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- In Israel, politics is very tribal.
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Parties keep popping up, splitting,
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and merging in every election.
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And lately, Israel's
had a lot of elections.
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But you can usually guess which
party someone is voting for.
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Or at least narrow it down
to two or three options.
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Are they Jewish or Arab?
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Right-wing or left-wing?
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Are they Haredi, also
known as ultra-Orthodox?
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Religious or Secular?
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Are they Ashkenazi or Mizrahi?
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Do they live in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem,
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a Kibbutz or a small working class town?
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Answer just one or two of these questions
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and you're halfway to
guessing who they'll vote for.
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Here's a breakdown.
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The tribes of modern Israel,
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the parties that represent them,
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and how Benjamin Netanyahu
fits into all of this.
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Israel was founded in 1948
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as a Jewish and democratic state.
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Jewish, the nation-state
of the Jewish people
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who returned and immigrated
from all over the world,
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and democratic, a state where
every citizen could vote
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regardless of religion or ethnicity
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and where minority rights
would be respected.
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The Knesset was created with 120 seats,
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that's a throwback to
the 120 member ruling
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Great Assembly of the ancient Israelites.
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Each party runs with a list of candidates,
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and they're elected proportionally.
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If a party gets 10% of the vote,
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it gets 10% of the seats,
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and the first 12 candidates on its list
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become members of Knesset.
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Israel was born as an
ethnically, religiously,
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and socially diverse mosaic,
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and Israel's founders wanted everyone
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to have a stake in the democratic game,
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so it was important to make sure
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every group's voice was heard.
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That means Israel has one of
the most representative systems
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in the world, where even
small groups are represented,
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unlike countries where
votes for the runner up
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in each constituency simply go in the bin.
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And in such a diverse country,
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that means lots of different parties.
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No party has ever reached
a majority of seats,
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61, by itself,
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so anyone who wants to
be prime minister needs
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to strike deals with smaller parties.
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This is called a coalition government.
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The prime minister is from one party,
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but the foreign minister,
defense minister,
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and finance minister can all
be from different parties.
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While Americans tend to think
of their party affiliation
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as part of who they are.
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Israelis are much more likely to vote
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for brand new parties founded
by charismatic leaders.
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So politicians with a personal
following have an interest
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in running as the leaders
of their own parties,
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and then, they negotiate for a
top job at the cabinet table.
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There are huge, existential
issues on the table.
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But sometimes, it's difficult
to tell the difference
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between rival parties
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because so much boils down to personality.
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That's why the parties keep changing
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from one election to the next,
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and why some of the most
influential parties nowadays
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didn't even exist a year or two ago.
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In order to break things down,
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let's imagine the
country like one big pie.
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The most obvious split would be between
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the Jewish and Arab population,
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with Arabs representing around
20% of Israeli citizens.
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There are two Arab parties.
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The first is The Joint List,
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an alliance between Arab nationalists,
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and Arab and Jewish communists.
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The Arab parties have never been a part
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of the governing coalition,
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and they don't really want to be.
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Their goal -
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to promote the interests
of Israel's Arab minority,
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which includes reducing crime
rates in Arab communities,
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and pushing for an end of
Israel's military control
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of the West Bank, either
as part of a formation
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of a Palestinian state or
a single binational state.
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But by remaining ideologically
opposed to Zionism,
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openly identifying with
the Palestinian cause
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and explicitly rejecting
Israel's character
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as a Jewish and democratic state.
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The Joint List effectively dooms itself
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to remaining in opposition forever.
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The second Arab party is
Ra'am, the Islamist party,
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which is more socially and
religiously conservative,
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and draws a lot of its support
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from Bedouins in the Negev Desert.
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One of the reasons it split
off from the Joint List
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was a dispute over gay conversion therapy,
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which it didn't want to ban.
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Its goals are very
similar to the Joint List,
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but it's much more pragmatic,
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open to collaborating
with whoever is in power.
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The Jewish vote divides
along several lines.
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Now, we can split the Jewish
population part of the pie
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between Haredi Jews,
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who make up about 10% of the population,
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and everyone else,
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and even the Haredi population is divided.
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There's Shas, which represents
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the mostly religious Mizrahi Jews.
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Traditional, working class,
and very socially conservative,
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the party has never had a
woman member of Knesset.
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But when it comes to government spending,
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it's in favor of big welfare payments
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to support large families.
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Israel's religious Jewish
character is a priority for Shas.
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And then there's United Torah Judaism,
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which represents religious Jews
from Ashkenazi backgrounds.
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They also oppose any changes
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to the status quo of religion and state,
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which gives the rabbinate
a monopoly over marriage,
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and which means there's almost
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no public transport on Shabbat.
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They're also against conscripting
Haredi men into the army,
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so that they can study at yeshivas.
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Both parties are eager to
promote issues important
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to the Haredi community,
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maintaining the Orthodox
Rabbinate's control
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of religion-and-state issues,
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and securing funds for
their growing communities.
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But what about the rest
of the Jewish population?
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Well, we can still divide
them between Orthodox,
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but not ultra-Orthodox Jews,
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and secular and traditionalist Jews,
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but here, the lines are much blurrier.
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On the religious right-wing
end of the spectrum,
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there's a shifting mix of
religious nationalist parties
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which keep running under different names.
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They support hawkish
stances on security issues,
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expanding Israel's settlements,
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and rolling back the power
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of what they consider
an overactive judiciary.
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On the secular right, Yisrael Beytenu,
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a party which appeals mainly to immigrants
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from the former Soviet Union
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and Israelis who are
right-wing on security,
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but want to take a tougher
stance against Haredi control
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of religion and state.
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On the left, Meretz and the Labor Party.
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They care about strengthening
the welfare state
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and protecting the courts,
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which they see as the ultimate guarantor
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of Israel's liberal democratic character.
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But pummeled by the violent
implosion of the peace process
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and changing demographics,
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the left has shrunk
dramatically since the years
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when Labor ran the state.
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Meretz and Labor do
really well in Tel Aviv
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and the kibbutzim, but in
the rest of the country,
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most Israeli Jews now lean to the right.
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And then we have Israel's biggest parties.
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The giant is the right-wing Likud,
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led by Benjamin Netanyahu,
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who's been prime minister
for a total of 15 years,
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12 of them since 2009.
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Though he could claims that only Netanyahu
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can keep Israel safe from
existential threats like Iran,
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make it economically strong,
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and stand up to what it calls
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a "left-wing media and judiciary."
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The biggest party opposing
the Likud is Yesh Atid,
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a centrist liberal party led by Yair Lapid
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that mostly appeals to
Israel's secular middle class.
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They're liberal on social issues,
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including religion-and-state,
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such as allowing public
transport on Shabbat
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and legalizing civil marriage.
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Other parties constantly split,
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merge and reinvent themselves
for every election.
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Take Blue and White.
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Founded for the April 2019 election
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as a merger between
Former IDF Chief of Staff
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Benny Gantz's Israel
Resilience Party and Yesh Atid.
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It was the biggest party in
the September 2019 election
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with 35 seats, but by March 2021,
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it had collapsed to just eight.
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There's no shortage of issues
for Israeli politicians
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to argue about, but in
Israel, left and right
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don't always mean what you think.
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The Israeli-Palestinian
conflict used to be
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what gave meaning to "left" and "right".
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Left-wing: divide the land
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and maybe create a Palestinian state.
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Right-wing: build more settlements
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and maybe annex parts
or all of the West Bank.
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But after several peace attempts failed
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and the unilateral
withdrawal from Gaza in 2005
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blew up in Israel's face,
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most Israelis lost hope that
there was a partner for peace
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and became convinced a
withdrawal from the territories
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would increase terror
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and possibly put their
country in mortal danger.
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The Palestinian conflict is
always there in the background,
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but no one expects much
to change anytime soon.
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So what do left and right mean anymore?
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The truth is, it's difficult to say.
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In Israel, you can be pro-gay rights
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and for stricter environmental protections
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and still identify as right wing.
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You can also be pro-free market
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and still identify as left wing.
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Because these labels
were historically defined
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by where you stand on
the Palestinian conflict
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even if it's not the top
electoral issue anymore.
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And the last few election cycles
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were largely about one thing.
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This man.
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He is now on trial facing three
separate corruption charges.
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The center, left, and even some
of Netanyahu's former allies
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on the right say it's unthinkable
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for a criminal defendant
to run the country.
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Many of Netanyahu's rivals
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from across the political spectrum
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say no one should be prime
minister for this long anyway,
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even though there are
currently no term limits.
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But Netanyahu's supporters believe
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he's the only man who can lead Israel,
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keep it safe from its enemies,
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and make peace with the Arab world.
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And frankly, he's been
prime minister for so long
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that many Israelis have
forgotten what it's like
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to have anyone else in charge.
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Nowadays, it's become
more about pro-Netanyahu
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and anti-Netanyahu blocs and
less about left and right.
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And when the results last
came in on election night,
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that's how the news channels
broke down the results.
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Netanyahu, in an alliance with the Haredim
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and the right-wing religious nationalists
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versus the opposition,
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a divided bunch of
centrists, social democrats,
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Arab parties, secular nationalists,
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and even some right-wing
parties hoping to replace him.
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Each with their own candidate.
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Everyone wants to be king.
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But things really were much easier
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when Israel had just 12 tribes.
