The Candidates
Barak, Begin,
Mordechai, Netanyahu
Bishara

Political Blocs & Parties
The political spectrum
The party lists
The Left
The Right
The Center
Religious parties
Sephardic parties
Immigrant parties
Arab parties
Women in politics

Campaign Issues
Peace and security
Economy and social issues

The Electoral System
Knesset elections
Elections for the PM
Who can stand
Who can vote
The Parties Law

System of Government
Knesset
Constitutional law
Government

Former PMs
A thumbnail guide to Israel's past leaders

Israel's Political History
An overview of the first 50 years, period by period.

Link Center
Hot links to other election sites and resources.

Peace and Security

• Jerusalem: How to ensure that the city will never be redivided. Most of the parties maintain that Jerusalem is the undivided capital of the State of Israel, under full Israeli sovereignty.
• The modalities of the permanent agreement and the right way to negotiate with the Palestinians. Major issues: how much territory should be handed over to the Palestinians, what form the Palestinian entity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip should take, and what Israel should demand from the Palestinians in return for its concessions. Most of the candidates -- including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu -- accept the Oslo process as irreversible. The extreme Right does not.
• The price Israel should be willing to pay for peace with Syria: Can Israel withdraw from part or all of the Golan Heights?
• The way to achieve a settlement with Lebanon: unilateral withdrawal, agreement with Syria, or some other way? Israel has no territorial claims to Lebanese territory; the problem is security.
• How can terrorist attacks be prevented?

Religion and State

• Whither the religious status quo?
• Can religion be separated from politics?

Economic and social issues

• Privatization: How fast and under what conditions?
• Keeping down the rate of inflation versus encouraging economic growth and reducing unemployment, interest and tax rates, and the size of the budgetary deficit.
• Priorities in government spending: How much money to house young couples and new immigrants, how much for Jewish settlements in the territories, religious establishments, health, education, welfare, infrastructure, culture, etc.?

Sectorial issues
The growing number of sectoral, ethnic, and single-issue parties will ensure that issues such as the rights of immigrants, the Arab citizens of Israel, various ethnic groups, women and workers, and environmental and regional interests will be raised, and will also be addressed by the larger, multi-issue parties.

Personal

• The credibility of the candidates for prime minister. There is going to be a good deal of name calling and mud-slinging.

The regime

• The norms of clean government
• The activism of the Supreme Court

Since support of and opposition to the system of the direct election of the prime minister cuts across party lines, this will not be an election issue.

Links in this section:
Constitutional law
The Government
The Knesset
The electoral system
Elections for the PM
Political parties
Campaign issues
Former Prime Ministers