Israel's Political Instability
Sherman, Aleph V.
Prospects for a stable government and economy depend on constitutional reform of electoral system ISRAEL'S POLITICAL INSTABILITY By A. V. Sherman JERUSALEM UNLESS this fall's general election...
...The prestige of Israel's political parties has been seriously declining in recent years, particularly among the youth, who seem to feel that the parties have displayed more concern for their own interests than for the common weal...
...Thus, swift political reform is needed to re-establish a healthy atmosphere for political life in general...
...it is a battleground for the parties in a given coalition...
...Besides the one-man Arab parties, which include Israel's Communist party, for example, there are nine parties in the present Knesset...
...Recognizing the impossibility of forming a large, responsible workers' party which could govern without coalition partners, and aware of the difficulties involved in joining hands with the religious or secular parties on the right for the reasons cited above, Ben Gurion is attempting to solve Israel's political instability through constitutional changes...
...Such a situation could readily lend itself to demagoguery, which the bulk of the population and leadership, with their democratic commitments, seek to obviate...
...Here, however, the various parties are huge concentrations of politico-economic power...
...Thus, Israel has been governed by a series of shifting coalitions in which all parties—except Herut and the Communists — have participated at one time or another, and in which Mapai has always held the key ministries...
...That the policies it is now urging are the very ones which brought Israel to the brink of catastrophe in the early years of its existence does not seem to impress the Left...
...Though more than three-quarters of the national income is generated in the public sector, the Left still justifies its demands in traditional anti-capitalist terms...
...But it is generally agreed here that the arms sale was merely a handy issue for causing the Government's downfall, that the crisis is a reflection of two far more serious and deeply rooted problems: certain inadequate constitutional provisions, and the inability of the broadly pro-Western parties to join forces against the fellow-traveling Left and Mediterranean-style demagogues...
...The smallest of them, the Progressive party, has worked closely with Mapai in both national and local governments and now has a vested interest in a certain amount of patronage...
...By virtue of his position, the Prime Minister commands the loyalty of his party and cabinet...
...their Knesset and Governmental activities constitute only a fraction of their total strength and activity...
...But its influence is greater than its numbers because the non-Left is divided into bitterly hostile factions, and because many rank-and-file and middle-echelon Mapai members who are still attached to Socialist dogma and "militancy" are susceptible to its agitation, indeed, in his bouts with the Left the Premier's primary concern has often been winning the backing of his own party...
...The chief constitutional impediment to stability is the party-list, proportional-representation election system...
...At present, Israel is incurring a deficit of $350 million a year, which is the equivalent of a third of the national income...
...And, despite chronic inflation, a critical balance of payments deficit and a severe need for foreign investments, the Left goes on spouting anti-Western slogans that can only frighten away foreign investors...
...Indeed, it was factionalism inside the Labor Cabinet that led to the party's loss of support in the '50s...
...Understandably, therefore, the minority parties are united in bitter opposition to the Premier's efforts (with the partial exception of the General Zionists, made up mostly of farmers, businessmen and others with less of a direct vested interest in the political system...
...To its left are two fellow-traveling parties, Mapam and Achdut Avodah...
...Mapai is also eager for ever-closer ties with the West to insure a flow of arms to Israel that will counterbalance the heavy equipment flowing into the Arab world from Russia: the Left-wing parties insist that a policy of "positive neutrality" and cooperation with the "progressive national liberation movements in the Arab countries" would quickly solve Israel's defense problems...
...None of the other parties wants to jeopardize its "opposition status" by becoming a junior member in a government with the dominant Mapai party that has only a short while to run...
...At the same time, it strongly opposes the elimination of inefficiency...
...The crucial year will be 1963, when reparations from West Germany are scheduled to end...
...The General Zionist party, the closest equivalent to a conservative party, has been declining in strength and lacks clear policies on most issues...
...The largest of these is Ben Gurion's Social Democratic Mapai party, which at the top at least has been mellowed by experience and responsibility and tends to prefer empiricism over dogmatism...
...Political stability, however, must be achieved if Israel is to be able to cope effectively with some of its complex long-range problems...
...the Prime Minister is the leader of the party, but he and his cabinet are responsible to the Queen, representing the entire nation rather than merely their own supporters...
...In addition, Herut is separated from Mapai by a long-standing feud which both "cherish" with great bitterness, so it appears doomed to constitute a permanent and not particularly constructive extreme Right-wing opposition...
...the Left-wing parties are fundamentally anti-Western...
...In Britain, constituency elections generally insure the victorious party of a fair majority in Parliament...
...This encourages a multiplicity of parties, making it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for Israel's British-type cabinet form of government to function properly...
...Ben Gurion's party, which started out with far more "progressive" ideas that the British Labor party...
...To Mapai's right there are three religious and three secular parties...
...True, public opinion is more in favor of the change than this indicates, but Ben Gurion's plans for pushing the measure through are not yet apparent...
...At the same time, a growing volume of foreign debts will fall due for payment...
...Consequently, the cabinet in Israel is not the supreme deliberative and policy-forming body of the state...
...The militantly nationalist, anti-etatist Herut party has taken on many of the less desirable features of Mediterranean radical parties...
...The resulting shortage of foreign currency will unquestionably have a serious impact on the whole economy, and the Government will need all the strength, popular support and stability it can get to cope with the potential crisis...
...Moreover, the leadership of each party instructs its coalition representatives on policy questions, and it is kept informed of even the most secret cabinet matters...
...The unsettled political situation is further exacerbated by a general attitude of apathy, and even skepticism, toward the political parties...
...If the electoral reform is accomplished, it would not only reshape Israeli political life, but by undermining the economic-patronage foundations of the smaller parties it could effect a veritable social revolution here...
...But the Left-wing continues to demand overall wage increases, more social services, and the creation of new employment, irrespective of its effects on the national economy...
...True, Premier Ben Gurion enjoys a large measure of support from the youth, the intellectuals, the Army and the general public, but this is the result of his personal, rather than party, standing...
...He is redoubling his efforts to force through an electoral system providing for single-member constituency elections which would, he hopes, be the basis for stable government along two-party lines...
...Mapai and the Left are divided on several basic issues, namely foreign and defense policies and economic policy...
...Although for entirely different reasons, the three secular parties have never been able to come together and form an effective balance either...
...In spite of a large foreign currency income in the form of gifts, Israel's foreign indebtedness is growing rapidly and now stands at more than 10 times the net value of its exports...
...Parties go in and out of coalitions at will...
...It is not surprising that Premier David Ben Gurion has failed to solve the present Government crisis, set off when two left-wing parties in his coalition refused to sanction the sale of arms to West Germany...
...The Mapai leadership is sympathetic to the free world...
...This, combined with the fact that each of the three spends much of its time trying to prove that it is doing more than the other to foster religion in Israel, does not make for stability in government...
...The combined strength of the extreme Left amounts to only one-sixth of the Knesset's seats and one-third of the seats on the Histadrut Council (the General Confederation of Labor...
...Not the least of these is economic...
...The former tend to make their participation in a coalition dependent upon its approval, or at least tacit acceptance, of certain traditional religious practices as national policy...
...Prospects for a stable government and economy depend on constitutional reform of electoral system ISRAEL'S POLITICAL INSTABILITY By A. V. Sherman JERUSALEM UNLESS this fall's general election brings some unexpected changes in the composition of Israel's Knesset (Parliament), this country may find itself suffering from chronic government instability...
...This same blind adherence to dis-proven theories and ancient cliches is responsible for the gulf between the Left and Mapai on economic questions...
...has wisely adjusted much of its economic thinking to reality over the last 10 years...
...A few years hence, the country will face a real balance of payments crisis...
Vol. 42 • September 1959 • No. 32
