CHAPTER 10
Political solutions have to be put into operation by political forces. Therefore, before examining the solutions proposed, let us analyze first the composition of political life in Israel and the currents at work. Much has been written about this, but little is known, for Israeli political forces are quite different from what they seem to be to the superficial foreign observer-even more so than other aspects of Israeli life.
We have an apparently bewildering array of parties in Israel. During the 1965 elections, eleven election lists got enough votes to be represented in the present Knesset. Two of these lists comprised two parties each, aligning themselves for tactical purposes. The biggest list won forty-five of the Knesset's 120 seats, the smallest won only one seat.
This variety of political forces is the result of proportional representation: the whole state is considered one big constituency, and the seats are divided among all the election lists according to the number of votes each receives. Thus, no votes are lost, unlike the American and British systems, in which the winner takes all and the votes backing losers are wasted. Proportional representation allows every minority to have a voice, and it is very difficult, therefore, for any single party to receive an absolute majority. Even at the height of Ben-Gurion's power, his Mapai never received more than forty per cent of the vote. The biggest party is called upon to make a coalition agreement with other parties who control at least enough additional votes to create a majority for the government. 166