Despite the absence of the opposition, the Knesset debate regarding the Governance Bill was held on Monday, Adar II on schedule. The 52-member opposition held a session in the Negev Room, boycotting the plenum session.
During the coalition session Minister of Intelligence & Strategic Affairs (Likud) Dr. Yuval Steinitz expressed support for the bill, which he feels is an important step for democracy. He feels increasing the minimum threshold for entering Knesset to four seats is insufficient, stating in his view it should be even higher towards eliminating all smaller parties.
Steinitz stated there would be nothing wrong with parties having to merge to create larger fewer parties in Knesset. “Perhaps in the future all of the chareidi parties will have to merge — chas v’sholom that the Ashkenazim of Agudas Yisrael would be in the same party as the Sephardim of Shas. What is wrong with this?”
Steinitz adds that is many Western democratic societies the system only permits two or three parties, questioning “Is the American multi-party system is damaged by having only two parties. Having multiple parties is not a path to quality democracy. The matter of no-confidence motions will become fiction with the new law and I am confident that in a decade, even those who are opposed to the law today will come to praise it.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
Under the current system the three frum parties in the Kenesset (Shas, Agudah, and Degel ha-Torah) all pass the threshold, and arguably do better as separate parties since each have some constituents who don’t like the others. With the new threshold, Agudah and Degel ha-Torah have no choice but to stay together. In an American style system there is an advantage to unity, but not under proportional representation. In fact, as long as all parties pass the threshold (minimum to win a seat), unity is probably a bad idea.
They manage to work together well enough. So why complain?
In a single member system such as in the USA, parties such as Yesh Atid and the Hareidi parties would largely disappear, and instead both parties would have to seek support from all segments of the population. However in such a system, the number of people excluded from the political system would be increased, and Jewish tradition has always favored broad inclusion.
It’s because most of the Shas voters are not Frum. I can’t see how they could keep their base if they merge lists.
“Jewish tradition has always favored broad inclusion.”
Since when?