Israel - King of Swamp Castle of Democracy

[Tigers!]

And it gives disproportionate power to the small parties. I'm not at all sure it's better.

There isn't a single obvious way of implementing proportionality. Some countries use high thresholds to keep out smaller parties; some are split to several smaller districts which cause implicit hidden thresholds. There are also different ways of counting the votes, d'Hondt method slightly favors larger parties whereas Sainte-Lague gives an edge to smaller ones. The point being, that there aren't necessarily a large number of small parties ruining the show.

Personally, I think it's healthy to have some small parties, because competition is good.

Look up the Hare-Clark system for an obtuse way to apportion seats.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hare%E2%80%93Clark_electoral_system#:~:text=Hare%2DClark%20is%20a%20type,as%20for%20the%20Australian%20Senate.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

And it gives disproportionate power to the small parties. I'm not at all sure it's better.

There isn't a single obvious way of implementing proportionality. Some countries use high thresholds to keep out smaller parties; some are split to several smaller districts which cause implicit hidden thresholds. There are also different ways of counting the votes, d'Hondt method slightly favors larger parties whereas Sainte-Lague gives an edge to smaller ones. The point being, that there aren't necessarily a large number of small parties ruining the show.

Personally, I think it's healthy to have some small parties, because competition is good.

The problem I'm worried about is where you have big blocks courting the small guy they need to make a coalition.

It's bad enough with our system where you often see the most middle-of-the-road politicians being courted by both sides, but with a multi-party system the effects are longer lasting.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Well... Israel went ahead and did it. The coalition to undo Netanyahu wasn't able to survive based on that one goal, the government coalition fell apart and Israel just went ahead and voted the far right assholes back into power.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s opposition leader, was set on Thursday to seal victory in Israel’s general election, putting him on track to return as prime minister at the helm of one of the most right-wing governments in Israeli history.

Vote counting was expected to finish on Thursday afternoon, and Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc is almost guaranteed to score a clear victory, according to near final results published by the electoral authority. That would ensure that Israel, after five elections in less than four years, will have a cohesive government with a steady majority for the first time since 2019.

Netanyahu ran on a platform of "please don't put me in prison". And Israel agreed. Things are expected to just be slightly different, but Netanyahu will of course be a complete dick.

 

[steve_bank]

In the reporting Israel is slipping into authoritarianism.

There is a right wig move to expel Israeli Arabs. The legal system will be weakened to protect Netanyahu.

Think Trump getting reelected with control of the house and senate and the justice department.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

If Netanyahu can explain how Jews went from brown people south of the Sahara to White people above the Sahara he'd get my vote.

The Diaspora https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora probably had something to do with that.
Anyway Jewishness is not skin colour based.

Yeah, whatever. I have an Asian friend who was born and raised in Jamacia. He recognizes (and so do I) where his parents/Grandparents came from (Hmong). so apparently being Jamaican isn't skin color-based either, yet he and I both know how he came to be Jamaican. I'm just curious how we got the Jews we have today.

Jews are a very mixed race. Some Canaanites and others, Romans, Greeks from the era of Alexander, Arab Moslems, Ashkenasis, Turks, results of a land that has been conquered again and again and again

 

[Jayjay]

It's an oft-repeated trope that Israel is the "only democracy in the Middle-East" and therefore deserves our unconditional support.

But democracy is just as much about rule of law and separation of powers as it is about having elections. If the future right-wing governments start eroding the judicial system, Israel could be headed in a very dark place.

 

[steve_bank]

To me Jews are similar to Christians in that Jewish religious spectrum goes from the wacky consecutive extremes to moderates to liberals.

As far as I can tell Netanyahu is the Jewish version of the Christian biblical literalist. He publicly justifies seizing control of Jerusalem and taking Palestinian land by saying god gave it to Jews.

We supported Israel in part when Russia had influence in the region, the Cold War.

Whatever criticisms there are, Israel is unique in the region inducing North Africa.