Reform Israel's Election System to Address Regional Needs
[Originally appeared in the Jerusalem Post ] Witness the recent four Israeli elections in less than two years. This created havoc in many areas of Israeli society. The economy suffered from uncertainty, government operations stymied due to lack of an approved budget, international relations stalled at critical times, worldwide embassy activities were curtailed, school children suffered, and more. Also, it was an embarrassment on the world stage demonstrating that Israel, the great democracy in the Middle East, couldn’t get it together. Now we can breathe another sigh of relief as “Israeli election avoided as state budget passes into law, after 3.5 years” ( The Jerusalem Post 4 November 2021). The budget needed to pass into law by November 14 to prevent the Knesset from being automatically dispersed, which would have initiated elections in February 2022. The Knesset passed the 2021 state budget into law in a very narrow 61-59 vote followed by the passing of the 2022 state budget.