Insanity and Israel’s Electoral System |
As election season heats up, familiar patterns are once again repeating themselves, and the Israeli public is becoming increasingly disillusioned and despairing. It’s clear why. The Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text defines insanity as “repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.” Israel’s electoral system is insane.
Israel is not suffering temporary political crises or episodic political dysfunction. It is suffering from a failed governmental system, which lies at the root of so many of the severe issues it faces: repeated elections, disproportionately empowered narrow sectoral interests, and extortionist coalitions that hold national policy hostage. Politics has become a zero-sum game marked by tribal confrontation and chronic inability to make and sustain long-term policy, even on matters of security. Critical decisions are delayed, diluted, or avoided altogether. Rather than serving as it should as an independent check on the executive branch, the Knesset functions largely as an extension of it. It is therefore no surprise that we have a hyperactivist Supreme Court that involves itself in operational details of the executive branch. Residents of the country’s fringes and many segments of the population wherever they reside feel that no one cares about what they are going through—including violence.
These phenomena are not accidents. They are the direct results of how Israel elects........