Israelis head to the polls, and they really head to the political poles.

For many years I lived in Israel on work visas. My wife working at the appropriate ministry for such things definitely helped my doing so for over a decade. Then one day, against the law of the country, the folks at the Interior Ministry said no more visas. It was time to put up or shut up. So I asked what flavors of ice cream were available, and there were two: citizenship or permanent residency. Both would give me an ID card and require me to pay Israeli (along with U.S.) taxes. The only noticeable difference was that I could not vote in national elections as a permanent resident. I chose to become a permanent resident. I vote in Jerusalem for mayor and city council, but I don’t vote for the Knesset. I am and remain a proud citizen of the United States of America.

Israelis go to the polls in late October. Israeli politics are like a car crash played out over the course of several months. There are around two dozen political parties, the bigger ones being Likud and various rotating parties now that Labor has all but disappeared from the political map. Then there are many smaller parties, some swearing that they will never sit with certain other parties due to ideological differences. Some keep to their word while others find some magical dispensation to sit with the sworn enemy, usually in the form of ministries and hundreds of millions of shekels for favored projects. Amazing how that works. The last time there were elections, it took multiple rounds before a stable government could be formed. The problem is that Israel is facing its own challenges of a growing Arab population.

All Israeli citizens enjoy equal rights. That’s true for Jews, Christians, and Arabs. Not all enjoy equal obligations. Very few Israeli Muslims serve in the IDF, and one of the arguments of the ultraorthodox when being told to join up is to say that the........

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