Page 3 - Issue 11

The following few pages examine the post-elections political map in Israel. We look at

where it went wrong, and what we can expect to see happen in the near future.

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Israel’s 18 Knesset: Election Results

Party Number of Seats Won Percentage of Voters
Kadima 28 22.5 %
Likud 27 21.6 %
Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Home) 15 11.7 %
Labor 13 9.9 %

Shas 11 8.5 %
United Torah Judaism 5 4.4 %
Ra'am-Ta'al 4 3.4 %
Ichud Leumi (National Union) 4 3.3 %
Hadash 4 3.3 %
New Movement - Meretz 3 3.0 %
Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) 3 2.9 %
National Democratic Assembly 3 2.5 %
(Balad)

Coalition: 69 seats (of 120), finalized March 31, 2009
(The minimum number of seats to form a coalition is 61):
• Likud

• Yisrael Beitenu
• Labor
• Shas
• Habayit Hayehudi

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The elections for the 18 Knesset (on February 10, 2009) were surrounded by
cynicism and apathy by the general population of Israel. Voter turnout this year was
65.2%. The only party leader that managed to garner enthusiasm was Avigdor
Lieberman of the Israel Beiteinu party, and this was mainly among people attracted
by his racist remarks against Arab Israelis.

The snippets on the next page come from an article written by journalist Ami

Isseroff, the day after the elections. It hopefully helps to explain what happened in
the elections, both in general terms with regards to the “death of the left”
phenomenon that is currently being analyzed and discussed in Israel, and more
specifically he presents an analysis of the campaigns run by both Meretz and Labour.
This article was written before the coalition was finally determined, so is slightly
outdated in this respect, but it helps explain the election results from a left-wing
Zionist perspective. On page 29 we have a piece from Ha’aretz which paints a bleaker
picture still of what is in store for us here in Israel, and we top it all off on page 30
on a more optimistic note with an article by our very own Ilan Brandvain.