The Political System of the State of Israel

Brief History

The state of Israel is in Western Asia with neighbors such as Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. Tel Aviv is the economic and technological nerve of the state whereas her government seats in Jerusalem which was recently proclaimed by the Trump Administration as the Capital of Israel.

In 1947, the United Nations  adopted a Partition Plan for Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency, and rejected by Arab leaders. The following year, the Jewish Agency declared the independence of the State of Israel, and the subsequent 1948 Arab–Israeli War saw Israel's establishment over most of the former Mandate territory, while the West Bank and Gaza were held by neighboring Arab states. Israel has since fought several wars with Arab countries, including the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel was admitted as a member of the UN by majority vote on 11 May 1949

Israel defines itself as a Jewish and democratic state and the nation state of the Jewish people. The country has a liberal democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation, and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature. The Basic Laws of Israel are the constitutional laws of the state of Israel, and some of them can only be changed by a supermajority vote in the Knesset. Many of these laws are based on the individual liberties that were outlined in the Israeli Declaration of Independence. The Basic Laws deal with the formation and role of the principal institutions of the state, and with the relations between the state's authorities. They also protect the country's civil rights, although some of these rights were earlier protected through common law by the Supreme Court of Israel. The Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty enjoys super-legal status, giving the Supreme Court the authority to disqualify any law contradicting it, as well as protection from Emergency Regulations.

The Basic Laws were intended to be draft chapters of a future Israeli constitution, which has been postponed since 1950; they act as a de facto constitution until their future incorporation into a formal, unitary, written constitution. Israel as of 2019 functions according to an uncodified constitution consisting of both material constitutional law based upon cases and precedents, common law, and the provisions of these formal statutes.

Current Leadership and Political System

Benjamin Netanyahu who was born 21 October 1949 has been a Prime Minister of Israel since 2009, having previously held the same position from 1996 to 1999. Netanyahu is also the Chairman of the Likud – National Liberal Movement. He is the longest-serving Prime Minister in Israeli history and the first to be born in Israel after the establishment of the state.

The Israeli system of government is based on parliamentary democracy. The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of government and leader of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government also known as the cabinet. Legislative power is vested in the Knesset. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The political system of the State of Israel and its main principles are set out in 11 Basic Laws because Israel does not have a written constitution.

The President of the State is the de jure head of state of Israel. The position is largely an apolitical and ceremonial role and is not considered a part of any Government Branch. The President's ceremonial roles include signing every law except those pertaining to the President's powers and international or bilateral treaty, ceremonially appointing the Prime Minister, confirming and endorsing the credentials of ambassadors, and receiving the credentials of foreign diplomats. The President also has several important functions in government. The President is the only government official with the power to pardon or commute prisoners. The President appoints the governor of the Bank of Israel, the president of the national emergency relief service Magen David Adom, and the members and leaders of several institutions. The President also ceremonially appoints judges to their posts after their selection.

The Prime Minister is the most powerful political figure in the country. The Prime Minister is ceremonially appointed by the President upon recommendation of party Representatives in the Knesset, and makes foreign and domestic policy decisions which are voted on by the cabinet. The cabinet is composed of ministers, most of whom are the heads of government departments, though some are deputy ministers and ministers without portfolio. Cabinet ministers are appointed by the Prime Minister, who must appoint members based on the distribution of votes to political parties. The cabinet's composition must also be approved by the Knesset. The Prime Minister may dismiss cabinet members, but any replacements must be approved by the Knesset. Most ministers are members of the Knesset, though only the Prime Minister is required to be one.

A select group of ministers led by the Prime Minister forms the security cabinet, responsible for outlining and implementing a foreign and defense policy. This forum is designed to coordinate diplomatic negotiations, and to make quick and effective decisions in times of crisis and war.

The Knesset is Israel's unicameral legislature and is seated in Jerusalem. Its 120 members are elected to 4-year terms through party-list proportional representation, as mandated by the 1958 Basic Law: The Knesset. Knesset seats are allocated among parties using a party list proportional representation. Parties select candidates using a closed list. Thus, voters select the party of their choice, rather than any specific candidate. Israel requires a party to meet an election threshold of 3.25% to be allocated a Knesset seat. All Israeli citizens 18 years of age and older may participate in legislative elections, which are conducted by secret ballot.

As the legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset has the power to enact and repeal all laws. It enjoys de jure parliamentary supremacy, and can pass any law by a simple majority, even one that might arguably conflict with a Basic Law, unless it has specific conditions for its modification. The Knesset can adopt and amend Basic Laws acting through its capacity as a Constituent Assembly. The Knesset also supervises government activities through its committees, nominates the Prime Minister and approves the cabinet, and elects the President of the State and the State Comptroller. It also has the power to remove the President and State Comptroller from office, revoke the immunity of its members, and to dissolve itself and call new elections.

Israel's electoral system operates within the parameters of a Basic Law (The Knesset) and of the 1969 Knesset Elections Law. The Knesset's 120 members are elected by secret ballot to 4-year terms, although the Knesset may decide to call for new elections before the end of the 4-year term, and a government can change without a general election; since the 1988 election, no Knesset has finished its 4-year term. In addition a motion of confidence may be called.  Voting in general elections takes place using the highest averages method of party-list proportional representation, using the d'Hondt formula.

General elections use closed lists: voters vote only for party lists and cannot affect the order of candidates within the lists. Since the 1992 Parties Law, only registered parties may stand. There are no separate electoral districts; all voters vote on the same party lists. Suffrage is universal among Israeli citizens aged 18 years or older, but voting is optional. Polling locations are open throughout Israel; absentee ballots are limited to diplomatic staff and the merchant marine. While each party attains one seat for 1 in 120 votes, there is a minimum threshold (recently increased to 3.25%) for parties to attain their first seat in an election. This requirement aimed to bar smaller parties from parliament but spurred some parties to join together simply to overcome the threshold. The low vote-threshold for entry into parliament, as well as the need for parties with small numbers of seats to form coalition governments, results in a highly fragmented political spectrum, with small parties exercising extensive power relative to their electoral support within coalitions.

The president selects the prime minister as the party leader most able to form a government, based on the number of parliament seats his or her coalition has won. After the president's selection, the prime minister has forty-five days to form a government. The Knesset collectively must approve the members of the cabinet. This electoral system, inherited from the Yishuv (Jewish settlement organization during the British Mandate), makes it very difficult for any party to gain a working majority in the Knesset and thus governments generally form on the basis of coalitions. Due to the difficulties in holding coalitions together, elections often occur earlier than scheduled. The average lifespan of an Israeli government is about two years. Over the years, the peace process, the role of religion in the state, and political scandals have caused coalitions to break apart or have produced early elections.

The Judicial branch is an independent branch of the government, including secular and religious courts for the various religions present in Israel. The court system involves three stages of justice. Judges for all courts are appointed by the Judicial Selection Committee. The committee is composed of nine members: two cabinet members (one being the Minister of Justice), two Knesset members, two members of the Israel Bar Association, and three Supreme Court justices (one being the President of the Supreme Court). The committee is chaired by the Minister of Justice. In November 1985, the Israeli government informed the United Nations Secretariat that it would no longer accept compulsory International Court of Justice jurisdiction.

The Economy

With a population of around 9 million as of 2019, Israel is a developed country and an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member, has the 31st or 32nd-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product (GDP), and is the richest (nominal GDP) and the most developed country currently in conflict  that is counting countries with at least 100–999 military deaths per year. It has the highest standard of living in the Middle East, and ranks among the world's top countries by percentage of citizens with military training, percentage of citizens holding a tertiary education degree, research and development spending by GDP percentage, women's safety, life expectancy, innovativeness and happiness.

Israel is therefore considered the most advanced country in Southwest Asia and the Middle East in economic and industrial development. Israel's quality university education and the establishment of a highly motivated and educated populace is largely responsible for spurring the country's high technology boom and rapid economic development.  The country is ranked 16th in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report  and 54th on the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business index. Israel was also ranked 5th in the world by share of people in high-skilled employment. Israeli economic data covers the economic territory of Israel, including the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Despite limited natural resources, intensive development of the agricultural and industrial sectors over the past decades has made Israel largely self-sufficient in food production, apart from grains and beef. Imports to Israel, totaling $66.76 billion in 2017, include raw materials, military equipment, investment goods, rough diamonds, fuels, grain, and consumer goods. Leading exports include machinery and equipment, software, cut diamonds, agricultural products, chemicals, and textiles and apparel; in 2017, Israeli exports reached $60.6 billion. The Bank of Israel holds $113 billion of foreign-exchange reserves. Since the 1970s, Israel has received military aid from the United States, as well as economic assistance in the form of loan guarantees, which now account for roughly half of Israel's external debt. Israel has one of the lowest external debts in the developed world, and is a lender in terms of net external debt (assets vs. liabilities abroad), which in 2015 stood at a surplus of $69 billion.

Israel has the second-largest number of startup companies in the world after the United States and the third-largest number of NASDAQ-listed companies after the U.S. and China. Intel and Microsoft built their first overseas research and development facilities in Israel, and other high-tech multi-national corporations, such as IBM, Google, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Facebook and Motorola have opened research and development centres in the country. In 2007, American investor Warren Buffett's holding company Berkshire Hathaway bought an Israeli company, Iscar, its first acquisition outside the United States, for $4 billion.

My Views

I have selected this political system because of suggestions encouraged by the current BBI debate in Kenya that the country should opt for a parliamentary system instead of the presidential system as a way of solving electoral challenges. However, although this is working for Israel, I believe it is too volatile and unpredictable for Kenyan politics since a failure to raise the numbers would result into high tribal tensions instead of cooling them. The number of times Israel has had to go to elections because of failure to form coalitions and due to break down of coalitions are so many hence would be bad for a country like Kenya which treats elections as a matter of life and death. Important to note is that the current Prime Minister has on several occasions failed to form a government leading to more cycles of elections. If Kenya is to adopt this system, then it must be prepared for the unforeseen consequences of prolonged electoral tensions if history is anything to go by.