Five Ways of Looking at the Knesset
23 January 2013
This is the way the results of the elections are being presented in the Israeli press:
Centre Left Bloc Right Bloc
Other, perhaps more accurate ways to present the election results:
Left Bloc Right Bloc
Non-Jews Jews
Women Men
Willing to take the necessary steps for a two-state solution?
Willing Unwilling
Sad most about that last. Jewish history (see the tale of living in Egypt that ends with Pesach, crossing a sea of reeds, and forty years of refusing to ask directions) tells us that having a majority population without representation is not sustainable.
Given the choice between a Jewish state and a Democratic one, I personally would prefer the latter. But we didn’t start from there, and an independent Jewish state is hardly a valueless proposition.
Given that, if the descendants of those who formed Israel and its post-1948 immigrants, wish to retain the former and not abjure the latter, the choices are spin-off (“two-state”) or treating non-Jews as equivalent to slaves. I’m not certain either of those is sustainable, but the choice is that of those who see the daily interactions.
Whether they still believe a decision can be deferred or have made their choice is not clear from the vote, but let us be optimistic for the moment.
In the diagram Non-Jews/Jews, there seems to be 130 members of Knesset, while the others have 120, which is the correct total.
Thank you for pointing that out: it’s been corrected.