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Batia Levinthal
International Affairs Correspondent for i24NEWS
A look at the heavyweights ahead of the country’s 5th election in less than 4 years
When Israelis go to the polls on Tuesday for the fifth time in less than four years, they will have plenty of parties to turn to, from the smaller factions fighting to participate in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, to heavyweights like Likud and Yesh Atid.
In a two-part series, i24NEWS foreign affairs correspondent Batya Levinthal breaks down Israel’s political parties, starting with those with the most support and then looking for smaller parties that outweigh them.
The component at the moment with Labor, Meretz, Jewish Home, Yisrael Beitenu, Ra’am and Hadash/Ta’al will be on Monday.
Led by opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud can be said to be Israel’s largest political party. The center-right Likud on the Israeli political spectrum believes in nationalism and emphasizes Jewish settlement rights in the West Bank. The party maintains that Jerusalem is Israel’s eternal capital and has rejected the concept of a Palestinian state. The Likud is a market economy but has pursued combined policies in the past. As for religion, he has a more moderate stance and continues the prestige quo among devout and secular Israelis.
Yesh Atid, which means “there is a future,” is a centrist party led by current Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid. It is the largest party of the moment after Likud. Yesh Atid was created to shift the focus from politics and security to civic issues and reforms. Some of his ideological principles and some of Lapid’s 8 goals include: prioritizing civil society, equality in education and military recruitment, and fighting political corruption. Yesh Atid promotes a flexible market and a socially liberal economy, also striving for a two-state solution. , while maintaining and preventing Jewish settlements. The party’s main electorate is the secular middle class.
In 2022, Defense Minister Benny Gantz partnered with Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope Party and another IDF chief of staff, Gadi Eisenkot, to shape the National Unity Party. It is a new party, but it is deeply rooted in Zionism and liberalism. He has promised Israel’s Jewish identity and has an ambiguous position on a two-state solution. The National Unity Party also intends to focus on government corruption and impose term limits. It aims to reorient the economy to focus on macroeconomics and boosts investment in education. The party hopes to attract votes from the center-right who will not vote for Netanyahu or Lapid.
Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir are now a political power. The merger between the two was negotiated through Benjamin Netanyahu, who hopes to get his help in giving him a right-wing majority coalition. As leader of the devout Zionist party, Smotrich leads the faction, Ben Gvir, who heads the Jewish Power Party, is more prominent. Ideologically similar parties are on the far right of the political spectrum. To strengthen Jewish identity, either party announces nationalism and Orthodox Judaism. They help annex the West Bank and oppose any territorial concessions.
UTJ is a political alliance consisting of two parties: Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah. Yahadut HaTorah is a devout ultra-Orthodox right-wing party. Unlike similar devout parties, the UTJ is not Zionist. The party does not have a uniform opinion on the factor of settlement expansion in the West Bank. Their goal is a prestige quo dating back to issues of faith and state. UTJ also promotes the construction of strict Jewish law in Israel’s ultra-Orthodox society and considers secular subjects such as mathematics and English irrelevant. The UTJ has a tendency to attract voters from a deeply devout and anti-Zionist milieu.
Shas, which is the acronym for Shomrei S’farad, meaning “Sephardic Guardians,” is a right-wing component. It is an ultra-Orthodox devout political component that is part of the so-called national camp. However, he has participated in left-wing governments and is willing to engage in devout and economic issues. Shas aims to end prejudice and discrimination against Mizrahi Jews. The component advocates greater influence of devout Jewish law. Initially, he was more moderate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. , however, he has since become more right-wing, opposing any freeze on the construction of an Israeli deal. The devout component represents and enjoys the help of ultra-Orthodox Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews.
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