Before Israel Votes: Do American Jews Really Understand How Israel Elects a Government?

The first in a series explaining Israel’s political system before Israelis go to the polls

American Jews pay a great deal of attention to Israeli politics.

We know the names. Benjamin Netanyahu. Yair Lapid. Naftali Bennett. Itamar Ben-Gvir. Yair Golan. Some American Jews identify passionately with Israel’s right. Others cheer on its left. We follow the polls and read about the latest political crisis.

But as Israel approaches another national election, here is a question worth asking:

How many American Jews actually understand how Israel elects its government?

For most of my life, I viewed Israeli politics through American eyes. That is only natural. We tend to understand another country’s political system by comparing it to the one we know.

The problem is that the American and Israeli systems are fundamentally different.

Start with a basic fact that may surprise some readers: Israelis do not elect members of the Knesset from local districts.

There is no Israeli equivalent of my congressman from New Jersey. There is no MK representing Jerusalem’s German Colony, where I live, or Long Branch, New Jersey, where I spent many years. There are no congressional districts, state delegations or senators.

Israel has one legislative body, the 120-member Knesset, and for parliamentary elections the entire country is one national electoral district.

Think about that.

When Americans vote for a member of the House of Representatives, they choose someone to represent a particular geographic district. A voter in New Jersey cannot vote for a congressional candidate in Florida.

Israel works differently.

When Israelis vote in a national election, they vote for a political party. More precisely, they vote for a party list.

The voter does not place a check next to Netanyahu, Lapid or Bennett.

The voter selects a party.

The candidates who may enter the Knesset have already been placed on that party’s list. Depending on the party, they may have been chosen in a primary, by a party committee or by the party leadership.

A party’s share of the national vote helps determine how many of the Knesset’s 120 seats it receives, subject to rules we will discuss in the next installment.

If a party wins 30 seats, the first 30 eligible candidates on its list generally enter the Knesset. The person sitting at number 31 may be left outside.

That is why Israelis talk about whether a candidate has a “realistic spot” on a party list. To an American ear, that sounds strange. In America, a congressional candidate wins a district or loses it.

In Israel, a candidate can personally receive no votes from the general electorate and still become an MK.

That difference has consequences.

An American member of Congress knows which geographic district sent him or her to Washington. Constituents call about Social Security, veterans’ benefits and local projects. Members maintain district offices and regularly return home to face their voters.

An Israeli MK has no comparable district.

So whom does an MK represent?

Formally, the nation. Politically, the answer can be more complicated.

An MK may feel accountable to the party’s voters, its leadership, an ideological movement or the internal party electorate that helped secure a high position on the list.

This helps explain why party discipline is so important in Israeli politics. An MK’s political future may depend heavily on remaining in a viable position on a party list.

And that is the point of this series.

American Jews have every right to care deeply about Israel. We should follow its debates, worry about its future, and celebrate its successes.

But we should understand the rules before choosing sides.

Too often, Americans read that a party won the “most seats” and assume its leader therefore won the election. That is how we tend to think in the United States: someone wins and someone loses.

In Israel, election night may only be the beginning.

A party can finish first and still fail to form a government. A smaller party can become indispensable. And the number 61 can become more important than the number of seats won by the largest party.

We will get to that.

For now, remember the first lesson:

Israel is not the United States with Hebrew road signs.

If American Jews want to participate intelligently in the great arguments over Israel’s future, we should begin by understanding how Israeli democracy actually works.

Next: When Israelis vote for a party, who exactly are they voting for – and what happens when that party does not receive enough votes to enter the Knesset?