On Tuesday night, December 22, 2020, the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) dissolved (here). It dissolved because of a Parliamentary rule. That rule was simple: Members of the Knesset (MKs) had to vote to create a new 2020 federal budget by December 23, 2020. If the vote for that budget failed in the Knesset (it failed by 2 votes on December 22, 2020 (ibid)), then the Knesset would automatically dissolve.
In essence, this Knesset dissolution signaled that the current government had proven to be "unworkable". Dissolution meant that the Knesset saw only one solution for this "unworkable" government: a new election. Why? Because that's what happens when the Knesset dissolves. An election is required.
Apparently, Israel really believes that a new election is the solution to a broken government. Yes, a new election is just what the doctor ordered. It would bring into the Knesset a clean slate of MKs who would be more cooperative, less interested in political name-calling and more focused on completing the requirements of the nation's business.
Really? Of course!
According to Knesset rules, once a Knesset dissolves, a new national election must be held within the following 90 days. For this upcoming election, that meant an election date of March 23, 2021.
That's the theory. In practice, the actual date could be moved.
If you read Israel history, you know that national elections in Israel are held every four years. But that's just more theory. In reality, the typical Israeli government falls apart sooner than every four years.
This March 23, 2021 election is no different. But then, it's also very, very different.
You see, this upcoming March 2021 election is unique. It will be the fourth election in two years.
This is uncharted water even for Israel's volatile political scene. It's never happened before. It is, if you will, a 'world's record' for this Jewish State.
It's also a sign that something is broken in Israel. Very broken.
Israel's election problem is dangerous. Lately, Israel has found that it can't elect anyone. It keeps trying. But it fails.
That's not how a democracy is supposed to work.
Israel has a "democracy" problem, all right. Democracy is supposed to mean the art of agreement. But members of the government cannot seem to agree on anything. Not having a national budget in place (the reason the Knesset dissolved) is not the only problem plaguing this government. It's just the problem that collapsed the Knesset.
In theory, a government cannot operate without a budget. That's why the Knesset dissolved. But then, 2020's budget crisis has proven that, bottom line, a government can work without a budget. It simply works with a version of the last approved budget (in this instance, 2019). It's not ideal, but it works.
Not in Israel. In Israel, if there's no budget, the government, apparently, has to be abandoned.
At least, that's the way it looks. "Budget" seems just an excuse to go to new elections. "Budget" hides what's really wrong--a breakdown of Israel's democracy.
Back in March 2020, Israeli voters saw the failure of the third of three election attempts to chose a Prime Minister. Voters were growing weary of election campaigns because in Israel, such campaigns are filled with more name-calling tantrums than policy discussions.
In Israel, election campaigns are wearing. They don't educate or inform. They annoy.
Voters want results from their elections, not endless bickering. But by March 2020, the only solution for three failed elections that anyone could see was to form a "unity" government between Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party and Benny Gantz's Blue-White Party. These two men were chosen to create that 'unity" government because they were the two leading vote-getters of that election.
The "unity" government was finalized in May, 2020. It lasted, maybe, seven months.
"Unity" for these two political enemies was not a match made in Heaven. It seemed more a match designed in Hell--and so it proved.
Gantz and Netanyahu couldn't bond. If democracy is the "art of compromise", this democracy knew none of that. Gantz and Netanyahu couldn't agree on "unity". They couldn't agree on a budget. They wouldn't agree on how to deal with the pandemic. Since the very beginning of this so-called unity government, the only thing the two men could create together was what one observer called, a "monstrosity" (here)--a government that was too big, too unwieldy and too crowded with people who seemed born to hate each other, to be effective.
That hurts democracy. It undercuts what makes a democracy work--compromise and agreement.
The result was predictable. Lots of infighting. Lots of accusations. Plenty of back-stabbing and political sabotage--and no action.
The result was a political crisis. This happened because politicians tried to do the impossible. They tried to mix political water (the demands of Gantz's Blue-White Party) with political oil (the demands of Netanyahu's Likud Party). No one in Israel seemed to understand that water and oil do not mix.
For the last several months, a fourth election in two years has seemed inevitable. Will yet another election really yield a different election outcome? Polls suggest no. We will end up, these polls suggest, with the same mess we have today.
That's not how a democracy is supposed to work.
Some in Israel expect that the campaign rhetoric in this election could be the ugliest and dirtiest in Israel's long and predictable history of dirty, ugly elections (here). Given the a political hatred that festers in Israel right now, they might be correct.
The problem is Netanyahu. It seems that more than half of Israel hate his guts--passionately. But it also seems that more than half of Israel also believes Netanyahu is Israel's best and smartest politician. To many, he's the best Jewish politician on the planet to deal with the kind of unrelentingly hostile, anti-Jewish attitudes Israel faces every day. Indeed, some in Israel feel Netanyahu is the only politician in Israel capable with dealing with that hostility.
The point here is, Israel needs Netanyahu. But too many in Israel hate him.
The unintended consequence of all this could do serious harm to Israel's democracy. Think about it: for two full years now, all four of these elections (including the one coming up) have been run by anti-Netanyahu-ers who have urged-urged-urged voters to vote Netanyahu out of office specifically "to protect Israel's democracy".
For two years, that's all (or, almost all) voters have heard.The result of all these "save democracy" slogans has been dramatic: three failed elections, with no leader chosen.
Is this what a democracy gives us--failure after failure?
Voters have limited patience. How many elections are they supposed to endure? Voters are told to stand up for "democracy" (and get rid of Netanyahu). But when that "democracy" leads so consistently to failure, how do you expect voters to react?
For voters, all these fruitless elections have proven very instructive. These elections highlighted two facts: (1) they were about "democracy"; but, (2), they failed to fulfill their democratic purpose--to elect someone.
Is this how a democracy works?
Another failed election could be trouble. Big trouble. If the best "democracy" can do for Israel is failed elections, voters might want something better. They might wish to say, "good riddance" to the bad "democracy" they see.
Where will the fourth election lead? Stay tuned. Just don't be surprised if the march to the Final Jewish Redemption begins because voters have concluded that democracy has failed. They yearn for something better.
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