Religious Nationalist Grabs Spotlight in Israeli Knesset Race

Six months ago, few Israelis had heard of him.  Today, the media calls the former high tech tycoon a “superstar,” and everyone knows about Naftali Bennett, leader of the Bayit Yehudi (“Israel Home”) Party.”

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces criticism from left and right, Bennett’s popularity is rising by the day.  The latest polls suggest that if an election were held this week, Bayit Yehudi would triple its seats in the Knesset to become Israel’s third largest party.  In fact, Bennett is gaining supporters who don’t even agree with his ultra-religious/nationalist platform, a fact that is greatly troubling Netanyahu’s Likud.

Election basics

Under Israel’s parliamentary system, citizens cast their ballots for a party, not a candidate.  The 120 Knesset seats are assigned according to the percentage of the total national votes each party wins.  In order to win a seat in the Knesset, a party must win a minimum of 1.5 percent of the total votes.

Usually, the leader of the party with the most seats is named prime minister and tasked with forming a new government consisting of 61 seats.  Because no party has ever won enough seats to form a government by itself, parties form coalitions to meet the 61-seat majority.  New elections can be called if the prime minister cannot form a government, if a coalition collapses or it is not able to pass its budget.

Last October, Netanyahu called for early elections, saying his coalition would not be able to pass a “responsible” austerity budget.  Soon afterward, he announced that Likud would merge with the hardline Yisrael Beitenu Party headed by Avigdor Lieberman.  Some believed Netanyahu was looking to gain support for a military strike on Iran’s suspected nuclear facilities. Others believe he wanted to strengthen the party in light of speculation that former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would run for office and put together a rival coalition.

Either way, Netanyahu’s plans seem to have failed.  The latest Haaretz polls show the Likud Party losing as many as a dozen of its present 42 seats in government.

Barak Ravid is a diplomatic correspondent for Israel’s Haaretz newspaper who explains the trend.

“First, a very big part of the Israeli society does not know who they want to vote for,” Ravid said.  “This is one trend.  The other trend is that you can see very clearly that even right wing voters do not want to vote for Benjamin Netanyahu.  They would rather vote for Naftali Bennett’s party.” Continue Reading