Elections are happening in Israel.

Here is an overview of the four leading parties and their leaders.


1. Likud ("Consolidation"), Binyamin "Bibi" Netanyahu

The original party of Ariel Sharon represents mostly right-of-centre Israelis including the "settlers" (Jews who live in areas that according to the UN should be Jew-free). Netanyahu wants to continue the peace process but focus more on the economy in the Arab territories rather than border questions. The Likud does not support the founding of another Arab state in Israel/"Palestine".

The Likud supports a free-market economy and traditional (but not necessarily religious/orthodox) Jewish values. The party is roughly comparable with the Republicans in the US and the Tories in Britain and Canada.

Binyamin Netanyahu was born in 1949 in Israel and speaks Hebrew and English.

Likud's voters are mostly Jewish Israelis of European and middle-eastern origin. Druze Arab voters, once promiment supporters of Likud, most likely followed Ariel Sharon to Kadima.


2. Kadima (Qadima, "Forward"), Tzipora Malka "Tzipi" Livni

Kadima is the party founded by former Likud members around Ariel Sharon and Sharon's allies from the Labour party. Kadima want to continue the peace process with the PLO and Fatah (but not with Hamas who are unwilling to talk anyway) and, like most Zionist parties have traditionally been, are in favour of a two-state solution. Since Ariel Sharon's near-death, Kadima have been quiet about their actual plan. Ariel Sharon's plan, which Kadima was founded to support, was to withdraw from Gaza and most of the West-Bank, build a wall around the areas and watch the Arab nationalists and Islamists kill each other.

Kadima have also won the last presidential election running Shimon Peres, who left Labour to co-found Kadima with Ariel Sharon. Majalli Wahabi was Ariel Sharon's personal ambassador to Egypt and Jordan and served as Israel's president for a few days in 2007.

Tzipi Livni was born in 1958 in Israel and speaks Hebrew, French, and English.

Ariel Sharon was born in 1928 in Israel.

Shimon Peres was born in 1923 in Poland and speaks Yiddish, Russian, Hebrew, Polish, English, and French.

Majalli Wahabi was born in 1954 in Israel and speaks Arabic, French, and English.

Kadima's supporters are Israelis of all nationalities. Kadima is particularly popular among Druze Arabs, Sharon's traditional allies. Kadima do not really have an American or British counterpart except maybe Tony Blair's Labour party.


3. Avoda (3avoda, "labour"), Ehud Barak

Labour is very much a social-democratic party. Labour support the peace process and a two-state solution. (A "two-state solution" refers to founding a third state in the former Palestine mandate territory of Britain.) The party is a traditional Zionist party and its history goes back to the late 19th century.

Ehud Barak was born in 1942 in Israel.
Avoda is roughly comparable to a left-wing (but not suicidal) part of the Democratic party in the US, the Labour party in Britain and perhaps the "New Democrats" in Canada.


4. Yisrael Beiteinu ("Israel is our home"), Avigdor Lieberman

Yisrael Beiteinu are the Israeli equivalents of "moderate" Arab parties. They stand for encouraging Israeli Arabs to leave in exchange for financial compensation and for redrawing borders to include within Israel Jewish villages located in the UN-designated Jew-free zones and exclude Arab villages now inside Israel. (Such border changes are opposed by most Israeli Arabs who do not want to become part of an Arab state.)

The party does not support the peace process and does not support a two-state solution. Its supporters are mostly Russian-speaking Jews.

Avigdor Liberman was born in 1958 in Moldova and speaks Hebrew and Russian

Yisrael Beiteinu has no direct counterpart in the US or Britain, but pretty much shares its party platform with the Arab Fatah party in the Palestinian Authority (replace "Arab" with "Jew" and vice versa) except for the violence bit.

5. Shas, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef

Shash is a Haredi ("ultra-orthodox") Mizrahi (Arab Jews) party founded under the supervision of former Sephardic (Spanish and middle-eastern Jewish religious tradition) chief rabbi Ovadia Yosef, an experienced nutter who became famous for blaming the Tsunami hitting New Orleans on the city's lack of Torah study (note that New Orleans is not Jewish and non-Jews do not have to study Torah but perhaps Rabbi Yosef only meant New Orleans' Jews) and US support for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. He also claimed that the Shoah was divine punishment for sins against G-d. On the other hand Rabbi Joseph was among the first to welcome and integrate Ethipian Jews into Israeli society.

Shash usually joins coalition governments in exchange for money (i.e. social wefare for families with many children, i.e. religious families). Because of that Shas sometimes finds support among Muslim Arab Israelis.

Rabbi Ovgadia Yosef was born in 1920 in Iraq and speaks Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic.

The closest equivalent to Shas in the US would be the Christian fundamentalists among the Republican party and Shas' supporters are found mostly among Jewish refugees from Arab countries, especially from Iraq.

6. United Torah Judaism

UTJ is a union of a Hassidic and a non-Hassidic ("Lithuanian") orthodox party representing Ashkenazi ("German") Haredi Jews. Generally similar in outlook to Shas UTJ feature less crazy representatives and a greater willingness to support specific policies of Kadima. Like Shas UTJ is generally upposed to founding another Arab state in "Palestine" and is in favour of keeping the Status Quo of state-religion relations in Israel.

The closest equivalent to UTJ in American politics is probably more moderate Christian fundamentalists in the Republican party.

Personally, I am not sure whom I'd vote for. Kadima without Sharon is not very interesting. Labour don't seem to know what they are doing. Likud know exactly where they are going but I don't know if it could work. And Liberman is a loony, but whenever I hear how the world thinks that living in bunkers is acceptable for Jews and doesn't constitute a reason to shoot back, I find myself thinking that only a loony is really capable of dealing with the enemy.