An Appraisal of Israeli Political Parties. A Brit-Am Commentary.
Israeli Political Parties reflect different ideologies that are briefly described. Duration 27 minutes. To read text please Scroll Down!
Contents:
1. Benyamin Netanyahu and Likud Yisrael Beiteinu
2. Kadima headed by Shaul Mofaz
3. Labor Party headed by Shelly Yachimovich.
4. Shas Party
5. The Tnuah (Hebrew for "Movement") headed by Tzipi Livni.
6. The Jewish Home headed by Naphtali Bennet.
7. United Torah Judaism
8. Meretz headed by Zahava Gal-On.
9. Am Shalem headed by Rabbi Haim Amsalem
10. Yesh Atid headed by Yair Lapid.
11. Otzma LeYisrael (Strength to Israel) headed by Professor Aryeh Eldad and Dr. Michael Ben-Ari.
This talk is being given late in the day of January 21 2013. Tomorrow Israeli Elections will be held.
Below we have listed the major political parties participating along with comments of our own.
See Also:
Israeli legislative election, 2013
This is a combination of the Likud headed by Benjamin Netanyahu and Yisrael Beiteinu headed by Avigdor Lieberman
The Likud is based on the ideology of Zeev Jabotinsky and Menachem Begin.
This has paternalist Patronizing aspects and may be described as Liberalist Nationalism similar to the Republican Party. Netanyahu tends to the American Capitalist model.
He and his wife seem to consider themselves as potential role models. Netanyahu is very protective about his wife and tries to hide her from the media. Nevertheless they are a couple and the influence of Sarah is felt. The father of Netanyahu was a great Jewish historian. His 15 year old son became a national Bible Quiz champion. Netanyahu is intellectually and physically in great shape. He is also a gifted speaker and very popular with Americans. He is rich.
In the Likud there are many National Religious and pro-settlers strongly nationalist elements at the highest levels. Netanyahu however is the one who decides and he has an unpredictable side to him.
Yisrael Beiteinu headed by Avigdor Lieberman receives much of its support from the Russian electorate though amongst its representatives are several gifted native Israelis such as Orly Levi-Abekasis.
They are similar to the Likud but more secular in their outlook and demands.
Headed by Shaul Mofaz. This party was responsible for the Disengagement from the Kush Katif region that resulted Hamas taking over Gaza and firing hundreds of rockets at Israel. Mofaz was once the IDF Chief of Command. He initiated an accelerated feminization of the army. They do not really ahve any ideology or program but are merely opportunists.
3. Labor Party headed by Shelly Yachimovich.
Historically this part helped create modern Israel. At that time autocratic socialist type policies were probably needed but they continued beyond their time.
This may be illustrated by the telephones. When I cam e to Israel in 1974 all telephone were supplied by a government agency. Many areas had no private telephones at all. There were only public phones sometimes few and far between. Some times these phones turned out to have been vandalized. At other times long queues were lined up before them. Overseas calls cost a fortune. When the Likud came to power they privatized the phone lines and encouraged comptetition. Phones became available at a moments notice and overseas calls were cheaper than local ones.
Autopsies of the deceased were legally compulsory even though this is against Jewish law. There was even a trade in nhman bodies parts. The Likud stopped all this and other unpleasant matters that nowadays we all prefer to forget.
 The Labor Party today under Shelly Yachimovich is mildly socialist with candidates of different degrees of left-wing sentiment. Yachimovich in general makes a good impression and seems genuinely concerned for people. She is however still left-wing.
4. Shas Party
The Shas Party takes its orders from Rabbi Ovadiah Yoseph and a Council of Rabbis. Its parliamentary heads are
Eli Yishai, Aryeh Deri, Ariel Atias. It represents Sephardic and Eastern Jews. It has very good speakers. Its parliamentary record is also impressive.
As Ministers of the Government they had good intentions, good suggestions and valuable plans but often were enable to enforce their will against Netanyahu and his friends who made the final decisions.
For example Eli Yishai as Interior Minister would have stopped the infiltration of Sudanese and Eritreans much earlier than it was eventually done. He had lacked backing from the Government.
Ariel Atias as Housing Minister could have done much to alleviate the housing shortage but progress of his plans etc was held up by PM Netanyahu.
There are other examples.
All this shows that despite his ideology Netanyahu has an uncertain shadowy element over his conduct.
5. The Tnuah (Hebrew for "Movement") headed by Tzipi Livni.Â
This party concentrates on negotiations with the Palestinians and making even more concessions tot he Arabs.
She is anti-religious.
Some time ago a nut-case Ultra-Orthodox extremist allegedly spat at a 12 year old girl. This was followed by a few other incidents such as three lone bus lines in which Ultra-Orthodox males and females preferred to sit in separate sections.
The media attacked the Hareidim ferociously.
Tspi Livni made a speech avbout int he Knresset in which she seem to be on the verge of hysteria.
Netanyahu stopped a Cabinet meeting to condemn the spitting incident.
Consequently Physical attacks against Hareidi children and adults occurred most of which went unreported.
Around this same time, as pointed out by Rabbi Amnon Yischak, a non-Jewish immigrant named Damian Kirilik murdered by stabbing six members of the Oshrenko family in their home in Rishon LeZion. He killed the two grandparents, the father and mother, a daughter of three years old, and a baby of four months. Hardly any comment was made about this.
6. The Jewish Home headed by Naphtali Bennet.
This is the party of the National Religious. For a long while this group was under-represented . Now it could be coming back with a vengeance. Bennet may eventually end up (in future elections) as becoming Prime Minister.
This party is right-wing, religious, but open to non-religious. Bennet is a gifted orator in both English and Hebrew. He was born in the USA. He has talented people behind him.
In principle as far as Jews are concerned they have the right idea being both religious and nationalistic and also liberal. In the past one of their problems was that they a little too wishy-washy and compromising.
Bennet and his fellows make a good impression. We will see how things turn out.
7. United Torah Judaism
United Torah Judaism is an alliance of two Haredi parties, the Hasidic Agudat Israel party and the Lithuanian Degel HaTorah party.
This group has good speakers. They represent the Ultra-Orthodox. For their own sector they often achieve quite a lot. The Bible wants every family to have someone learning Torah full time. This was the reason (as explained in Sefer Ha-Chinuch s. 66) for the Second Tithe on agricultural produce, and the tithe on animals.
The Ultra-Orthodox learn Torah and they should be encouraged to do so. They keep the whole country together. Economically they actually give much more than they receive. The Media however often depicts them as parasites. They are heavily discriminated against.
Their representatives work well within the system according to the possibilities presented to them.
Statistically the majority of settlers in Judea and Samaria are Ultra-Orthodox and not the National Religious as one would think.
They themselves are not sufficiently nationalistic in their ideological concepts.
They are OK as far as they go but it might be better if they could somehow burst their bonds.
8. Meretz headed by Zahava Gal-On.
This is a left-wing nasty little group of self-hating Arab-loving Jews some of whom however have a modicum of social consciousness.
9. Am Shalem headed by Rabbi Haim Amsalem
This is a border line case in more ways than one.
Amsalem was part of the Shas party but he split from them and now receives some support from non-Religious secular voters.
He advocates a more liberal version of Orthodox Judaism.
10. Yesh Atid headed by Yair Lapid.
Presents itself as the champion of the Middle Classes. It is somewhat left-wing in its attitude towards the Arabs, the Ultra-Orthodox, and the settlements.
11. Otzma LeYisrael (Strength to Israel) headed by Professor Aryeh Eldad and Dr. Michael Ben-Ari.
This is considered an extremist National Religious type group. Many of its adherents are followers of the later Rabbi Mair Kahanah.
Amongst other things they have protested discrimination against Jews who are not allowed to build houses without receiving a permit and paying a fortune and sometimes even then being refused permission to continue. The Arabs and the beduin on the other hand have freely constructed tens of thousands of buildings many of which are very luxuriant without any permit whatsoever. This is against the Law but the authorities are reluctant to enforce it lest the Ishmaelites react with violence as they usually do.
Otzma LeYisrael does a lot of good both on the socialist and nationalist levels. There are those in the Israeli public who sympathize with their aims but may be reserved about the style.