The crazy quilt pattern of Israeli politics is nothing new. But this year, with 36 parties — 24 of them new — contending for 120 Knesset seats, the June 30 elections promise to be redolent of an oriental bazaar.
Awaiting the voters is a choice of goods to suit every political persuasion and idiosyncrasy, every social, secular or religious inclination. To be sure the main and decisive contest is between Likud and the Labor Alignment. None of the minor parties, many of them one or two member “lists,” expects to gain a Knesset majority. But each hopes to win enough seats to give it a bargaining position when one or the other of the major parties attempts to form the next government.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
