Word: knesset
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...Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park. The U.S. has an alternative press. But in Israel it is the parliament that serves as the country's platform for outrageous minority views. With only 1% of the vote -- just 22,000 ballots in 1988 -- needed to win a seat, the 120-member Knesset must give house room to a stunning variety of opinions in an exceptionally opinionated nation. Its 15 parties offer something for everyone: ultra- Orthodox rabbis who disdain Israeli statehood, Zionist leftists and Arab communists who support Palestinian statehood, and right-wing extremists who want to expel the Palestinians...
...later handed petitions signed by 500,000 Israelis -- nearly 10% of the population -- demanding that he initiate electoral reform. Popular protest has been growing steadily. Last month 250,000 rallied in Tel Aviv to denounce the political system; this week protesters plan to hold a mass demonstration at the Knesset. Says lawyer Eliad Shraga, who has been staging a vigil outside Herzog's house in Jerusalem: "We need a skipper who will take us to the left or to the right." Otherwise, he fears, "we will reach a state of anarchy...
...Regional representation. Knesset members are accountable only to the party; a constituency system would require them to speak for the voters. But full regional representation would also require safeguards to ensure that Israeli- Arab and ultra-Orthodox Jewish voters were not wholly disfranchised...
...Raising the threshold for a Knesset seat from 1% to at least 4%. This would dramatically reduce the number of small parties represented...
...Since Knesset members have a vested interest in the current system, none of these reforms stand much chance of passage in the coming months. Moreover, Labor and Likud would have to work together -- an unlikely prospect -- to steamroller the necessary bills past the smaller parties. And even if reform succeeded, it would not alleviate the profound divisions within the Israeli electorate. "The Messiah won't come through changing the system of elections," says Rabbi Abraham Ravitz, whose Degel Hatorah party holds two seats. But at least the nation would be guided from the top by leaders chosen by the people...