Election hubbub creates more factions
BARELY A day goes by without a new party being formed or an existing one splitting in two. On Tuesday, both of those things happened at once: former IDF Brigadier-General Gal Hirsh launched his “Magen
Yisrael” party, while veteran Arab-Israeli legislator Ahmad Tibi said his Arab Renewal party was splitting from the Joint List it sat with in the last Knesset.
This proliferation of lists has led to the bizarre situation where at least six vaguely centrist parties — Labour, Yesh Atid, Kulanu, Gesher, Hatnuah and Israel Resilience — all nearly indistinguishable when it comes to their platforms, are competing for the same voters.
Israel Resilience (“Hosen Yisrael” in Hebrew), the party founded only two weeks ago by former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, is now in second place after Likud in some polls — even though Mr Gantz has not made a single political statement.
With only 120 members, the Knesset is one of the smallest chambers in the world but with a high number of parties. In an attempt to limit the number of smaller factions, the electoral threshold — the share of votes parties must win before they can win seats — has been raised over the years and now stands at 3.25 per cent. But in 2015, ten parties still passed it and this year, there will almost inevitably be more.
The threshold also means that votes for parties that fall short of it are lost, forcing some factions to join forces and combine their forces. They have until February 21, the deadline for parties to register their candidates, to make up their minds.
One major consolidation being mooted is of the three Charedi parties Agudath Yisrael and Degel Ha’Torah — which already cooperate in the United Torah Judaism list — along with Shas.
Likud leads all polls so far by a fairly large margin of nearly a quarter of the votes. But with so many parties expected in the next Knesset, a coalition will be exceedingly difficult to form, especially as Mr Netanyahu intends to demand partners commit to supporting him even if he is indicted.