On Tuesdays We Vote

After only a little over two months in this country I've already taken part in one of it's most amazing aspects—it's democratic process. Some fun facts about Israeli Democracy:
-Israel votes on a Tuesday because in the book of Genesis it is written twice on Tuesday (the 3rd day) that "this was good".
-This is going to be Israel's 20th Knesset (name for the Israeli Parliament)
-Israel has had one female Prime Minister—Golda Meir from 1969-1974
-The Israeli Parliament has 120 seats and a party must get at least 3.25% to sit in the Knesset
-On voting day you go to your polling place, are given a little blue envelope and are invited to go behind a little blue booth. Behind the booth are a selection of little slips of papers, each with the symbol of the participating parties. You choose one slip, seal the envelope and drop it in a blue box.

The election system here is much different than in the US because the style of government is different. Israel has a single chamber parliamentary system, with a Prime Minister (PM) and many more parties than the US. Essentially how it works is you get to vote for a single party. Each party then has a list of people who will sit in the Knesset (name for Israeli Parliament) depending on the percentage of votes they get. For example, Israel's current PM Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, is part of the Likkud party, the party with the highest percentage of seats in the latest Knesset.

The PM is not necessarily the head of the party with the most seats, although they have always been. Once the elections are over each of the parties who qualified to sit in the Knesset go to the President and recommend who they think should be the PM. The President then appoints the PM and gives him/her a time limit to create a coalition. The purpose of the coalition is for the sitting government to function. In the US we have 2 parties, one is always the majority and the other the minority. One needs 61+ seats in the Knesset to have a majority and it is nearly impossible for any single party to receive this high number of seats. Thus, the appointed PM must invite different parties to be part of what is called "the coalition" (essentially the majority party).

The system is a bit complicated to understand initially, so you can imagine how difficult it is to choose who you want to vote for. Do you vote for a larger party in order to influence who will likely become the next Prime Minister? Or do you vote for a smaller, fringe party because you want them to have a significant presence in the coalition? Will the party you want to vote for likely make it into a coalition led by a given PM? So many questions. On one hand the dynamic nature of the Israeli Political systems makes it engaging and fun, but it also makes it challenging to know what choices to make. I personally enjoy it very much and feel so privileged to participate in the only Jewish Democracy in the world! If you're interested in who I voted for and why, feel free to ask me!

We the people...

"...it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions..." — Israeli Declaration of Independence, 14 May 1948

Last Tuesday I had the privilege of visiting the Israeli Knesset. The Knesset is Israel's parliament. They are housed in an amazingly beautiful building in Jerusalem. A friend of mine, Avi Mayer (whom some of you might know from his twitter fame or from his talk at the #IsraeliAmazing kick-off event), was participating in a meeting with the Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Committee to discuss the need for more coordinated public diplomacy between NGO's and the Israeli Government. Although the entire meeting was in Hebrew, I was able to understand quite a bit of what they were speaking about. I really wish I were able to understand it entirely because many comments made were directly related to the advocacy I do on campus! Avi even gave me a little shout out! (For those of you who are interested, and speak Hebrew, here is a video of the entire meeting. Avi's comments begin at 35:56 and my shout out is at 40:49. For those of you who don't speak Hebrew, or don't want to watch the video, here is a Jpost article about it.) Of course, being the Israel nerd that I am, I got really excited seeing members of Knesset walking in the same halls as me. I really enjoyed getting to witness a piece of Israeli democracy first hand. It is interesting to think about the fact that not everyone in the world gets to experience democracy. Not everyone has the right to choose to participate civically in society, or to choose who will represent them in that arena. 

We also briefly visited the Jewish Agency offices where a lot of really great work is being done for Israel and Jews around the world. I got to see Natan Sharanksy's office (unfortunately he was out so I wasn't able to meet with him), where Ben Gurion's office was and where Knesset used to meet. The visit really made me think about what I want to be doing with my future. The more I see/do/learn the more sure I become that my future career will have to be Israel related. And more than that; I have to be doing something constructive for Israel. I'm not even nearly 100% sure what that will eventually be, but there are many choices available to me.