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P A R T I E S
Brit Olam
Da'am (ODA)
Gil/Gimlaim (Age)
Green Leaf
Green
Hadash
Herut (Freedom)
Hetz (Secular Faction)
Ichud Leumi-Mafdal (National Unity-National Religious Party)
Kadima
Labor-Meimad (Avoda)
Lechem
Leeder
Lev
Likud
Meretz-Yachad
National Arab Party
National Democratic Assembly (Balad)
National Jewish Front (Hazit Yehudit Leumit)
New Zionism
One Future (Atid Ehad)
Party for the Struggle With the Banks
Shas
Shinui
Strength to the Poor
Tafnit
Torah and Shabbat Judaism (Agudat Yisrael / Degel HaTorah)
Tzedek Lakol
Tzomet
United Arab List / Arab Renewal
Yisrael Beitenu (Israel is our Home)
Prepared for
Temple Shaaray Tefila --- March 12, 2006
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| ( Preliminary election results ) |
Brit Olam
Da'am (ODA)
- Arab communist party.
- ``We seek to advance a new alternative that will replace (1) the do-nothing Arab leadership inside Israel, (2) the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has integrated the Palestinian national movement into the American system, and (3) the Islamic current, which seeks to lead the Arab masses toward a dead end of otherworldly extremism.'' (Source: Odaction.org.)
Gil/Gimlaim (Age)
- Promotes rights for the retired.
Green Leaf
- Marijuana party.
- Also advocates legalization of same-sex marriages.
- Slogan in English: Am Yisrael High.
- Predicted to win 1--2 seats in 17th Knesset. (Sources: Maagar Mochot / Israel Radio, March 8, 2006; Dialog / HaAretz, March 8, 2006.)
Green
- Green party. Environmentalists.
- Position: ``About the Party: Green Politics is connected to all of us in Israel, regardless of differences in religion, race, age, or sex. Green politics determines our ability to control our lives and to be enabled to set our own future before us as a healthy community. Every person will be given the opportunity to take an active part in this community through cooperation, not through destruction and manipulation.'' (Source: Green-party.org.il; trans. JMH.)
Hadash --- 2 Current Seats
- Communist party.
- Officially an anti-war Israel-Palestine coexistence party.
- Position: ``Hadash [is] a Jewish-Arab movement with rich experience in the field of political and social struggle. Joining Hadash are the Israeli communist party, local concerns, community groups, and Jewish and Arab people.'' (Source: Hadash.org.il; trans. JMH.)
- Partial list of goals: ``Achieving a just Israel-Palestine and Israel-Arab peace; defending matters relating to workers and their rights.'' (Source: ibid.)
- Partial financial list of goals: ``A 50% decrease in military expenditures and an end to expenditures in the settlements; a decrease in the [national] bank lending rate to 3%; ending the income tax reduction for the rich.'' (Source: ibid.)
- ``The name adopted by the New Communist List (Rakach) toward the end of the Ninth Knesset, after the party outside the Knesset was joined by part of the Black Panthers and other left-wing non-communist groups. Hadash, which is a Jewish and Arab party, ran for the Tenth, Thirteenth and Fifteenth Knessets under this name. In elections for the Eleventh, Twelfth, Fourteenth and Sixteenth Knessets, Hadash ran under joint names together with other parties. From its inception Hadash advocated a complete Israeli withdrawal from the territories [occupied] in 1967, recognition of the PLO and the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, in addition to full equality for Israel's Arab citizens.'' (Source: Knesset.gov.il.)
Herut (Freedom)
- Nationalist party.
- Full name: ``Herut (freedom) --- the national movement''
- Hebrew Slogan: ``Returning a voice to the right.''
- Position: ``Freedom --- the national movement continues [to support] the vision of the complete Land of Israel which was promised to our fathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by our Father in Heaven. A united Jerusalem is the eternal Israeli capital.'' (Source: Herut.org.il; trans. JMH.)
- Other major concerns: ``The demographic problem [of Jews maintaining a majority]: [...] The movement will work to increase awareness of the demographic problem which derives from the double allegiance of most of Israel's Arabs.'' (Source: ibid.)
- One list member is ``now serving a sentence for allegedly shooting an Arab in the leg in self-defense.'' (Source: English section of herut.org.il; the information does not appear in the Hebrew section.)
- ``A parliamentary group that was formed by MK Ze'ev Binyamin Begin together with two other MKs who broke away with him from the Likud, toward the end of the Fourteenth Knesset. In the elections for the Fifteenth Knesset, Herut ran within the framework of the Ichud Hale'umi list. At the beginning of the Fifteenth Knesset, MK Michael Kleiner formed a single-member parliamentary group by this name after the Ichud Hale'umi merged with Yisrael Beitenu, and he remained outside the union.'' (Source: Knesset.gov.il.)
Hetz (Secular Faction) --- 9 Current Seats
- Zionist secular party. Split off from Shinui.
- Position: ``Hetz is a movement that is democratic, liberal, secular, and Zionist. We believe in people, in their freedom, in their honor, and in their equality.'' (Source: Hetz.org.il; trans. JMH.)
- On religion: ``The nation in Israel is the only and absolute sovereign of the State. Hetz strives for separation of religion and state [``Church and State''] through the preservation of Israel's Zionist character.'' (Source: ibid.)
- On peace: ``Hetz supports the peace process, but stopping the terror is a condition of progress in the national negotiations.'' (Source: ibid.)
- On military service: ``Every physically and mentally healthy Israeli young man and woman must serve equal time in the IDF under equal conditions. [JMH: Currently, religious students need not serve in the army.]'' (Source: ibid.)
- Hetz also actively supports the creation of a national constitution, to augment the ``basic law'' currently in place.
- ``Toward the end of the Sixteenth Knesset, the Shinui parliamentary group split: Three members remained in Shinui, and 11 formed this new parliamentary group, the Secular Faction.'' (Source: Knesset.gov.il)
Ichud Leumi-Mafdal (National Unity-National Religious
-
Party) --- 9 Current Seats
- Nationalist Zionist religious party.
- Predicted to retain its 9 seats in 17th Knesset. (Sources: Maagar Mochot / Israel Radio; March 8, 2006; Dialog / HaAretz, March 8, 2006.)
- ``We believe in the natural right (and obligation) of Am Yisrael to settle all parts of the Land of Israel. Many of us are fulfilling this Halakha and have settled with their families in Judah and Shomron [JMH: ``territories''].... [But] our belief in the need to settle the Land of Israel doesn't distinguish between Hevron, Tiberias, Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.'' (Source: Tribalddb.co.il/work/leumi; trans. JMH.)
- `` `Aren't you the radical right?' `The radical right' is a notion that was invented for propaganda and public-relations purposes by those who want to see traditional Zionist and Jewish values disappear from the world.'' (Source: ibid.)
- `` `You're not a real religious party. I'm voting for Shas or Agudat Yisrael!' We believe that [our party] is an viable alternative for ultra-Orthodox [voters] who are disgusted by the corruption that has permeated the big ultra-Orthodox parties.
- ``[Ichud Leumi is a] right-wing list formed toward the elections for the Fifteenth Knesset, when Moledet, Herut, and Tekuma decided to [unite] forces. The list won four seats. During the first year of the Fifteenth Knesset, the parliamentary group united with Yisrael Beteinu. One of its members --- MK Michael Kleiner --- remained outside the new parliamentary group.'' (Source: Knesset.gov.il)
- ``[Mafdal is a] national religious party established in 1956, when the Mizrahi and Hapo'el Mizrahi united. In the elections for the Fourth to Tenth Knessets, the NRP ran for the Knesset under the name ``National Religious Front.'' The NRP was a member of most of the governments of Israel. Until the Six Day War in 1967, the political views of the NRP were considered moderate. Following the war, the nationalistic views of the party strengthened, especially following the formation of the Gush Emunim Movement in 1974, and the rise of a young generation of leaders.'' (Source: Knesset.gov.il)
Kadima --- 14 Current Seats
- New centrist party. Current leader in poles.
- Founded by Ariel Sharon (who is still its titular head).
- Led by Ehud Olmert.
- Predicted to win approx. 35--37 seats in 17th Knesset. (Sources: Maagar Mochot / Israel Radio; March 8, 2006; Dialog / HaAretz, March 8, 2006.)
- Basic assumptions: ``Am Yisrael has the national and historic right to the entire Land of Israel. In order to fulfill our ultimate objective --- Jewish sovereignty in a democratic nation that constitutes a safe national home to Am Yisrael --- we need a Jewish majority in the Land of Israel. The conflict between the desire to let any Jew live in any part of the Land of Israel and the existence of the Land of Israel as a national Jewish home forces [us] to give up part of the Land of Israel. Giving up part of the Land of Israel is not giving up our ideology, but rather fulfilling our ideology that strives toward guaranteeing the existence of a Jewish democratic state in the Land of Israel.'' (Source: Kadimasharon.co.il; trans. JMH.)
- ``Towards the end of the 16th Knesset, a new parliamentary group, [Acharayut] Leumit (which means ``National Responsibility'') split off from the Likud. Approximately two months later, Acharayut Leumit changed its name to ``Kadima,'' the name of its parallel political party outside of the Knesset.'' (Source: Knesset.gov.il)
Labor-Meimad (Avoda) --- 21 Current Seats
- Center-left.
- Led by Amir Peretz.
- Predicted to win approx. 19 seats in 17th Knesset. (Sources: Maagar Mochot / Israel Radio; March 8, 2006; Dialog / HaAretz, March 8, 2006.)
- Historically the leader of the left.
- Important Issues: ``The State of Israel is a Jewish state, the national home [or ``a national home''] for any and all Jews. The challenge standing before Israeli society is to accelerate the processes of economic growth and blossoming while dividing their fruit fairly among the entire population. A government led by Labor will work for renewing national negotiations that will take place amid a determined struggle against violence and terror, completion of the security fence within one year. The Labor party will lead the way in moving from narrowing [educational and societal] gaps to eliminating the gaps. [We] will work toward fair relations between the religious and the secular.'' (Source: Avoda2006.org.il; trans. JMH.)
- ``A parliamentary group formed in the course of the Fifteenth Knesset, after Gesher left One Israel (2) and included the Labor Party and Meimad (a moderate religious party, that never ran independently in Knesset elections). Labor-Meimad ran by this name in the elections for the Sixteenth Knesset.'' (Source: Knesset.gov.il)
Lechem
- Religious party.
Leeder
- Russian party.
Lev
- ``A parliamentary group that existed for several minutes during the Fifteenth Knesset. MKs Roni Milo and Yechiel Lasry left the Center Party and formed Halev which immediately joined the Likud.'' (Source: Knesset.gov.il)
Likud --- 27 Current Seats
- Center-right party.
- Currently in control of government.
- Traces its roots to Ariel Sharon. Prime Minister Sharon left the party, largely over disagreements regarding Sharon's disengagement program.
- Currently led by Benjamin Netanyahu, former Prime Minister.
- Predicted to win 17 seats in 17th Knesset. (Sources: Maagar Mochot / Israel Radio, March 8, 2006; Dialog / HaAretz, March 8, 2006.)
- Historically the leader of the right.
- Summary of Likud Policies: ``No unilateral withdrawals. No strengthening of the terror organizations. No negotiating with the Palestinians until they fully acknowledge Israel's right to exist and there is a full cessation of terror and incitement; any future negotiations will be on a reciprocal basis only. No withdrawal from the Golan Heights. Completion of the security fence.... A united Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. A more active and centralized international Hasbara [JMH: public relations] campaign. Reduce the V.A.T. [JMH: ``value added tax,'' or sales tax] from 16.5% to 14%. Reduce corporate tax to 20% [JMH: from 31%, reduced in January 2006 from 34%]. Reduce the marginal rate of tax per individual to 40% [JMH: from 49%]. (Source: English section of likud.org.il.)
- ``A list established toward the elections for the Eighth Knesset, which was made up at its inception by the Herut Movement, the Liberal Party, the Free Center, the National List, and Greater Israel Activists. After the Herut Movement had, for many years, constituted the Right-wing marker of the Israeli political spectrum, the orientation of the new list was that of moderate Right in the political arena, and free market in the economic sphere. Over the years, the makeup of the Likud list changed, but its two central components remained the Herut Movement and the Liberal Party. In 1988, the Herut Movement and Liberal Party merged into a single party called the Likud. Menachem Begin was the leader of the Likud until 1983, in the years 1983-93 Yitzhak Shamir, 1993-99 Binyamin Netanyahu, and since 1999 Ariel Sharon.'' (Source: Knesset.gov.il)
Meretz-Yachad --- 6 Current Seats
- Anti-occupation center-left social-democratic party.
- Predicted to win 4 seats in 17th Knesset. (Sources: Maagar Mochot / Israel Radio, March 8, 2006; Dialog / HaAretz, March 8, 2006.)
National Arab Party
- Arab party.
National Democratic Assembly (Balad) --- 3 Current Seats
- Nationalist Arab party.
- Formed in 1995 in reaction to the 1993 Oslo accords, which the party sees as ``a terrible mistake.'' (Source: Hebrew section of Balad.org; trans. JMH.)
- ``Advocates full equality --- full individual and collective rights --- for Arab citizens in a truly democratic state, as opposed to the ethnic democracy currently characterizing the state of Israel.'' (Source: English section of Balad.org.)
- ``The parliamentary group that was formed by MKs Tawfik Khatib and Mohammed Kanan in the course of the Fifteenth Knesset after they left the United Arab List.'' (Source: Knesset.gov.il)
National Jewish Front (Hazit Yehudit Leumit)
- Religious nationalist Zionist party.
New Zionism
- Advocates rights of Holocaust survivors.
One Future (Atid Ehad)
- Ethiopian immigrant party.
- Two main platforms: ``Wide and multidimensional revolution'' in how education is seen, with ``a great increase in funds'' and ``extending a generous'' hand to the community of those of Ethiopian descent. (Source: Atidechad.org; trans. JMH.)
Party for the Struggle With the Banks
- Bank-reform policy.
- Purportedly advocates consumer rights.
Shas --- 11 Current Seats
- Sephardi Religious Party
- Predicted to win 8-10 seats in 17th Knesset. (Sources: Maagar Mochot / Israel Radio, March 8, 2006; Dialog / HaAretz, March 8, 2006.)
- Name means ``World Union of Sephardi Torah Guardians.''
- Overall platform: ``To restore glory to what has aged. To further societal justice. The Shas movement believes in the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish People, a state founded on the principles of democracy according to the Torah of Israel. The Shas movement strives to gather in all the displaced among Israel in the Diaspora, in order to build a Jewish home in a large and strong Jewish state in all the areas of the Land of Israel.'' (Source: Shasnet.org.il; trans. JMH.)
- Economic platform: Against the ``conservative economic ideology'' of ``globalization, free competition, privatization of social services and [only] minor involvement of the government in markets.'' (Source: Shasnet.org.il; trans. JMH.)
- Arie Deri was the party's political leader until he was jailed after being convicted of bribery and corruption charges.
- ``A Sephardic-Haredi party, whose original name was ``Sephardi Keepers of the Torah,'' that was established toward the elections for the Eleventh Knesset in 1984, as a protest against the peripheral representation of Sephardim within the Agudat Yisrael list. The stated purpose of the party, whose spiritual leader is Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and whose political leader until the Fourteenth Knesset was Arie [Der'i], is to ``return the crown to the former glory,'' and to repair the alleged continued economic and social discrimination against the Sephardic population of Israel. Despite its Rightist political position, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef declared that human life is more important than territories. Shas has been represented in the Knesset by that name from the Eleventh Knesset through the Sixteenth Knessets.'' (Source: Knesset.gov.il)
Shinui --- 2 Current Seats
- Anti-religious-party party. Secular. Centrist.
- Predicted to win 1 seat in 17th Knesset. (Sources: Maagar Mochot / Israel Radio, March 8, 2006; Dialog / HaAretz, March 8, 2006.)
- Platform: ``As a liberal party, Shinui adheres to freedom of religion and freedom from religion, and therefore in separating religions from the State, while maintaining its civic character and its Jewish culture.'' (Source: Shinui.org.il; trans. JMH.)
- ``During the Sixteenth Knesset, the parliamentary group Shinui-the Secular Movement changed its name to Shinui-Party for the Secular and the Middle Class.'' (Source: Knesset.gov.il)
Strength to the Poor
- Socialst.
- Devoted to changing Israel's priorities to better serve those with no voice. (Source: Oz-la.com)
Tafnit
- New anticorruption centrist party.
- General reform party, devoted to: reforming education; increasing religion's role in Israel and bringing Israelis back to Israel; combating corruption. (Source: Tafnit.org)
Torah and Shabbat Judaism (Agudat Yisrael / Degel HaTorah) --- 5 Current Seats
- Ultra-Orthodox Hassidic party.
- Predicted to win 5-6 seats in 17th Knesset. (Sources: Maagar Mochot / Israel Radio, March 8, 2006; Dialog / HaAretz, March 8, 2006.)
- ``Agudat Yisrael, a Haredi-Hassidic party, was established in 1912 in the Diaspora. The famous letter from David Ben-Gurion which set down the guidelines of the religious ``status quo'' was sent to the leaders of Agudat Yisrael in 1947. Agudat Yisrael was represented in all of the Knessets, either as an independent parliamentary, or as part of a larger unified religious bloc. In the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Knessets, Agudat Yisrael entered the Knesset as part of the Yahadut Hatorah Parliamentary Group together with the Degel Hatorah, but prior to the elections of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Knessets, Yahadut Hatorah separated into its two parties for administrative purposes. Agudat Yisrael participated in a number of parliamentary coalitions, but mostly was not represented by ministers in the government. The party is largely sectorial [sic], caring for the welfare of its constituents in areas of educational institutions, housing, welfare services, transfer payments and exemption from military service, and the Jewish-religious character of the State. In the past, Agudat Yisrael was not identified clearly on the Right-Left political spectrum, though since the beginning of the political process in the early 1990's, it is identified with nationalistic positions.'' (Source: Knesset.gov.il)
Tzedek Lakol
- Men's rights.
Tzomet
- Nationalist.
- ``A nationalist party established by MK Rafael Eitan in 1983. Tzomet ran in the elections for the Eleventh Knesset within the framework of the Tehiya-Tzomet, but Eitan broke off from the parliamentary group in 1987 due to ideological and tactical differences of opinion with MK Geula Cohen. Tzomet ran independently in the elections for the Twelfth and Thirteenth Knessets and within the framework of the [Likud]-Gesher-Tzomet in the elections to the Fourteenth Knesset. In the course of the Fourteenth Knesset it once again became an independent parliamentary group. Tzomet ran in the elections for the Fifteenth Knesset but did not pass the qualifying threshold.'' (Source: Knesset.gov.il)
United Arab List / Arab Renewal --- 3 Current Seats
- Islamist.
- ``An Arab party that was established toward the elections to the Fourteenth Knesset [and] ran on a joint list with the Arab Democratic Party and individuals from the Islamic Movement. In the elections for the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Knessets, the list ran independently.'' (Source: Knesset.gov.il)
Yisrael Beitenu (Israel is our Home) --- 3 Current Seats
- Right-wing, mostly Russian, party.
- Predicted to win 8-10 seats in 17th Knesset. (Sources: Maagar Mochot / Israel Radio, March 8, 2006; Dialog / HaAretz, March 8, 2006.)
- Founded by Avigdor Liberman in 1999 as a ``national movement with the clear vision of continuing the brave path of Ze'ev Jabotinsky,'' the party realizes ``three basic principals of Zionism: Aliya [immigration to Israel], defense of the homeland, and settlement.'' (Source: Beytenu.org.il; trans. JMH.)
- ``A nationalist list, made up of new immigrants and old-timers and headed by MK Avigdor Lieberman, that ran in the elections for the Fifteenth Knesset. In the course of the Fifteenth Knesset, Yisrael Beitenu merged with the Ichud Hale'umi, forming the Ichud-Hale'umi-Yisrael Beitenu parliamentary group. In the elections for the Sixteenth Knesset, Yisrael Beitenu was part of the Ichud Haleumi list.'' (Source: Knesset.gov.il)