A 'Big Bang' in Israeli Politics?

Abstract

For a change, Israel's upcoming elections will be largely about domestic issues, but they will have historic ramifications nonetheless.

"America," Mark Twain famously quipped, "has no native criminal class—except for the Congress." We could apply Twain's words to Israel as well, as more and more members of the Knesset and other top officials have gone from serving the public to serving time. One important issue in Israel's upcoming elections, in March 2015, is the popular demand for better and cleaner governance, along with a number of other socio-economic issues, making these only the second elections in Israel's history, along with those two years ago, to be largely about domestic affairs.

To foreign observers, understandably focused on the foreign policy issues of the peace process, Iran, and the dramatic changes taking place in the Middle East, this might seem a surprising, almost ostrich-like approach on the part of the Israeli electorate. Not really. The good news is that Israel has become sufficiently secure to focus on the bread-and-butter issues that preoccupy voters in elections in all "normal" countries....

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