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Israel
Government and Politics
ISRAELI GOVERNMENTAL AND POLITICAL structures stem from certain
premises and institutional arrangements generally associated with
West European parliamentary democracies, East European and Central
European institutions and traditions, and even some Middle Eastern
sociopolitical patterns. These influences were transmitted though
the unique history, political culture, and political institutions
of Israel's formative prestate period and the Middle Eastern environment
in which it is situated. The legitimacy of Israeli society and
the identification by the majority Jewish population with the
state and its institutions rest on several foundations: Zionist
Jewish nationalism, the existence of an outside threat to Israeli
security, Judaism, collectivism, and democracy. These bases are
affected by the Arab/Palestinian-Israeli conflict (hereafter the
Arab-Israeli conflict) and by the pluralist nature of Israeli
society, in which a substantial Arab minority participates in
the country's political system, but has an ambivalent role within
the majority Jewish society (see Minority Groups , ch. 2).
The Israeli political system is characterized by certain West
European democratic arrangements: elected government, multiparty
competition, a high level of voter participation in local and
national elections, an independent judiciary that is the country's
foremost guardian of civil liberties, a vigorous and free press,
and the supremacy of civilian rule. Other features, such as collectivism
and a lack of expension of the liberal component in Israeli politics,
are distinctly East European and Central European in origin. These
features are expressed by the absence of a written constitution
limiting the powers of government and imposing restraints on the
majority to safeguard the rights of individuals, particularly
in matters of civil rights and relations between state and religious
interests. In the late 1980s, increasing disagreement over some
fundamental questions, for instance, the state's territorial boundaries
and the role of religion in the state, led to a breakdown in the
pre-1967 national consensus over such issues. Such disagreement
has resulted in intense ideological polarization as reflected
in electoral and parliamentary stalemates between the two major
political parties--Likud (Union) and the Israel Labor Party (generally
referred to as the Labor Party or simply Labor)-- and their allies.
In July 1984, the political system faced a challenge of unprecedented
magnitude. For the first time in the country's thirty-six-year
postindependence history, neither major party was able to form
a coalition government without the other's equal participation.
The result, the National Unity Government formed in September
1984, represented a milestone in the country's political development.
That development had already undergone an unprecedented shock
in May 1977, when the left-of-center Labor Party was voted out
of office for the first time after nearly half a century of unbroken
political dominance in pre- and post-state Israel. In 1977 a newly
mandated regime was ushered in under Prime Minister Menachem Begin,
who led the right-of-center Likud Bloc and who differed sharply
with the Labor Party over political philosophy and both domestic
and foreign policy. Likud was reconfirmed in power by the 1981
elections, but it suffered an almost irreparable blow with Begin's
resignation in September 1983, which followed a series of failed
policies concerning the 1982 invasion of Lebanon and the domestic
economy. The less charismatic and more cautious Yitzhak Shamir
succeeded Begin. Under the terms of the National Unity Government,
established in September 1984, the leader of the Labor Party,
Shimon Peres, was entrusted with the formation of a government
with himself as prime minister, on the written understanding that
he would relinquish the prime ministership in two years' time--halfway
through the parliamentary term--to his designated "vice prime
minister" (or vice premier) Shamir. The next elections to the
Knesset (parliament--see Glossary) were held in November 1988;
by reproducing the same inconclusive electoral results as in 1984,
they led to the formation of a second Likud-and-Labor-led National
Unity Government, except that this time Labor joined as a junior
partner. Following a period of protracted coalition bargaining,
Shamir was reinstated as prime minister, with Peres moving from
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of Finance. Moshe
Arens, a former Likud minister of defense and a Shamir ally, was
appointed minister of foreign affairs, and Labor's Yitzhak Rabin
became minister of defense.
From 1984 to 1988, the National Unity Government acted as a joint
executive committee of Labor and Likud. Under its direction, the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) withdrew to an Israeli-dominated security
zone in southern Lebanon; Israel's runaway inflation, which had
plagued the economy under previous Likud rule, was curbed; and
divisive political debates on major national issues were, to some
extent, subdued (see The Economic Stabilization Program of July
1985 , ch. 3). Nevertheless, on major issues such as participation
in United States-sponsored peace initiatives to resolve the Arab-Israeli
conflict, the exchange of "land for peace," and the political
future of the West Bank (see Glossary) and Gaza Strip territories,
unity between Labor and Likud was lacking. The unity cabinet became
deadlocked as each partner continuously strove to advance its
own foreign policy agenda. In the latter half of the unity government's
term, from 1986 to 1988, consensus on domestic issues disintegrated
as the parties prepared for the 1988 Knesset elections. For the
most part, this breakdown in consensus continued following the
elections; although the United States began a dialogue with the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the government continued
to preserve the status quo on security issues.
Data as of December 1988
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