The Study Of Israeli Political Party Politics

In the early20thcentury, the Jewish elite, committed to Zionism, establishedZionism parties, which is the origin of the Israeli party politics. Zionism was theresult of fermentation by the sacred “Back View” and the modern philosophy and therevolutionary spirit of European nationalism containing freedom, democracy, equality,nation and state, in the environment of the modern anti-Semitism, and the modernsecular nationalist movement of Jewry from Diaspora returning to Palestine to rebuildthe national homeland. Through decades of hard working in the poor socio-ecologicalenvironment, Zionism parties established a quasi-state Jewish community, the patternand the tradition of Israeli party politics was basically formed.Establishment of Israel in1948provided a broader space for the party politics,and the party politics had played a central role in the modernization process of Israel.Israeli party politics experienced evolvement from a Labor-led pattern to acompetitive pattern between Labor and Likud, and so far a fragmental pattern whichbig parties are not big, small parties not small or is called “polarized pluralism”, withthe development of Israeli democracy. Because of the diversity of the immigrantcommunity, the surrounding tensional relation, the religious property of Jewish nationand the Jewish property of Israel, Israeli party politics has many characteristicsdifferent from other normal societies and states.The basic characteristics of Israeli party politics is a multi-party system, thefractions, the frequent combination and dissension, and more and more obviousfragmentation. The diversity of immigrant community and the proportionalrepresentation system are the long-standing factors. The pattern of Israeli politics hasobviously fragmented since1996. The fundamental reason is the result of the socialtransformation in nearly20years. The implementation of the system of PrimeMinister’ direct election is only a temporary factor, but playing an accelerated role.Accompanied by the evolution of party politics, religious party politicsexperienced changes from weak to strong, from initial defense to offensive position. Infiltration and intervention of the religious parties in political and social life is farbeyond the usual understanding of the modern democratic states. This is both theheavy influence of Israeli historical culture and the logical result of the reality ofpolitical development and necessity. Under religious party politics, civil liberty hassome restriction, administration performance has a certain block. However, as aconsistent power in the parliamentary democratic politics and an importantcomposition in the majority of the joint governments, religious party politics hassome constrictive effects on the authority of the major parties, and has also played agreat role in promoting the political democracy process. Shas’ movement has widersocial base. It addresses appeals of equal rights in economy, politics and society onbehalf of poor groups-the Oriental Jews, and mobilizes their zealous of politicalparticipation, and finally promotes the deeper development of Israeli democracy.Israel is the most democratic country in the Middle East, but as far as the relationbetween religion and democracy is concerned, Israel and Islamic countries have acertain similarity.The influence of Arab-Israel relation on Israeli party politics is so direct andprofound that it is an important factor of resulting in combination and dissension, waxand wane, of Israeli parties. Meanwhile, the Israeli party politics also impacts thedeveloping direction of Arab-Israel relation, and results in instability, zigzag andlong-term of the Middle East peace progress.The diversity and complexity of social contradictions is a typical characteristicof Israeli society. These contradictions have influenced on Israeli party politics, suchas Arab citizens and Jews, Oriental Jews and West Jews, religion and secularity，new immigrants and old immigrants. Israeli party politics not only reflects themovement of contradictions between interest groups, but also becomes an importantchannel of easing social contradictions.