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To: BillyBoy

You are wrong. Gesher formed a joint ticket with Labor and Meretz for the March 2, 2019 election *precisely because* its leadership feared that, if it ran alone, it would not reach the 3.25% threshold and thus get shut out of the Knesset. Gesher didn’t split from the joint ticket until *after* the election, and that’s how Orly Levy served as the “sole member of her party” in the Knesset. From the Wikipedia article that you linked:

“For the 2020 March elections, Gesher-Labor unified with Meretz in light of worries that neither party would pass the 3.25% threshold needed to enter the Knesset. Many Gesher voters were surprised at this merger, because when it comes to the politics of the Arab–Israeli conflict, Gesher was seen as more of a centre-right party, while Meretz is a left wing party.[citation needed] On 17 March 2020, Gesher leader Orly Levy requested that she be allowed to withdraw her party from its alliance with Labor and Meretz.[12] The Arrangements Committee approved the split on 23 March.[13]”

So I was correct that one can’t get elected unless one runs with a party that gets at least 3.25%. No way that a Christian party, unless it forms a coalition with a non-Christian party, would elect anyone to the Knesset.


15 posted on 03/24/2021 7:22:19 PM PDT by AuH2ORepublican (If a politician won't protect innocent babies, what makes you think that he'll defend your rights?)
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To: AuH2ORepublican

Well, in any case, my favorite guy, Bezalel Smotrich, won a total of 2 seats for his party (Tkuma) in the Knesset, not the “minimum four” you claimed earlier. There’s no sort of “win less than 4 seats and they automatically get 0 of their members in government” rule.

Yes, they did run on a coalition with other like-minded parties for the purpose of strengthening their chances of winning, but that was for the purpose of caucusing together in the Knesset and for GOTV efforts by running under the same slate and sharing resources, etc., not because they were required to. Israel is a multi-party system with dozens of minor parties sharing power, so they pretty much ALL ran on slates with other political parties as part of their “team”. And as I noted, any hypothetical “Christian” party would indeed have to run on a slate with non-Christians, not only because its a multi-party system but because they are only 2% of the population in Israel and can’t win just on Christian votes alone.

Smotrich also ran on a slate with parties that had similar goals as his own, but the other two parties (namely, Otzma Yehudit & Noam) each got zero seats, and it didn’t stop Tkuma from holding two. Previously, they had 5 seats. On another thread, apparently there is a projection that they could win 6-7 seats in this current election, which would be awesome, but there’s no “minimum of four or they don’t get power at all” rule. This article itself notes that Ra’am winning “up to” four seats would “defy expectations”, as they were expected to win less.


16 posted on 03/24/2021 8:18:46 PM PDT by BillyBoy ("States rights" is NOT a suicide pact.)
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