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Nuestro último video de Israel a bordo explica cómo funciona el sistema electoral en Israel. El video destaca el proceso de votación, explica la representación proporcional y el umbral electoral, y describe por qué hay tantos partidos diferentes.

On Jan. 29, 2019, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: “We do not believe Iran is currently undertaking the key activities we judge necessary to produce a nuclear device.” However, experience helps us realize that the American intelligence community has a very problematic track record in revealing, on time, nuclear weaponization efforts of many countries (e.g., North Korea, India, Pakistan, Syria, and Iraq) including Iran itself, so one has to be very humble about this kind of assessment.

In 2018, a record 4.1 million tourists visited Israel from all over the world. The figure is particularly impressive, given the security incidents in this period, the extensive coverage of security-related events by the foreign press and social media, and the BDS campaign. While global tourism between 2007 and 2018 increased 60 percent, tourism in Israel in the same period rose 100 percent.

Exclusive Pre-Elections survey by the Guttman Center at the Israel Democracy Institute finds that half of Israelis find it harder than in the past to decide whom to vote for; 25% base their choice on the party’s positions on socioeconomic issues and 18% on who heads the party; 27% do not trust the integrity of the Knesset elections.

Assembled by Ken Stein and Eli Sperling Emory University and Center for Israel Education kenstein@israeled.org or kstein@emory.edu Michael Barak, “Civil War? The rift between Fatah and Hamas, as seen on social media,” Moshe Dayan Center, February 7, 2019. https://dayan.org/content/civil-war-rift-between-fatah-and-hamas-seen-social-media Naama Barak, “Tel Aviv’s most unlikely nightlife hot spot,” Israel21c, February 19, 2019.  https://www.israel21c.org/tel-avivs-most-unlikely-nightlife-hot-spot/ Amiram Barkat, “Israel’s economic […]

Israel’s political system requires its leaders and political parties to reach compromises and agreements in order to effectively govern the country. In this activity, designed for middle school through adults, learners will engage in research and role play to learn about the major parties running in the 2019 Israeli election; uncover elements of each party’s […]

In January 2019, about two weeks before India’s Republic Day, Israel’s National Security Advisor, Meir Ben-Shabbat, flew to New Delhi and met Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi. While such consultations have been routine for the past two decades, the Israeli official chose the direct Air India flight from Tel Aviv – a new flight connection that could only be established due to an unprecedented permit for Israel-bound flights to fly over Saudi airspace. The small incident highlights the distance that India and Israel have traveled since the normalization of diplomatic relations in 1992.

In the past few years, Israel has begun to tilt toward the East. While Israel’s growing relationship with China, in particular, has gained widespread attention in recent years, little attention has been paid to Israel’s relationship with the other Asian economic superpower—Japan.

As a political activist, Weiss recollects with keen candor the incidents in 1978-1980 where he personally confronted President Jimmy Carter for what he viewed as his definitive anti-Israeli comments and actions.

View full article at the Baker Institute: https://www.bakerinstitute.org/media/files/news/b60b91fc/BI-pub-USIPPolicyReport-0212.pdf

Eight years after a series of uprisings erupted across the Middle East, there is a debate whether a relatively stable order (old or new) has taken hold in the Middle East, or whether the region remains unstable and, therefore, will continue to produce waves of unrest.

Our latest Israel on Board video explains how the electoral system in Israel works. The video highlights the voting process, explains proportional representation and the electoral threshold, and describes why there are so many different parties.

One of the keys to understanding Israel’s elections process is recognizing the structures of the country’s electoral and political system. Although both democracies, Israel and the United States have very different political systems.

Professor Doron Shultziner explains the origins of Israel’s democratic norms and how the country has used Basic Laws to uphold the rule of law in the absence of a formal constitution.

Recent statements by a number of Israeli officials have claimed a degree of success in Israel’s efforts to contain and roll back Iran’s entrenchment in Syria. But while Israel’s tactical successes are certainly notable and impressive, the big picture is that Iran’s influence and strength in Syria continues to deepen and expand. Iran’s efforts are taking place at three levels: below the official Syrian state structures – in the arming and sponsoring of Iran-controlled paramilitary formations on Syria soil, within the Syrian state – in the control of institutions that are officially organs of the regime, and above the state, in the pursuit of formal links between the Iranian and Syrian regimes.

Michael Barak surveys the online discourse surrounding the ongoing feud between the Fatah and Hamas movements, which has been characterized by public disputes between supporters of the respective movements. The tension is causing public concern about the possibility of further deterioration into civil war.

Arab society in Israel is not a homogenous political or ideological community, but rather — a mosaic made up of four main streams: Arab-Israeli (Zionist); Arab-Jewish non-Zionist (communist); Islamic, and Nationalist. The Arab-Israeli stream is represented in Jewish– Zionist political parties (on the Right and Left), and the other three are currently represented by the Joint List. The latter three streams all emphasize the Arab community’s Palestinian identity, but differ in certain aspects of their world views. Whereas the nationalist stream stresses the Palestinian nationalist component of the Arab minority’s identity, the Islamic stream stresses the religious (Islamic) component, and the Arab-Jewish stream believes in Arabs and Jews joining forces in social activism.

An overview of the important role that Hebrew played in the Zionist movement and how the movement itself helped spur the revival of the language.

The population of the Middle East has increased by nearly over 100 million, or 22 percent in the ten years preceding 2017. The population of the Arab states rose by 83 million or a quarter, while the three non-Arab states increased more slowly. Israel’s population rise was close to the Middle East average. Egypt, the largest Arab state in demographic terms, experienced a rise of 20 million or nearly 26 percent. These increases, which were among the fastest in the world, placed huge strains on the economies of the region. They required more food supplies in a region that is chronically short of water, investments in the infrastructure, and fast economic growth to generate jobs.

The Jewish public is divided over the question whether the prime minister should resign if indicted by the Attorney General, pending a hearing; 52% of the Jewish public believes that Israelis living abroad should also have the right to vote. 52% of the Israeli public (49.5% of Jews, 66% of Arabs) believes that Prime Minister Netanyahu should resign if the Attorney General recommends that he be indicted, while 35.5% believe he can continue serving as prime minister.

The articles in this volume explore the primary significance of the changes in the Middle East over the past year, and focus on the areas of intensifying friction in the region and their international context. Contrary to previous volumes in the Strategic Survey for Israel series, which raised many diverse issues, even those without immediate ramifications for Israel, this volume covers domestic and external events that have a clear and immediate impact on the country’s national security.

Israeli society is extremely diverse, with multiple political divisions that run along ideological, ethnic and religious fault-lines. Israel also has an extreme proportional system of government, which grants representation in the Knesset to any party that passes a low 3.25% threshold in the election that takes place in a nationwide single district. The result of these two factors is political fragmentation. On the one hand, this is a good thing because minorities in Israel are adequately represented in parliament. However, representation comes at a price in terms of political stability and good governance.

Assembled by Ken Stein and Eli Sperling Emory University and Center for Israel Education kenstein@israeled.org or kstein@emory.edu Amb. (Ret.) Barukh Binah, “US Policies towards Israel and the Middle East,” The Israel Institute for Regional Foreign Relations, January 2019. http://mitvim.org.il/images/US_Policies_towards_Israel_and_the_Middle_East_-_December_2018.pdf Anat Ben Haim and Udi Dekel, “Israel’s Dilemma over Syrian Reconstruction,” INSS, January 27, 2019. https://www.inss.org.il/publication/israels-dilemma-syrian-reconstruction/?offset=0&posts=1133&type=399 Nir Boms […]

After almost eight years of brutal violence, the Syrian civil war is nearing a conclusion. The ultimate outcome of this conflict and the subsequent reconstruction of Syria are of utmost importance to Israel, which will need to rely on the actions of other parties in the arena with interests similar to its own. France is one such party. The French strategic interest in Syria spans decades, and since the outbreak of the civil war and the rise of the Islamic State, France has paid renewed attention to Syria.

A former IDF General, Benny Gantz’s speech officially launched his campaign to replace current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in April 2019 elections. With pride of ownership, Gantz spoke of his love of Zionism, the Jewish people and the state of Israel. He intoned for new leadership, not-self-absorbed, reminding his listeners that his army career of 38 years reflected a keenness to protect the state, a place where he made tough decisions. He warned Israel’s adversaries while calling for an end to domestic divisions and corruption. He called for a moral government that will do its best for all of its citizens in the fields of education, business, health care. His maiden political speech reflected a definite pragmatic and centrist outlook.

February 1, 1885 Russian Jewish novelist, editor and early Zionist Peretz Smolenskin dies of tuberculosis at age 43 in Italy. Smolenskin was born in the Mogilev province of White Russia in 1842 and had a traditional Torah education. At 22, he started teaching Hebrew in Odessa, where he wrote a book of literary criticism in […]

Scholars and policy experts Jonathan Schanzer, Todd Stein, Alan Makovsky and Professor Ken Stein discuss the evolution, successes, and challenges of the US-Israel relationship.

In the coming years, Syria will focus on tending to its war wounds while continuing to serve as a springboard for strategic threats posed by Iran and its proxies against Israel. It is in Israel’s interest that Syria rebuild its infrastructure, experience economic recovery, and benefit from a stable central government. However, there is inherent tension in Israel’s position.

Our latest Whiteboard video explores the history and context of ultra-Orthodox deferments from the Israel Defense Forces. Beginning with the 1947 status-quo agreement between David Ben-Gurion and Agudat Israel, we explain the origins of the policy and why it has become so divisive in contemporary Israeli society.

On Tuesday, January 15, 2019, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi assumed his position as the 22nd IDF Chief of Staff. From a security perspective, his tenure begins in a stormy, unstable period, when the IDF’s strategic and operational environment continues to be marked by vast uncertainty.