Analysis: Israelis vote party over personality in throwback to earlier times

The Knesset election result points back to a time when two major parties rose above the rest.

It seems like old times.

Back in the 1980s, Israel had two large parties: Likud and Labor. They were the major parties, with a number of smaller factions far behind.

In more recent years, the gaps between the larger and smaller parties narrowed. It caused greater governmental instability as the supposed ruling party had to constantly look over its shoulder at a partner which wasn’t much smaller. In the 2013 election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-led list won 31 seats and the new Yesh Atid Party, led by former journalist and television personality Yair Lapid, earned 19 seats.

Mr. Netanyahu was prime minister but Mr. Lapid was a very powerful government partner.

Next in line were factions which had earned 15, 12, and 11 seats respectively, followed by several more in the single digits. We had only one large party, but also mid-size parties, and then the smallest ones.

The political landscape was a free-for-all. Over the course of time, the Knesset has been working against the phenomenon of tiny parties running on their own by raising the threshold, the minimum percentage of the vote needed to enter the Israeli parliament. It is now 3.25 percent. Gone are the days of one or two-member factions entering the Knesset, with the math putting the current minimum at about four seats.

Anyone who follows Israeli politics knows that even the smallest factions can wreak havoc with a government coalition, but setting a barrier between the ruling parties and the junior partners is still more conducive to stability.

In 1984, Likud and Labor decided that instead of acting as government and opposition, they would form a national unity government as equals, to the extent of splitting the term between two prime ministers: Shimon Peres of Labor (or the Alignment, as its list was officially called) and Yitzhak Shamir of the Likud. The Alignment had won 44 seats, while the Likud had taken 41.

The results in this year’s election are almost reaching those levels again, with two parties nearly as large as the Likud and Labor back then, and the others much smaller.

In voting in Tuesday’s election, Israelis voted party over personality. Though the campaign had been dirty on a personal level.

Many Israelis who voted Likud did so out of ideology, even if they had questions about Mr. Netanyahu himself, the pending criminal indictments against him or the feeling that leaders should not hold on to power too long.

Many Israelis who voted Blue and White wanted an alternative that could be a major force, even if its ideology was not clear, and even if Benny Gantz is a political novice and not an orator on the level of Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Smaller parties built on personality or issues which didn’t fit well into the wider agenda of a larger party fared poorly.

However, a unity government akin to 1984 isn’t in the offing. Mr. Netanyahu has an easy path to a right-wing coalition and Blue and White’s leaders have pledged not to sit with the Likud prime minister.

No matter how the coalition-building process plays out, the ultimate question will be whether this next government is strong, stable, and goes beyond the numbers game to attack the burning issues of the day.