Israeli Elections 101

     As many of you know, Israel will be having elections in a few months. In my Jewish History class yesterday I explained the differences between American and Israeli politics and outlined some of Israel's major parties. Israel, like many countries around the world, has a parliamentary system. Each voter chooses a party, rather than a candidate, and then the winner must form a coalition to govern. So, for example, if Netanyahu's Likud party wins and gets 40 out of the 120 seats in the Knesset (which would be a HUGE victory) he has to then find partners with at least 21 seats (totaling 61, more than half of the 120 seat Knesset) to form a coalition.
     In American politics there are two general sorts of issues: social issues (abortion, gay rights, etc.) and government/economic issues (how much taxes should the government collect and from whom and what sort of services should the government provide and to whom). In Israeli politics we rarely talk about issues like abortion, gay rights or the death penalty and it's only recently that we've begun talking seriously about economic issues, such as the high cost of living and the widening inequality. Instead, we talk about security/national issues (should there be a two state solution?) and religious issues (the education system, whether there should be buses on shabbat, etc.). In the US, with a two party system, both parties almost always address all of the major issues (e.g. most Democrats are pro-choice and think the government should provide or finance services like preschool and health care). In Israel, because of the political system, some parties focus on a narrow range of issues.
     There are two parties that have provided the vast majority of Prime Ministers (ie won elections): Avodah (Labor) and Likud. These two parties are the closest analogy to Republicans (Likud) and Democrats (Labor), though there are significant differences. As the two biggest parties they tend to have meaningful positions on all major issues, with Labor representing the Israeli left and Likud representing the Israeli right. It seems likely that they will be the two biggest parties after these elections as well.
     There are also a number of smaller parties that tend to have narrower focuses. הבית היהודי (HaBayit HaYehudi, the Jewish Home), led by Naftali Bennett, represents a group that is often referred to as National Religious. These are religious Jews (meaning they follow the mitzvot-the commandments) but live in the modern world (they have normal jobs, serve in the army, etc.). His party is very right wing on security/national issues (Bennett would like to annex 60% of the West Bank right now), right wing but somewhat reasonable on religious issues (they want Israel to be actively Jewish, but, as I mentioned, they also recognize the need to be a part of the modern world) and relatively centrist on economic issues.
     ישראל ביתינו (Yisrael Beiteinu, Israel Our Home) is led by Avigdor Lieberman, and is mostly supported by Russian immigrants, over a million of whom have made aliyah (moved to Israel and become citizens) in the last 20+ years. They are very right wing on security/national issues (suggesting, for example, a massive population transfer of Arab citizens of Israel), but very left wing on religious issues. The vast majority of the Russian immigrants are not religious Jews and many of them, like me, aren't officially Jewish because they don't have Jewish mothers (those of us who fit that definition get all of the normal rights of citizenship, but can't do certain things like get married). They have been a major party for the last several years (they formed an alliance with Likud prior to the previous elections), but are currently involved in a corruption scandal that could affect them in the upcoming elections.
     The ultra-orthodox have a number of parties, such as Shas (historically Sephardic or Mizrahi Jews) and United Torah Judaism (historically Ashkenazi). These parties are very right wing about religious matters (being allowed to have their own ultra-orthodox education system, allowing ultra-orthodox men to continue to study rather than join the army or get jobs, etc.) and don't really care much about anything else. Because of their narrow interests these parties have almost always been a part of the governing coalition, since a major party like Labor or Likud can get support for its wide variety of issues in exchange for allowing the ultra-orthodox a monopoly on religious matters. As you can imagine, this is very frustrating for a liberal Jew like me, who finds it problematic that these ultra-orthodox Jews don't serve in the army or get  jobs, use my tax money to support themselves and their institutions and tell me that I'm not Jewish and don't allow me to get married. Most non-religious Israelis (again, non-religious meaning that they don't follow the mitzvot), if asked to describe the ultra-orthodox, would be hard-pressed to do so without using a long string of curses.
     There is also a trend in Israeli politics that new parties arise every few years and try to capture the Israeli center. In today's political landscape there are two main parties that fit this description. The first, which came out of nowhere to win 19 seats (the second most) in the previous elections, is יש עתיד (Yesh Atid, there is a future), led by Yair Lapid. They tend to be relatively centrist (maybe a teeny bit to the right) about national/security issues (they're prepared to talk about a Palestinian state, but would emphasize security and maintaining the large Jewish settlement blocs), left wing about religious stuff (one of their main issues was encouraging the ultra-orthodox both legally and informally to join the army and the work force) and center/left about economic stuff. When I mentioned earlier that we've only recently begun to focus on economic issues in Israeli elections that is partially due to Yesh Atid, who made improving the economic situation of the middle class its principal issue, which is very unusual for Israeli politics (Here's their website). There's also a new party in these elections, כולנו (Kulanu, All of Us), led by Moshe Kahlon, who became famous for helping lower the outrageous cell phone costs in Israel, which has a similar platform. Their list of candidates includes Michael Oren, a well-known historian who recently was Israel's ambassador to the US.
     On the left wing of Israeli politics, which has been marginalized since the failure of the Oslo Accords and the violence that has been ongoing for the past 15 years, is Meretz. They support complete separation of church and state, "vehemently oppose the occupation" (according to their website) and support left-wing economic policies. There are also a number of Arab parties who may join together in the upcoming elections due to changes in the minimum number of votes required to be in the Knesset.
     It seems (at least right now) like the vote will be a close race between Likud and Labor. There are lots of Israelis who are sick of Netanyahu and are likely to vote for any party they think has a chance of beating him. On the other hand, Netanyahu has proven himself to be an extraordinary politician, so I wouldn't want to bet against him. Even if Labor gets the most votes, they're likely to have trouble forming a coalition, since it's unlikely (though not impossible) that they'd be able to form a coalition with the ultra-orthodox (Shas and UTJ), the National Religious (The Jewish Home) or the secular mostly Russian party (Yisrael Beiteinu). But, honestly, it's impossible to know.
     Which sort of issues do you think are the most important? How are Israeli and American politics different, and what does that say about Israel? Who would you vote for and why?