At 5:15 p.m. yesterday, students gathered in the Mayer Campus Center's large conference room for what was billed as "an interactive lecture" aimed at broadening their understanding of the upcoming Mar. 28 Israeli elections.
"We will try to learn a little bit about the Israeli political system," said the lecture's leader, Oded Peles of the Melitz Centers for Jewish-Zionist Education.
Peles, who described Melitz as an organization that "works with Israelis of all ages [who are] dealing with [their] Jewish identities," said that public relations for the Israeli campaigns will begin in Israel next week.
According to Peles, there is "absolutely no comparison" between American elections and Israeli elections. In Israel, a political party must receive at least two percent of the total vote to be elected to a seat on the Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset.
Votes are registered for a party-endorsed list of candidates, rather than for individuals. The candidate who ranks first on the list is the first chosen.
Knesset elections occur every four years. During a two-week period after elections, the party that garnered the most votes attempts to form a coalition with other parties containing at least 61 seats. If a party can successfully form a coalition, its government will more effectively pass laws.
In order to get other parties to go along with a coalition, however, the winning party must make concessions - such as cabinet positions - to the others.
Peles' talk involved a game where the students simulated Israeli politics. He assigned each student a different political party and passed out pages with descriptions of the parties' histories and platforms.
Though the exercise utilized nine parties, Peles said that 31 actually exist in Israel - including a party for taxi drivers, a party for the elderly and a party for the legalization of certain drugs.
Peles then distributed pictures of Israeli politicians to the students according to their respective parties. Some of the students stood up, presented their assigned party's platform and tried to convince others in the room to vote for their party.
But the game was often interrupted to discuss various issues involving the elections. Such issues included Menachem Begin's election as prime minister in 1977 and Shimon Peres' apparent inability to win an election.
According to Peles, Begin's election - which marked the first time the Likud party elected a prime minister over Israel's other main party, the Labor Party - "changed the entire political situation in Israel."
When Peres was brought up, one student referred to him as "the man who never wins an election."
"We actually just call him a loser," Peles responded.
Most of the student discussion was centered on Israel's status as both a Jewish state and a democracy. Junior Dan McDermott argued that Israel does not provide equal rights for all of its citizens, as liberal democracies ideally should. He illustrated this by pointing out that Arab-Israelis are often differentiated from other Israelis.
"There's still the [urge] to say... Arab-Israeli," McDermott said.
Peles, on the other hand, argued that the leaders of the Likud Party, which is traditionally associated with less cooperative policies with Palestinians than those of the Labor party, still believe in full equal rights for all Israeli citizens.
McDermott, who previously lived in Jordan, also brought up the point that some Israeli political parties are advocates of "transfer."
In a New York Times editorial published on Jan. 6, 2003, David Newman wrote that "'transfer,' a code word for the expulsion of the Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza," was supported on television by Baruch Marzel, a former candidate from the extreme right-wing political party Kach.
Israel, however, outlawed Kach in 1994 after a Kach supporter shot and killed Muslim worshipers at a West Bank mosque.
"Everybody has the right to put together a party," Peles responded. "I think [Israel] sometimes is too democratic."
When Peles discussed current issues, he said that acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had never been popular as mayor of Jerusalem.
"Sometimes it's a bit funny for us to accept him as a prime minister," he said.
Peles added that although polls have shown signs of widespread support for the new political party, Kadima, it still has yet to be actually elected to the Knesset.
"It still needs to be proven," Peles said, adding that he found it amazing that leaders from Israel's rival parties, Likud's Ariel Sharon and Labor's Shimon Peres, joined to form a middle-of-the-road party like Kadima.
The session concluded when Peles handed out simulated results of the election and asked students to create a coalition based to the results.
This exercise, he said, was meant to illustrate how difficult it is for an Israeli government to function after elections, since it has to incorporate many small political parties.
"This is why you want bigger parties," Peles said.
The event was organized by Friends of Israel President Samantha Goldman, as well as Friends of Israel members Aaron Rothstein and Neil DiBiase.
