The Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy

Progressive Dialogue and Policy for a Better Canada

HOW ISRAEL VOTED

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HOW ISRAEL VOTED

  • Date: March 18, 2015, 12:00 am to 12:00 am
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New “Day-after” series launched with Israeli election briefing

Fascinating elections all over, in Canada and the world over.  The Pearson Centre has launched a new series of briefings and post-mortems with a  briefing on the Israeli Election.

A much anticipated election took place in Israel on March 17, 2015.   The briefing began with a keynote speaker was His Excellency Rafael Barak, Ambassador of Israel to Canada.  He was followed by a panel which included Shimon Fogel, CEO, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and Prof. Mira Sucharov and Professor/Writer/Blogger, Carleton Univeristy.  The moderator was Prof. Andrew Cohen from Carleton University, who is also a board member, Pearson Centre.
The briefing on the Israeli election drew a full house of the interested and the media at the Lord Elgin Hotel.

It was the launch of the Pearson Centre’s “Day-After Briefings”, a briefing to learn more about the outcome of an election in Canada or elsewhere of great interest!

Some of the interesting observations:

The Israeli Ambassador noted that the President Reuven Rivlin will meet with the leaders of all 10 parties which elected MPs and ask each one who should be invited to be Prime Minister and based on the results he then will invite the person, expected to be Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu who won 30 seats – and will likely have enough right-wing coalition partners to get past the required 61 in the 120 member Knesset.

He also pointed out that as a result of coalition governments hardline policies can get tempered and moderated. He expressed his appreciation for the multi-party support in Canada for Israel and the challenges it faces.

Shimon Fogel of the Centre for Jewish and Israel Affairs highlighted the encouraging trend of growing voter turn-out in Israel, having reached 72% in this election. He noted that the strong presence of Arab Israelis in this election represented a new sophistication of Muslim voters, having elected 14 members thought a coalition known as the “Joint List”. He pointed out that both the major parties agree on the threat to Israel coming from Iran, although their tactics differ. He expected there to be no grace period for the new government but rather, international pressure on reaching an agreement for Palestinians.

Carleton professor Mira Sucharov, was less enthusiastic about the outcome of the election, and hoped that Netanyahu would go back on his last-minute promise not to allow a Palestinian state. She is concerned about the presence of political parties on the right that are religion or ethnic based.

The session was moderated by authour and Carleton professor Andrew Cohen, a board member of the Pearson Centre.

The number of parties in Israel has reduced from over 40 to 26 following various political reforms, ten of which will be represented in the legislature. Parties need to get at least 3.50% of the vote to be represented in the Knesset. The process of negotiating and signing a government coalition accord is a system Canadians should consider in the event of a minority government…..to create a strong, stable, minority government!

The next session is tentatively scheduled for May 8, 2015, the day after the upcoming British election.

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