GOVERNMENT
Israel
is a parliamentary democracy. Its governmental system is based
on several basic laws enacted by its unicameral parliament, the
Knesset. The president (chief of state) is elected by the Knesset
for a 5-year term.
The prime
minister (head of government) exercises executive power and has
in the past been selected by the president as the party leader
most able to form a government. Between May 1996 and March 2001,
Israelis voted for the prime minister directly. (The legislation
which required the direct election of the prime minister was rescinded
by the Knesset in March 2001.) The members of the cabinet must
be collectively approved by the Knesset.
The Knesset's
120 members are elected by secret ballot to 4-year terms, although
the prime minister may decide to call for new elections before
the end of the 4-year term. Voting is for party lists rather than
for individual candidates, and the total number of seats assigned
each party reflects that party's percentage of the vote. Successful
Knesset candidates are drawn from the lists in order of party-assigned
rank. Under the present electoral system, all members of the Knesset
are elected at large.
The independent
judicial system includes secular and religious courts. The courts'
right of judicial review of the Knesset's legislation is limited.
Judicial interpretation is restricted to problems of execution
of laws and validity of subsidiary legislation. The highest court
in Israel is the Supreme Court, whose judges are approved by the
President.
Israel
is divided into six districts, administration of which is coordinated
by the Ministry of Interior. The Ministry of Defense is responsible
for the administration of the occupied territories.
POLITICAL
CONDITIONS
From the founding of Israel in 1948 until the election of May
1977, Israel was ruled by successive coalition governments led
by the Labor alignment or its constituent parties. From 1967-70,
the coalition government included all of Israel's parties except
the communist party. After the 1977 election, the Likud bloc,
then composed of Herut, the Liberals, and the smaller La'am Party,
came to power forming a coalition with the National Religious
Party, Agudat Israel, and others. As head of Likud, Menachem Begin
became Prime Minister. The Likud retained power in the succeeding
election in June 1981, and Begin remained Prime Minister. In the
summer of 1983, Begin resigned and was succeeded by his Foreign
Minister, Yitzhak Shamir.
After
losing a Knesset vote of confidence early in 1984, Prime Minister
Shamir was forced to call for new elections, held in July of that
year. The vote was split among numerous parties and provided no
clear winner, leaving both Labor and Likud considerably short
of a Knesset majority. Neither Labor nor Likud was able to gain
enough support from the small parties to form even a narrow coalition.
After several weeks of difficult negotiations, they agreed on
a broadly based government of national unity. The agreement provided
for the rotation of the office of Prime Minister and the combined
office of Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister midway through
the government's 50-month term.
During the first 25 months of unity government rule, Labor's Shimon Peres served as Prime Minister, while Likud's Shamir held the posts of Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, until they switched positions in October 1986. In November 1988 elections, Likud edged Labor out by one seat but was unable to form a coalition, producing another national unity government in January 1989. Yitzhak Shamir became Prime Minister, and Shimon Peres became Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister. This government fell in March 1990, however, in a vote of no confidence precipitated by disagreement over the government's response to U.S. Secretary of State Baker's initiative in the peace process. Labor Party leader Peres was unable to attract sufficient support among the religious parties to form a government. Yitzhak Shamir then formed a Likud-led coalition government, including members from religious and right-wing parties.
Shamir's
government took office in June 1990, and held power for 2 years.
In the June 1992 national elections, the Labor Party reversed
its electoral fortunes, taking 44 seats. Labor Party leader Yitzhak
Rabin formed a coalition with Meretz (a group of three leftist
parties) and Shas (an ultra-Orthodox religious party). The coalition
included the support of two Arab-majority parties. Rabin became
Prime Minister in July 1992. Shas subsequently left the coalition,
leaving Rabin with a minority government dependent on the votes
of Arab parties in the Knesset.
Rabin
was assassinated by a right-wing Jewish radical on November 4,
1995. Peres, then Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister,
once again became Prime Minister and immediately proceeded to
carry forward the peace policies of the Rabin government and to
implement Israel's Oslo commitments, including military redeployment
in the West Bank and the holding of historic Palestinian elections
on January 20, 1996.
Enjoying
broad public support and anxious to secure his own mandate, Peres
called for early elections after just 3 months in office. (They
would have otherwise been held by the end of October 1996.) In
late February and early March, a series of suicide bombing attacks
by Palestinian terrorists took some 60 Israeli lives, seriously
eroding public support for Peres and raising concerns about the
peace process. Increased fighting in southern Lebanon, which also
brought Katyusha rocket attacks against northern Israel, also
raised tensions and weakened the government politically a month
before the May 29 elections.
In
those elections--the first direct election of a Prime Minister
in Israeli history (a practice now discontinued)--Likud leader
Binyamin Netanyahu won by a narrow margin, having sharply criticized
the government's peace policies for failing to protect Israeli
security. Netanyahu subsequently formed a predominantly right-wing
coalition government publicly committed to pursuing the peace
process, but with an emphasis on security and reciprocity. His
initial coalition included Likud, allied with the Tsomet and Gesher
parties in a single list, three religious parties, and two centrist
parties. The Gesher Party withdrew from the coalition in January
1998. In 1999, facing increasing difficulty passing legislation
and defeating no-confidence motions, Netanyahu dissolved parliament
and called for new elections. This time, the Labor candidate--Ehud
Barak--was victorious. Barak formed a mixed coalition government
of secular and religious parties. Likud served in the opposition.
In May 2000, Barak fulfilled one of his major campaign promises
by withdrawing Israeli forces from Southern Lebanon. However,
by mid-autumn, with the breakdown of the Camp David talks and
the worsening security situation caused by the new intifada, Barak's
coalition was in jeopardy. In December, he resigned as Prime Minister,
precipitating a new prime ministerial election.
In
a special election on February 6, 2001, after a campaign stressing
security and maintaining Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, Likud
leader Ariel Sharon defeated Barak by over 20 percentage points.
As he had promised in his campaign, Sharon formed a broad unity
government that included the Labor and Likud parties, the far-right
parties, some smaller secular parties, and several religious parties.
The unity government collapsed in late 2002, and new elections
were held in January 2003. Sharon again won, and formed a new
government consisting of his own Likud party, the right-wing National
Religious Party and National Union party, and centrist Shinui.
The summer of 2004 saw renewed instability in the government, as disagreement over the Gaza disengagement plan resulted in Sharon's firing two ministers of the National Union Party and accepting the resignation of a third from the National Religious Party in order to secure cabinet approval of the plan (it was endorsed on June 6, 2004). Continuing divisions within the Likud on next steps then prompted Ariel Sharon to leave the party in November 2005 to form the Kadima ("Forward") party and call new elections for March 2006. However, Sharon was unexpectedly incapacitated in January 2006 due to a severe stroke and leadership of Kadima shifted to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who on March 28 led the party to 29 seats in the Knesset. Labor came in second with 19 seats, and Shas and Likud tied with 12. After intensive coalition negotiations, a new, Kadima-led government, with Labor as "senior partner", was sworn in on May 4, 2006.
Principal
Government Officials
President--Shimon Peres
Prime Minister--Ehud Olmert (Kadima)
Foreign Minister--Tzipi Livni (Kadima)
Ambassador to the United States--Sallai Meridor
Ambassador to the United Nations--Dan Gillerman
Israel
maintains an embassy in
the United States at 3514 International Drive NW, Washington DC,
20008 (tel. 202-364-5500). There also are consulates general in
Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York,
Philadelphia, and San Francisco.
Government
Type: Parliamentary democracy.
Independence: May 14, 1948.
Constitution: None, however, the Declaration
of Establishment (1948), the Basic Laws of the parliament (the
Knesset) and the Israeli citizenship law fill many of the functions
of a constitution.
Branches: Executive--president (chief of state);
prime minister (head of government). Legislative--unicameral,
Knesset. Judicial--Supreme Court.
Political parties: Labor, Likud, and various
other secular and religious parties, including some wholly or
predominantly supported by Israel's Arab citizens. A total of
12 parties are represented in the 16th Knesset, elected January
2003. Next election in 2006.
Suffrage: Universal at 18.
