Jewish News continues to gather and present some basic facts to equip readers with the confidence needed to engage in conversation about Israel and antisemitism.
• Israel’s government is a parliamentary democracy and has three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.
• The executive branch is headed by a prime minister who is the coalition leader of the Knesset. After an election, the president of Israel formally asks whichever party leader is most likely to be successful in forming a government to attempt to do just that and piece together a majority coalition. (myjewishlearning.com)
Benjamin Netanyahu owed his victory in the 2022 Israeli elections partly to a change in election rules promoted by his political opponents in 2014. Netanyahu and his allies had a small but clear majority of seats in the Knesset, but they won the popular vote by only a razor-thin margin.
One reason his Knesset majority was bigger than his popular vote victory is that three parties in the outgoing Knesset each got less than 3.25% of the popular vote (raised from 2% in 2014) – so they got no seats in the new parliament.
Another reason Netanyahu won decisively was that two small parties in the anti-Netanyahu camp didn’t join forces with bigger parties. (cnn.com)
• The legislative branch is comprised of the Knesset, which has 120 members. Members are elected to the Israeli legislature via proportional representation. Voters opt for a particular party rather than a specific candidate. Parties are awarded seats in the Knesset based on the proportion of the vote they capture. (myjewishlearning.com)
• 40 parties ran in the 2022 election, of which 13 got more than 0.5% of the popular vote. Some parties represent the interests of specific segments of society — such as religious Jews, Sephardic Jews, or Israeli Arabs — or particular issues, like environmental protection. (cnn.com)