than 19% of the Knesset seats but they have won concessions in nearly every coalition governments The unability to form a new coalition government a. How to rein in the economic crisis? After the election of Tzipi Livni, Kadima tried to reach a new coalition agreement with its partners. [...]

[...] In Israel, the main cause of the proliferation of parties is that the threshold for entry into the Knesset is set at only (before 1991, it was Therefore, during the general elections to 30 parties have generally run and 10 to 15 of them have passed the threshold. b. The government coalitions This system was not really a problem until the 90's. Until 1977, the Mapaï and Ben Gourion run the country. Ben Gourion's coalition strategy avoided dependence on one party because he added partner on both side of the spectrum to neutralize each other. Then, thanks to Mizrahim voters, the Likoud came to power and in the 80's, a union national government was established in order to rein in the economic crisis. [...]