Yes, insofar as it is apparent from recent polls that the real work will come later. The leaders of the two large parties, neither of which may reach a quarter of the total Knesset, and nine smaller parties will make claims to the President. Then he'll have a week or two to decide which individual will have the best chance of creating a coalition. He may try to persuade Labor/Zionist Union and Likud to create a government of national unity. If so, there'll be a world class squabble who will be the Prime Minister in such a creation, or if there will be a rotation between two or three claimants of the job.
And that will only start a longer process, in which seven or so parties make their demands for ministerial seats and other goodies as their price of joining a coalition. It'll be easier if Likud and Labor have agreed to a government of national unity, but they would only get to perhaps 50 Knesset seats, and would reduce slightly the number of smaller parties making their demands.
Among the maneuverings may be declarations of party X that it won't join a coalition with party Y, both of them too small to assume they should have the future of the country in their hands.
The recent slippage of Likud may have something to do with the unending stories about Sara and the opulent expenses of the first family, or nothing more complex than voters' fatigue with a long serving Prme Minister who did not solve all their personal problems and public expectations.
In such a setting, it's worth a few moments to enjoy the spectacle of a dozen or so parties few have noticed. They reflect something other than serious politics, and may be grounded in Jewish (or Arab) humor, anger, creativity, radicalism, or nonchalance. Their creators are the kind of people who went to Woodstock a generation ago. Think about carnival performers if you continue to read.
There are 28 parties registered for this election. Each has an official list of its candidates, but the platforms of some are so elusive as to escape Googling.
It's not difficult or expensive to create a political party in Israel. It requires a petition to the appropriate office of the Knesset, signed by at least 100 citizens at least 18 years of age, and a payment of 1,807 shekels (about US$450). Each party must also obtain a bank guarantee to cover debts, but each is assured some government financing and time on the radio and television programs providing a half hour or so of one party's message after another that air daily for two weeks prior to an election. Money and time is allotted according to the size of each party's representation in the Knesset, with new parties getting some money and time. The tiny exotics tend to feature videos of their prime candidates speaking, while the established parties can afford the services of public relations firms to produce songs, cartoons, or other classy presentations.
Among those below the radar of most Israelis:
- Protect our children, whose campaign is against Internet porno, without indicating how this will be done
- Flower, whose extended name summarizes its platform: abundant blessings, life and peace, reform in education, housing, and true peace
- Economic Party headed by the Goldstein Brothers, whose proposal is easing the supply of land for the purpose of building houses of wood
- Green leaf, a repeat performer in several recent elections for the sake of marijuana
- The Pirates, pursuing a list of freedoms, including free public transportation, Internet voting on issues easy to elevate to the public agenda, competition with Green Leaf for the marijuana vote, changes directed at banks and corporations, and the free downloading of copyrighted books and movies
- Light, which advocates a separation of religion and the state. On its agenda are civil marriage and burial, public transportation on the Sabbath, ending the government support of religious organizations, requiring all to serve in the military or national service, and identical education for all (i.e., a radical transformation of the ultra-Orthodox schools and religious academies)
- Rental with honor, cheaper housing
- Greens, environmental priority
- Social leadership, asserting the need for greater regulation of the housing market to serve the population rather than entrepreneurs
- Democracy, urging regulation toward honest campaigning
- Our rights, ultra-Orthodox women seeking change
- Hope for change, an Arab party seeking a better future via cooperation with Jews rather than antagonism
It's not likely that any will qualify for a Knesset seat. With the number of voters likely to approach four million and at least four percent required for Knesset membership, that makes 160,000 is the threshold for entry.
Green leaf has been the most successful of the exotics, polling a bit less than 44,000 in the 2013 election.
Gil (age), a Pensioners Party surged at the end of the campaign for the 2006 election to become the boutique party of Israelis wanting to protest against the major contenders. It won seven seats in the Knesset, and its leader capped an impressive career in the security services to become a minister in charge of something small, but with an voice in public affairs. Ex-Mossad chief Rafi Eitan was 80 at the time, with his past featuring major roles in the capture of Adolf Eichmann and the management of Jonathan Pollard.
The end of the Pensioners Party contributed to the comic side of Israeli politics, when one of its aged female MKs accused one of its aged male MKs of improper advances.
Even more bizarre was the career of Shmuel Flatto-Sharon, who made it into the Knesset in 1977 when the threshold was 1 percent rather than its present 4 percent. He had come to Israel only two years earlier to escape charges of embezzlement in France, and worked in the Knesset (with limited Hebrew) to create of a law against the extradition of citizens. He didn't make it into subsequent Knessets, and was eventually sentenced to several months of community service due to vote-buying. He had promised free or cheap apartments to young couples, and paid voters he described as campaign workers.
No one has yet predicted a surge of a minor party becoming the darling of Israelis presently fed up with all the serious contenders. More likely is that we'll be stuck with a month or more of nerve wracking blather by politicians and commentators, as one and all maneuver to get something from the undecided mess left by the voters.