Israeli legislative election, 2006

Elections for the 17th Knesset
Israel
28 March 2006
Party Leader % Seats ±
Kadima Ehud Olmert 22.02% 29 New
Labor Amir Peretz 15.06% 19 0
Shas Eli Yishai 9.53% 12 +1
Likud Benjamin Netanyahu 8.99% 12 -26
Yisrael Beiteinu Avigdor Lieberman 8.99% 11
National Union Benny Elon 7.14% 9 +2
Gil Rafi Eitan 5.92% 7 New
United Torah Judaism Yaakov Litzman 4.69% 6 +1
Meretz Yossi Beilin 3.77% 5 -1
United Arab List Ibrahim Sarsur 3.02% 4 +2
Hadash Mohammad Barakeh 2.74% 3 0
Balad Azmi Bishara 2.30% 3 0
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Prime Minister before Prime Minister after
Ehud Olmert
Kadima		 Ehud Olmert
Kadima

Elections for the 17th Knesset were held in Israel on 28 March 2006. The voting resulted in a plurality of seats for the then-new Kadima party, followed by the Labour Party, and a major loss for the Likud party.

After the election, the government was formed by the Kadima, Labour, Shas, and Gil parties, with the Yisrael Beiteinu party joining the government later. The Prime Minister was Ehud Olmert, leader of Kadima, who had been the acting prime minister going into the election.

According to the Congressional Research Service:

The March 28, 2006, Knesset election results were surprising in many respects. The voter turnout of 63.2% was the lowest ever. The contest was widely viewed as a referendum on Kadima’s plans to disengage from the West Bank, but it also proved to be a vote on economic policies that many believed had harmed the disadvantaged. Kadima came in first, but by a smaller margin than polls had predicted. Labor, emphasizing socioeconomic issues, came in a respectable second. Likud lost 75% of its votes from 2003 because Kadima drained off supporters. Its decline also was due to Netanyahu, whose policies as Finance Minister were blamed for social distress and whose opposition to unilateral disengagement was unpopular with an increasingly pragmatic, non-ideological electorate.[1]

Background

2003 election and later developments

In the 2003 elections, Likud, under the leadership of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, had a convincing win by Israeli standards, winning 38 seats in the 120-member Knesset (parliament), with Sharon perceived as tough anti-terrorist leader on the wings of his 2002 Operation Defensive Shield. Labour, led by Amram Mitzna under slogans for "disengagement" from Gaza, won only 19 seats and did not initially join the new government.

Following the 2003 elections Likud suffered severe divisions over several positions taken by Sharon, most notably his adoption of a plan to withdraw Israeli settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip.[2] This was exactly the position taken by Labour and denounced as being defeatist by Sharon prior to the 2003 elections, so it caused tension within the Likud party and in January 2005 Shimon Peres led Labour into a coalition with Sharon to allow the Gaza withdrawal to proceed despite opposition from a majority of Likud members.

Fall of the Likud-led government

As of the fall of 2005, Peres's Labour Party was providing the votes necessary for the Likud-led 30th Government to maintain its majority support in the Knesset. In Labour's internal leadership election scheduled for early November, Amir Peretz campaigned for the party leadership on a platform that included withdrawing Labor from the Sharon-led coalition. Peretz narrowly defeated Peres in the leadership election on November 9, 2005, and two days later all Labor ministers resigned from the Cabinet and Labour withdrew its support for the Government, leaving it without majority support in the Knesset.

Negotiations between Sharon and Peretz set the election date for 28 March 2006. "I'm letting him [Sharon] choose a date in that period between the end of February and the end of March and whatever date he chooses is acceptable to me, the earlier the better," Peretz said at the time. Sharon said: "As soon as it became clear that the existing political framework was falling apart, I came to the conclusion that the best thing for the country is to hold new elections as soon as possible."

Likud split and the formation of Kadima

The impending elections raised the prospect of a leadership election within Likud, with former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expected to challenge Sharon for the party leadership. In late November, Sharon and a number of other Likud ministers and Knesset members announced that they were leaving Likud to form a new, more centrist party, which was eventually named Kadima. The formation of Kadima turned the election into a three-way race among the new party, Labor and Likud, marking a shift from Israel's tradition of elections dominated by two major parties.

Although Kadima was formed primarily of former Likud members, Peres (having lost the Labor leadership election to Peretz) also announced his support for the new party, and later officially left Labor. Peres cited Sharon's leadership skills as a reason for his party switch.

Polls taken through the end of 2005 showed Sharon's Kadima Party enjoying a commanding lead over both Labor and Likud.

Party leadership and list selections

Sharon, as founder of Kadima and incumbent Prime Minister, was universally expected to lead the new party into the March 2006 election. However, on 4 January 2006, Sharon suffered a haemorrhagic stroke, leaving him in a coma. On 31 January 2006, Kadima submitted its list of candidates, with Sharon excluded from the list due to his inability to sign the necessary documents to be a candidate. Ehud Olmert who had become Acting Prime Minister and acting chairman of Kadima when Sharon became incapacitated, now officially became the new party's candidate for Prime Minister. Peres was placed second on Labor's list of candidates. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was placed third on the Kadima list, with the understanding that she would be the senior Vice Premier if Kadima formed the next government.

In the Shinui primaries, Tel Aviv council member Ron Levintal defeated Avraham Poraz for the number 2 spot. Poraz, a close ally of party leader Yosef Lapid, subsequently resigned from Shinui, as did most Shinui Knesset members, forming a breakaway party called Hetz (ha-Miflaga ha-Hilonit Tzionit or 'the Secular Zionist Party'). Lapid resigned as party leader on 25 January 2006, and Leventhal was subsequently elected the new party leader. Neither Shinui nor Hetz received sufficient votes to win any seats in the 17th Knesset. Shinui had won 15 seats in the 2003 election and was the third largest party in the 16th Knesset.

On 30 January 2006 the right-wing National Union (Halchud HaLeumi), a coalition of three small parties (Moledet, Tkuma, Tzionut Datit Leumit Mitchadeshet), submitted a joint list with the National Religious Party. The merged list is headed by Binyamin Elon. The largely Russian immigrant Israel Beytenu (Israel Our Home) party has separated from National Union and is running a separate list.

This separation occurred following polls that predicted that, when running separately, these two major rightist blocs would receive between 20 to 25 seats (in the previous elections, they had received only 7), and it turned out to be true: the National Union bloc received 9 seats and Israel Beytenu received 11.

Likud selected Netanyahu as its leader, over then-Defense Minister Silvan Shalom. At Netanyahu's insistence, Shalom and the other remaining Likud ministers resigned from the Olmert-led government in January 2006.

Polls conducted from January through March showed Kadima still enjoying a substantial lead, though somewhat reduced from polls taken under Sharon's leadership.

Key issues

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Fighting Palestinian militancy

Main article: Targeted killing

During the al-Aqsa Intifada, more than a thousand Israelis were killed in Palestinian militant attacks. Israel's security policy during that time was focused on arresting or killing members of the militant organizations, through frequent military excursions into the Palestinian territories and (somewhat controversially) targeted killings, and to curb the movement of suspected militants – especially would-be suicide bombers – through the use of checkpoints. This policy won the support of the Jewish mainstream, but elements in the Jewish left, as well as the vast majority of the Arab population, vehemently opposed what they saw as excessive response to the security threat. Some claimed that Israel's policy was in fact encouraging more violence from the Palestinian side. Despite the decrease in violence during 2005 and 2006, or perhaps because of it, popular support for the security policy remained high among the Israeli public, which continued to fear suicide bombings and Qassam rocket attacks.

During the 2006 electoral campaign, the center and right parties vowed to continue the relentless fight against the Palestinian militants. Even Labor, which was traditionally known for its dovish views, put "combating terrorism" at the top of its agenda on the Conflict. Opposition to the current security policy, especially the use of targeted killings and the existence of checkpoints on Palestinian soil, comes mainly from Jewish left parties such as Meretz and from the Arab parties.

Solutions to the conflict

In the wake of the disengagement plan, the political field in Israel split into two roughly distinct groups: those who are in favour of withdrawing from most or all of the West Bank (unofficially nicknamed "Blues"), and those who wish for that area to remain under Israeli control (so-called "Orange"). In particular, Ariel Sharon and his faction left Likud to form Kadima because of their support of ending Israeli control over the West Bank. However, the two groups are also divided internally as to what practical steps need to be taken during the next few years.

Economic and social issues

Peretz Labour campaign billboard in Tel Aviv, "Ki Higi'a Hazman" – Because The Time Has Come

Since Israel's establishment, the political scene has been dominated by security and peace issues. The major parties were mainly divided by the different approaches with regard to the Israeli-Arab and Israeli–Palestinian conflicts.

The 2006 elections mark the first time a major party – the Labor Party – has placed economic and social issues on top of its agenda. This is mainly attributed to Amir Peretz's surprise victory over Shimon Peres in the November 2005 Labour leadership election; Peretz had left the party a few years earlier to form the socialist One Nation, which had only recently merged into Labour.

Labour's social democratic approach, which includes promises to raise the minimum wage and allocate a pension for every worker, now stands in sharp contrast to the neo-liberal agenda promoted by Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu. Serving as Finance Minister from 2003 to 2005, Netanyahu led a policy that encouraged economic growth and lower taxes at the expense of Israel's long-running welfare mechanism. This has alienated him from many Likud supporters, which traditionally hail from the lower and middle classes. In the campaign, Netanyahu claimed to have done this to "save the Israeli economy from collapse."

In addition to Labor, the orthodox religious Shas, which has always claimed to champion the poor in Israeli society, also attacked Netanyahu's policies during the campaign, as did a number of small (and often new) socialist parties.

Israel as a Jewish and democratic state

Relations between Jewish Law (Halacha) and the state

From 1948 to 2003, religious parties played a part in every coalition formed in Israel. Zionist religious parties focused on maintaining the balance between observants and seculars in issues such as education, Kashrut, keeping the Sabbath and matrimonial law, while Haredi parties demanded funds for religious scholars and the continued exemption of their followers from military service (decided on by David Ben-Gurion in 1951.) All of this alienated many secular Israelis, who felt their personal freedoms were being infringed upon and that they were unfairly carrying most of the burden. This led to the rise of Shinui, which at the 2003 elections won 15 out of 120 seats and joined Ariel Sharon's coalition. Shinui failed in making significant changes to the status quo on religious issues, and quit the government in 2005 after Sharon decided to transfer funds to the orthodox United Torah Judaism party. An internal quarrel caused most Knesset members from Shinui to form a new party (Hetz); both parties ran in the 2006 elections, although neither of them received any mandates.

Shinui, Hetz, Meretz, and Ale Yarok wish to promote what they see as key secular and democratic principles:

The various religious parties, both Zionist (National Religious Party) and Haredi (Shas, United Torah Judaism) strictly oppose these changes. They wish to see Israel's Jewish character strengthened through further enforcement of the Sabbath and changes in the educational system.

Relations between Jews and Arabs

Israeli Arabs constitute roughly 20% of the population in Israel. Many Israeli-Arab groups claim continued institutional and social discrimination against them in Israel. Because they are not Jews and many identify ethnically with Palestinians their identity often clashes with their citizenship in the Jewish state. There are large disparities in general living standard and education between Israeli Arabs and the non-Arab Israeli population; they also have a lower participation rate in the workforce. Discrimination and a lower proportion of females in the workforce are often cited as reasons for this.

The Arab parties, the largest of which are the United Arab List, Balad and Hadash (a Jewish-Arab communist party, with mostly Arab composition and electorate), advocate abolition of all forms of ethnic inequality, and the establishment of a democratic bi-national state.

Procedures

Elections to the Knesset allocate 120 seats by party-list proportional representation, using the d'Hondt method. The election threshold for the 2006 election was set at 2% (up from 1.5% in previous elections), which is a little over two seats.

After official results are published, the President of Israel delegates the task of forming a government to the Member of Knesset with the best chance of assembling a majority coalition (usually the leader of the largest party.) That designee has up to 42 days to negotiate with the different parties, and then present his government to the Knesset for a vote of confidence. Once the government is approved (by a vote of at least 61 members), he/she becomes Prime Minister.

List of participating parties

Party Ballot
letters		 Seats
before
election		 Leader Notes
Kadima כן 14 Ehud Olmert Centrist, new party (split from Likud)
Labour-Meimad אמת 21 Amir Peretz Social democratic
Likud מחל 29 Binyamin Netanyahu Conservative
Hetz חץ 9 Avraham Poraz Anti-clerical, liberal, new party (split from Shinui)
Shinui יש 2 Ron Levintal Secular
Shas שס 11 Eli Yishai Ultra-Orthodox religious, Mizrahi
United Torah Judaism ג 5 Yaakov Litzman,
Avraham Ravitz		 Ultra-Orthodox religious, Ashkenazi
National Union-National Religious Party טב 10 Binyamin Elon Nationalist, mostly Zionist religious
Joint electoral list composed of the National Union and the National Religious Party
Yisrael Beiteinu ל 3 Avigdor Lieberman Mostly Russian immigrants
Meretz-Yachad מרצ 5 Yossi Beilin Social democratic
United Arab List-Ta'al עם 3 Ibrahim Sarsur Arab, Islamist
Balad ד 3 Azmi Bishara Arab, anti-Zionist
Hadash ו 2 Mohammad Barakeh Jewish-Arab, Communist (based on Maki), anti-Zionist
Tafnit פ Uzi Dayan New party, anti-corruption
Ale Yarok קנ Boaz Wachtel Advocates legalization of marijuana and ecological issues, legalizing same-sex marriage
Brit Olam ה Ofer Lifshits
Gil זך Rafi Eitan Retiree (pensioner) rights
Organization for Democratic Action ק Agbariyyah Asama' Communist
Green Party רק Pe'er Visner Environmentalist
HaLev פץ Eliezer Levinger Consumer rights
Arab National Party קפ Muhammad Kanan Arab, anti-Zionist
New Zionism צה Ya'akov Kfir Advocates rights of Holocaust survivors
Jewish National Front כ Baruch Marzel Jewish nationalist, Kahanist
Lev LaOlim פז Ovadia Fathov
Herut – The National Movement נץ Michael Kleiner Nationalist
Lekhem ז Yisrael Tvito
Leader ף Aleksandr Radko Russian immigrant, related to Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
Oz LaAniyim פכ Felix Angel Socialist
Atid Ehad זה Avraham Negusah Ethiopian and American immigrants
Justice for All קז Yaakov Shlosser Men's rights
Tzomet כץ Moshe Grin Nationalist

Note: traditional left-right divisions in Israel are different from in most countries, being mostly based on the different positions with regard to security and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. For example, the left-wing Meretz-Yachad mainly advocates negotiations with the Palestinians along the lines of the Geneva Initiative, while the right-wing National Union is opposed to any territorial concessions, yet both parties have strong histories of tabling social/welfare laws.

Pre-election opinion polling

Numbers in the table below are seats, out of a total of 120, as predicted by opinion polls prior to the election.

As the electoral threshold stood at 2%, it was impossible for a party to receive only one seat in the Knesset.

Note: Most Israeli pollsters lump the "Arab" parties together, so that the listed number is the total number of seats that the three main Arab lists (Raam, Balad, Hadash) are expected to obtain. In the event that one or more of the three lists does not pass the 2% threshold, the representation of these parties will be one to three fewer seats than listed by the polls.

Party 22 March 23 March 26 March 27 March
Geocartographia Jerusalem Post Teleseker Dahaf2 Globes- Smith Dialogue Maagar Mohot Dahaf2 Teleseker Jerusalem Post Ma'ariv
Kadima 14 33.5 34 37 36 34 36 34 34 34 33.5 34
Likud 27 16.5 15 14 14 15 14 12 13 14 15 14
Labor 21 17.5 19.5 21 20 21 18 19 21 17 20.5 17
Shinui 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Shas 11 9.5 11 9 11 10 11 8 11 12 10 12
Arab parties 8 8.5 9 7 7 7 8 7 7 7 9 7
Meretz-Yachad 6 6 5 5 6 5 6 6 5 5 6 5
National Union & National Religious Party 7 & 6 1 9 10 11 9 9.5 12 8 9 11 9.5 11
Israel Beytenu 7 2 10.5 10.5 10 11 10.5 7 15 12 12 11 12
United Torah Judaism 5 7 5.5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6
Ale Yarok 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0
Gil 0 2 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 0 2
Tafnit 0 4.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Green Party 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0

1 National Union and Yisrael Beiteinu together have 7 seats.

2 Dahaf – published in Yedioth Ahronoth (and/or its affiliate site Ynet) with the remark "The votes of the undecided were assigned to parties on the basis of additional questions."

Results

Party Votes % Seats +/-
Kadima690,90122.0229New
Labor-Meimad472,36615.06190
Shas299,0549.5312+1
Likud281,9968.9912–26
Yisrael Beiteinu281,8808.9911New
National Union-National Religious Party224,0837.149–1
Gil185,7595.927New
United Torah Judaism147,0914.696+1
Meretz-Yachad118,3023.775–1
United Arab List-Ta'al94,7863.024+1
Hadash86,0922.743+1
Balad72,0662.3030
Green Party47,5951.5200
Ale Yarok40,3531.2900
Jewish National Front24,8240.790New
Tafnit18,7530.600New
Atid Ehad14,0050.440New
Hetz10,1130.330New
Shinui4,6750.160–15
Justice for All3,8190.1200
Organization for Democratic Action3,6920.1200
Herut – The National Movement2,3870.0800
HaLev2,1630.0700
Brit Olam2,0110.060New
Lev1,7650.060New
Lekhem1,3810.040New
Tzomet1,3420.0400
The New Zionism1,2780.040New
Oz LaAniyim1,2140.040New
Arab National Party7380.020New
Leader5800.0200
Invalid votes49,6751.56––
Total3,186,7391001200
Registered voters/turnout5,014,62263.55––

The turnout was the lowest in Israeli legislative election history, 63.6% of eligible voters,[3] compared to 68.9% in 2003 and 78.7% in 1999. The turnout of 62.5% in 2001 election for Prime Minister is the lowest in nationwide elections.

Results by city

Party Ariel Ashdod Ashkelon Bat Yam Bnei Brak Beersheba Eilat Haifa Herzliya Holon Jerusalem Kiryat Shmona Modi'in Netanya Ofakim Petah Tikva Rishon LeZion Ramat Gan Tel Aviv Umm al-Fahm
Kadima 12.4 19.5 19.7 25.1 3.1 21.5 31.4 28.9 35.1 28.9 12 17.6 32.3 23.8 9.1 23.4 32.4 30 27.8 1.4
Labour-Meimad 3.9 10.3 11.2 11.8 1.9 16.7 21.2 16.9 17.5 14.5 10.3 17.8 20.4 10.9 16.3 12.2 15 16.8 19.8 3.7
Likud 24.1 10.1 13 11.6 3 9.5 9.1 8.3 8.7 11.4 10.6 12.1 10.2 12.2 10 11 10.7 10.9 8.7 –
Yisrael Beiteinu 34.6 19.9 22.3 16.9 1.8 20.1 7.3 12.1 5.4 8.7 6.5 16.7 5.1 13.5 16.3 11 10.9 5 4.2 –
Shas 4.2 17.1 15.1 12.3 23.8 14 8.9 3.6 5.6 12.8 15.2 14.3 2.8 12.9 22.2 9.3 6.6 5.5 7.5 0.7
Gil 5 3.2 3.8 9.5 1.6 4.2 7.7 7.1 9.5 11.6 4.2 4.2 8.1 6.3 0.7 9 10.7 13.1 9.2 –
National Union-NRP 8.5 4.4 6.8 5.2 5.9 6.4 4.7 4.2 4.2 3.9 12.2 10.4 8 9.1 6.7 12 3.9 6.8 3.3 –
United Torah Judaism 0.3 9.3 1.5 1.2 56.4 0.9 0.7 2.4 0.8 0.7 18.6 0.4 0.4 2.2 13.3 4 0.8 1 1.3 –
Meretz 0.5 1 1.1 1.5 0.2 1.5 2.2 3.8 6 2.3 3.1 0.8 5.3 1.6 2.2 2.2 2.6 4.3 8.7 2.3
United Arab List-Ta'al – – – – – 0.1 – 0.2 – – 0.1 – – – – – – – 0.7 10.6
Hadash – – – 0.1 – 0.1 0.1 2.8 0.1 – 0.3 0.1 – – – – – 0.2 0.9 56.1
Balad – – – – – 0.1 – 2.9 – – 0.2 – – – – – – – 0.3 21.7
Source: Yedioth Ahronoth Walla.co.il

Immediate impact and coalition formation

For the second time in Israeli history (previously in 1999), no dominant party sat in the Knesset, only two medium (Kadima and Labor) and small-sized ones. Following the election Olmert stated that he prefers entering into a coalition with Labor, and that Peretz is a "suitable partner."

On 2 April both Gil and Meretz recommended to Katzav that Olmert become Prime Minister. The next day, at a joint appearance, Olmert and Peretz announced that Kadima and Labor would be coalition partners and that Peretz would advise the President to tap Olmert as Prime Minister.[4]

On 6 April President Katzav formally asked Olmert to form a government officially making him Prime Minister-designate. A coalition government was formed consisting of Kadima, Labour, Shas and Gil. Olmert refused to accede to Peretz's demands for the Finance ministry, who was forced to accept the Defense ministry instead.

In October 2006 with the coalition shaken after the 2006 Lebanon War, Olmert brought the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu into government as well. However, they left the coalition in January 2008 in protest at peace talks with the Palestinian National Authority.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Israel: Background and Relations with the United States" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-03-14.
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ The official turnout is based on the number of eligible voters, however, that number is somewhat misleading since the count of eligible voters includes a significant number of Israeli citizens who in fact cannot vote. This consists mainly of a large number of citizens residing or travelling abroad on the day of the election (and are thus prohibited from voting, unless they are members of the diplomatic corps who are allowed to vote abroad; otherwise they must travel to Israel on election day if they wish to exercise their right to vote). It also includes some deceased voters who have yet to be removed from the voter registration rolls. All Israeli citizens are automatically registered to vote, and thus in Israel there is no distinction between registered voters and eligible voters, as there is in the U.S., for example. Moreover, the rules defining who is allowed to vote by absentee ballot are much more restrictive than those in the U.S., for example. When these factors are taken into account the actual voter turnout is about 5% higher than the figure cited above.
  4. ↑ Barkat, Amiram. "Katsav to summon Olmert on Thursday to form government - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 2011-03-14.

External links

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