No more missed opportunities

Israel should become more democratic by shifting to a constituency-based electoral system.

By LEE MOOR
Mofaz and Netanyahu at cabinet meeting 370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Mofaz and Netanyahu at cabinet meeting 370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Israel used to have statesmen and women in parliament and government. Today there are too many political pygmies, chancers, crooks and self-interested pressure groups linked to parties and government led by the morally corrupt and pusillanimous.
The Israeli diplomat Abba Eban used to refer to late PA chairman Yasser Arafat as a man who never failed to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. And as someone who could always grab defeat from the jaws of victory.
These pithy epithets can so easily be applied to the present coalition between Kadima and Likud.We all know that Kadima only agreed to get into bed with President Binyamin Netanyahu and Likud because it faced political annihilation. Both have done the right thing, albeit for the wrong reasons. But despite the selfish interests, if handled properly, the formation of the coalition could manufacture a good outcome.
Israel has the worst form of PR electoral system in the world. No constituency MKs, no personal responsibility or direct electoral legitimacy. The party list system makes MKs only concerned with the party mangers and their position on the list.The country as a single constituency destroys any chance of a relationship between the people at a local level and their MKs, apart from the crassness of single issue parties, which exhibit similar bigotry. It guarantees any looney or fringe group not only a seat or two but often a chance to exercise that morally corrupting role of holding the balance of power.
Now there is a real opportunity to change all this. Back in the 1980s I worked with Chaim Herzog and others to try and introduce a form of a more relevant electoral process. Kadima and Likud have a short opportunity to do this. They need to act now. Past chances have been squandered.
What should they do?  It’s surprisingly simple.
In line with Democratic ideals, they should change the electoral system to a constituency based one with a simple alternative vote system. I would prefer a simple first past the post system, as is used in Great Britain, but I realize this may not work in Israel. Under such a scenario, MKs would become directly responsible to an identifiable electorate and not to the party bosses alone. This would immediately stop extreme, so-called parties, which in effect are just lobby groups from whatever persuasion being able to hold the balance of power as they do now.
My particular prejudice is against religious parties, which have no place in a secular parliamentary structure. Religious parties do not operate in most democracies but of course are in theocracies like Iran, which Israel must avoid heading to. The UK and US legislatures are full of religious people, but they are there as political electives, not self-appointed spokesmen of a deity.
There should not even be a Department of Religious Affairs. Such issues should be handled by the Ministry of Interior — as was the case prior to 2008, with the rights and concerns of the secular and religious population heard and protected accordingly.
A peace process unhindered by the views of extremists could then be organized. In the absence of true peace and with the same certainty of demographics, there can only be a two-state solution.
The framework of a peace agreement has been documented at Camp David and Oslo. Borders will need to be adjusted, a road and rail link would be built between Gaza and the West Bank, and the independent Palestinian state would only be allowed armed police and militia, no standing army or heavy weapons. This means shutting down some but not all settlements and moving others to new locations within the agreed borders.
The Palestinians fought and lost every war. They cannot get back everything they want  simply by government decree. They will, as Thucydides pointed out in the Melian debate, “have to accept what they must.” It won’t be perfect, but it will be their state to operate as most other Arab states. It will be their own to run or ruin.
Jerusalem will remain under Israeli control but will become internationalized and could serve as the capital for both states if they wish.
The PA and the Israeli government will be given 12 months to make such an agreement. If they fail to do so, then it will happen as a unilateral event.
This is not wishful thinking. It is even more than common sense. These constraints are the basis of all the tried and failed peace negotiations and broadly accepted by the major powers and the discredited UN. Will it happen? Of course not. Should it? Unquestionably, yes. The pusillanimous pygmies on all sides will regrettably grab defeat from the jaws of victory.