Israelis went to the polls this week to vote for a new government. The results showed a decline in support for the party of prime minister Netanyahu although his Likud party remained, by far, the largest party in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. After all the campaigning, the makeup of the new government is unlikely to be substantially different than the old one. In the usual Israeli fashion, the next few weeks will see jockeying among the possible coalition partners of the Likud to see which of the other parties will get the most important ministerial posts and what goals will be named as the official policies and goals of the new coalition.
Interestingly for Americans, the biggest issue in forming the new government is likely to be the treatment of ultra orthodox men and women with regard to military service. Few Americans care much about how Israel resolves that issue; indeed, few Americans even know that the issue exists. To Americans, the big issue for the Israelis is the possibility of peace with the Palestinians. Not so to the Israelis. There were, to be sure, differing points of view as to how to proceed to gain peace, but there was nothing among the main parties that could be called a major difference. Even with regard to economics, there were no large differences among the main winners of the election. Israel has had the fastest growing economy in the West for the last few years. The proponents of the old Israeli socialist model, a group that ruled in Israel for the first 30 years of the existence of that state, did not even get a quarter of the votes. This means that the remnants of the statist society that the socialists created will continue to be unwound in the next five years.
Perhaps the most important international issue facing Israel is the nuclear ambitions of Iran. The election did little to clarify just how the Jewish state will react to the continuing Iranian program. All we know is that something has to happen one way or the other in the next year.
Interestingly for Americans, the biggest issue in forming the new government is likely to be the treatment of ultra orthodox men and women with regard to military service. Few Americans care much about how Israel resolves that issue; indeed, few Americans even know that the issue exists. To Americans, the big issue for the Israelis is the possibility of peace with the Palestinians. Not so to the Israelis. There were, to be sure, differing points of view as to how to proceed to gain peace, but there was nothing among the main parties that could be called a major difference. Even with regard to economics, there were no large differences among the main winners of the election. Israel has had the fastest growing economy in the West for the last few years. The proponents of the old Israeli socialist model, a group that ruled in Israel for the first 30 years of the existence of that state, did not even get a quarter of the votes. This means that the remnants of the statist society that the socialists created will continue to be unwound in the next five years.
Perhaps the most important international issue facing Israel is the nuclear ambitions of Iran. The election did little to clarify just how the Jewish state will react to the continuing Iranian program. All we know is that something has to happen one way or the other in the next year.
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