This article was originally written 29th April 2021. The image above is the Knesset building.
Contents
Introduction: 2021 Israeli election
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
Romans 13:1 NKJV
Israel held elections on 23rd March 2021. This was the fourth election in two years, and only a year after the last election.
Likud, which is the right-wing party of the current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, won 30 seats, nearly twice as many as any other party. However, they are still a long way short of the 61 seats needed to form a majority government in the 120 seat Knesset (Israeli Parliament).
The President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, has given Benjamin Netanyahu a mandate to form government, which he must do by Tuesday 4th May. However, so far he has been unable to persuade enough of the minor parties to enter into a coalition with him in order to be able to form a government. This is a repeat of the pattern of the first two of the last three elections, where no government was able to be formed and another election had to take place.
In the meantime, Yair Lapid, the leader of Yesh Atid, which is the main left-wing party, has claimed he will be able to form a government coalition. He has to wait until Netanyahu’s time expires, at which point the President is expected to give Yair Lapid the mandate to form a government.
There is also a dark horse, Naftali Bennett, the leader of Yamina, which is a right-wing party. He only gained seven seats in the election but has put his own name forward to be Prime Minister and so far has not supported anyone else. There is an outside chance that he may be given a mandate to form a government. The media have also been calling him a potential “king-maker”, as his party is likely to be needed by the other more major parties in order to form a government, which potentially gives him the power to choose who he wants to be the next Prime Minister.
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.
1 Timothy 2:1-2 NKJV
We need to pray that the right government is formed, that it will be a stable government which will lead Israel in the direction God wants her to go in, and that there will not be any need for any more elections in the short term.
Israeli electoral system
Israel uses what is called a “closed list proportional representation” system for its elections. This means that voters vote only for a party, not for individual candidates, and the seats won by the parties are proportional to the total number of votes cast. So, for example, if 30% of the people voted for a particular party and 15% voted for another party, the first party should get around 30% of the total number of seats and the second party around 15% of the seats. This system favours minor parties, as the minimum percentage of votes needed to be elected is 3.25%, so there are a lot of parties which get elected to the Knesset, mostly small ones.
There are no electorates and the candidates do not represent people in a particular geographical location in the way that members of the House of Representatives do in Australia (though they can often represent minority groups such as Ultra-Orthodox Jews or Arabs). The parties choose the order of candidates on the party lists and thus determine who is most likely to get a seat, similar to what they do for Upper House elections in Australia, except the Israeli voter has no chance to give their first vote to a candidate who is low on the list as we can here.
Voting is not compulsory and there are no preferences. Voting is very simple: you just choose the ballot slip of the particular party you favour, put it in an envelope, then put that into the ballot box. Voting day is a public holiday. You have to go to your nominated polling booth near where you live. There are no absentee votes except for people in hospital, police, armed forces and so forth.
It is not possible to vote if you are overseas at the time of the election, except for staff of embassies and similar diplomatic positions. This created issues prior to this year’s election as many Israelis were stuck overseas with Israel not allowing flights into the country. However, the ban on flights was lifted shortly before the elections to help Israelis come home to vote if they wished to.
Types of government in historical Israel
Theocracy
When Abraham first settled in Israel (then called Canaan), he was a nomad, and did not appear to be subject any particular authority. In Canaan in those days, rule was over individual towns (and the agricultural land surrounding them), called “city-states”, or over a group of towns which were close to one another, rather than over the whole geographical area (for example, Melchizedek was king of Salem which later became Jerusalem, Genesis 14:18).
It was not until the children of Israel came out of Egypt that there was any formal leadership over them as a nation. The first leader was Moses. He listened to God’s voice and conveyed His laws and instructions to the people. In this type of government, God was the ruler over the people and Moses was His vessel, His spokesman to the people. This is called a theocracy, from the Greek for “the rule of God”. This term was coined by the Jewish historian Josephus, specifically to describe this Biblical form of government.
Nevertheless, quite early on we see Moses, at the advice of his father-in-law, Jethro, delegating authority to different tiers of leaders in order to deal with day-to-day business; thus he did not have exclusive authority under God.
So Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people: rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. So they judged the people at all times; the hard cases they brought to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves.
Exodus 18:24-26 NKJV
Kritarchy
Joshua succeeded Moses as leader over the people. After him came the Judges.
The specific term for the type of government under the judges of Israel is kritarchy or kritocracy, literally meaning (Greek) “rule by a judge”. The judges were natural successors to Moses and Joshua in that they did not administer government in their own name but in God’s name, and God was still considered the real ruler of Israel; consequently this form of government was still a theocracy. However, many people during this time did not follow God’s rule.
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Judges 17:6 NKJV
Monarchy
Eventually the people came to Samuel and demanded that he give them a king.
Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.
1 Samuel 8:4-7 NKJV
So Samuel anointed Saul to be king over Israel. This was the beginning of the monarchy, where the king was the ruler over Israel rather than God. David succeeded Saul, then Solomon, and then the country was divided into two, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, both of them continuing to be a monarchy. Some of the kings looked to God and still acknowledged Him as the true ruler, but most did not.
Foreign rule
Following this, the kingdoms were each conquered by foreign kings and the people taken into captivity or otherwise put under their rule. Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem as governor, but he was not the outright ruler but was still subject to the foreign (Persian) king.
Eventually, Israel was conquered by Alexander the Great and came under Greek rule. The Maccabees rebelled against this rule and regained independent government for a few decades; but then the Romans conquered, and in Jesus’ time, Israel was under Roman rule.
Democracy
The Jews did not again have full control and government over their own land until 14th May, 1948, when, following World War II and the Holocaust, the State of Israel was declared.
Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once?
Isaiah 66:8a NKJV
In our calendar, the 73rd anniversary of Israel’s independence is 14th May 2021, but the State of Israel celebrates it according to the date in the Jewish calendar, which is lunar, so their Independence Day holiday was actually celebrated on 15th April 2021.
The new government was, and is, a secular democracy. Some members of the Knesset are religious, and Jewish religious needs are taken into account in the laws of Israel, but nevertheless the government does not openly acknowledge God as the ruler over Israel.
Messiah’s everlasting rule
“Now therefore, thus shall you say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a name like the name of the great men who are on the earth. Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously, since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel. Also I will subdue all your enemies. Furthermore I tell you that the Lord will build you a house. And it shall be, when your days are fulfilled, when you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your seed after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son; and I will not take My mercy away from him, as I took it from him who was before you. And I will establish him in My house and in My kingdom forever; and his throne shall be established forever.” ’ ”
1 Chronicles 17:7-14 NKJV
Although this prophecy about David’s son was referring to Solomon, who built God’s temple in Jerusalem, it is simultaneously referring to a future son of David, Jesus the Messiah, who is building God a spiritual house, i.e. the Church, and whose throne will be established forever! It is God’s plan that Jesus should be the ruler over modern Israel as He was over ancient Israel. According to these verses, this will happen when God has planted them in “a place of their own” from which they will “move no more” – something which happened only 73 years ago. So we are anticipating a revival which will soon sweep through Israel!
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
Isaiah 9:6-7 NKJV
The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!
Revelation 11:15b NKJV
