Although I would be delighted to see Gadi Eisenkot become Israel’s next prime minister, I don’t intend to vote for his party, but for a different one: The Democrats. My reasoning is shaped by a lesson from Israel’s 2009 election: in a parliamentary system such as ours, you do not necessarily advance your preferred prime minister by voting for the party which is expected to win the most seats, but by giving your vote to a “bloc.”

In 2009, Tzipi Livni’s Kadima emerged as the largest faction in the Knesset, but Benjamin Netanyahu assembled a bloc of 65 and became prime minister. The decisive factor was not which party finished first, but which coalition could command a parliamentary majority.

That is why the real question for a voter to ask is not only who will head the next government, but what kind of coalition will be formed, which party best reflects the voter’s views, and how it will shape government policy.

For me, the........

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