This is the first of a three-part series. Part II will discuss the structure of government and the constitution, and Part III will be devoted to the social challenges of Israeli society.
It is now clear to all of us living in Israel that the legislative structure created in 1948, when the state was established, simply put, no longer represents today’s citizens. A framework designed for a population of 870,000 people does not work for a country of 10.3 million.
The construct built for a society where most people’s ancestral roots were in Europe doesn’t work for a multicultural population hailing from 100 different countries and cultures, with the majority now with roots primarily in Asia, North Africa, the Levant, and other areas of the Muslim world.
Indicators that prove that the existing framework no longer works for us are numerous. For example, we suffer from “taxation without representation,” to use the phrase that launched the American Revolution in 1775.
Fact: the citizens of Israel do not each have a member of the Knesset responsible for the people living and paying taxes in the district where each resides, given the present system of casting ballots for parties, not individuals.
In addition, the fact that someone can serve as prime minister for 17 years is reason enough to make us rethink how our government is elected and monitored.
Lastly, if we continue electing parties and not individuals, the election threshold of 3.25% for a party to be seated is simply too low, as it permits micro parties to have macro influence, given the need to form a coalition-based majority government.
The disastrous result is that, without term limits, MK’s serve as long as they are loyal to their party, not the constituency that elected them. In addition, the electorate has neither a recall mechanism nor a specific legislator one can access if there is a problem needing attention.
Therefore, for Israel’s governance structure to successfully complete its first century of existence fully representative and well managed, three changes have to be implemented:
Move to a district-based direct election process for all members of an enlarged Knesset.
Impose term limits on members of Knesset.
Task the head of the party with the most members elected to the Knesset to form the government, whether it be a minority or majority coalition.
It is important to remember that from a governance perspective, Israel is structured as a parliamentary republic, a form of government where both executive and legislative powers are primarily held within the parliament. Citizens in such a scenario play an essential role by voting for parliament members, thereby indirectly influencing the selection of both the prime minister and governmental policies.
Direct election of Knesset members
Most legislative bodies of the world’s democracies are populated by individuals elected by region. However, the issue of district representation is not only one of direct election but is also a factor of what percentage of the population each elected legislator represents. In modern Western democracies, each one is responsible for a relatively low percentage of the total population.
In the US, for example, with 435 congresspeople, each represents 2.3/100ths of one percent of the total population (i.e., 788,500 out of 343 million citizens). In parliamentary democracies like the UK, with 650 members of the House of Commons, it is 1.5/100ths of one percent (i.e., 107, 692 citizens), while in France, with 577 National Assembly members, it is 1.7/100ths of one percent (i.e., 146,667 citizens).
A more appropriate parallel to Israel would be Sweden, whose population of 10.6 million is about the same as Israel’s 10.3 million. There, each of the 349 members of the legislature (three times larger than the Knesset) represents 2.9/100ths of one percent of the population (i.e., 30,332 citizens) as against Israel’s 8.3/100ths of one percent (i.e., 85,833 citizens), although in Israel, of course, Knesset members are not currently directly connected to districts.
Effectively, then, with just 120 delegates in today’s Knesset, each one represents a percentage of the population four or five times larger than most democracies (the absolute numbers are significantly different because of the larger populations elsewhere).
Therefore, at a minimum, the Knesset needs to be doubled in size to 240 seats, so that one Knesset member would represent roughly 42,000 citizens, thus providing all of us with reasonable access to someone who specifically represents us directly.
In addition, there should be an option for recall. If citizens in a specific district become disenchanted with their elected representative, with a sufficient number of signatures, they should be able to force a recall vote with a sufficient number of signatures for the electorate to decide if the Knesset member should remain in office for the balance of the term.
Term limits
The second major change needed is to introduce term limits for members of the Knesset and, by extension, the prime minister.
It is simply unhealthy for a democracy to have people serving as Knesset members for many decades or to have a prime minister in office for more than 8-10 years. For the record, the three longest-serving current Knesset members are United Torah Judaism’s Moshe Gafni, Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu, and Tzachi Hanegbi, all of whom have served for 38 years since their election in 1988.
Frankly, there is no logical reason why any person should be permitted to spend all or most of their productive lives living on the dole of the government.
Where countries have no term limits, there is a high probability that a popular leader will remain in office for much longer periods of time and morph into an autocrat, benevolent or otherwise.
Heads of government serving too long also make it more difficult for others to aspire to high office, as the populace often begins to believe that no one else can do the job except the person currently holding the position. We have seen that situation develop in Israel as well during this long period of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s occupancy of that office.
Therefore, Israel should adopt the election cycle frequencies of other Western democracies – four years like in the US and Sweden, or five years like in France and the UK – and schedule elections every 4-5 years with a limit of two consecutive terms for all Knesset members. Under this framework, if a Knesset member leaves after two terms, he or she could stay away for one term and then run for election once again.
However, no person should be permitted to serve as prime minister for more than two terms.
Such a framework would ensure that there will be regular turnover of the legislative body with minimal risk of autocracy developing at the top of the pyramid.
Designating the prime minister
One of the great failings of the Israeli electoral system occurs after the election. At that point, the president of Israel determines who has the best chance of forming a government and gives that individual 60 days to form a coalition.
In a multi-party system, this cumbersome and unwieldy framework permits small parties to demand concessions they have not earned in return for their willingness to join the coalition. To be sure, the system has not produced governing coalitions that have best served the people, but rather individuals who see joining the coalition as achieving patronage benefits for their votes rather than truly reflecting the needs of the people who voted for their parties.
Instead, the president should simply task the head of the party with the most MKs to form a government. That person then cobbles together either a majority or minority government and becomes prime minister.
For those who worry about how a minority government would govern, it would most likely be with a lot of compromise in order to achieve results, perhaps even better than the extremes we have seen in most majority coalitions.
To summarize, those who are charged with conducting the business of the governance of Israel should be elected by the people, representing identified areas of the country, to serve those who live in their districts.
As a result, the elected Knesset members will then be somewhat limited in their ability to take undue advantage of their positions, given the possibility of not being re-elected, coupled with the imposition of term limits as well. Good government demands that we not settle for less.
The writer, a 42-year resident of Jerusalem, is a former national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, a past chairperson of the board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and a board member of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM).