4. Please match the following five figures with their parties:

A4 B1 C5 D3 E2

5. What is Shinui’s view on religion and state? (C)

Note: Questions #6-11 are strictly opinion or information oriented

Voter Profiles

Avi Mizrahi was born in 1960 to immigrant parents from Morocco. Since serving in the IDF he has worked for the phone company Bezeq. He has worked hard, but he feels that discrimination kept him from moving up the company ladder as fast as he would have liked. With three school-aged children, he wants them to have a religious education so they’ll know their heritage, even though he is not particularly observant. After synagogue, he likes to go to Betar Jerusalem football (soccer) games. Avi’s believes that Israel can make peace with the Arabs from firm positions, and only as long as it does not give in to terror.

Yevgeniya Abramov was born in 1975 in Odessa. She immigrated in 1999 as the daughter of a Jewish father. Her parents stayed behind. Though very talented she lost her job in the high tech crash and has had difficulty in finding suitable regular employment. She feels Jewish, but she does not want to convert. She has a Jewish Ukrainian-Israeli boyfriend, and they want to have a civil marriage in Israel but cannot. She does not know what to think about the peace process because she does not understand its history enough and still has a hard time reading the Hebrew papers. She just wants someone who can help her better absorb into society.

Tal Lipkin was born on a Kibbutz in 1980 to Sabra parents. The family moved to Tel Aviv when Tal started grade school. Tal loves to wind surf, and his idol is Olympic champion Gal Friedman. Tal has had little contact with religious Jews or settlers from over the Green Line, but he resents both. He feels that the State spends too much money on Yeshiva students, who do not serve in the Army, and on the settlements, which keep Israel in conflict with the Palestinians. He is not sure which is more crucial for Israel’s future: keeping the ultra-orthodox out of power to build a more secular society, or keeping the far right out of power in order to pursue a peace settlement.

Orli Bar-Lev was born in 1969 in Haifa. Her whole life she has dreamt about Israel living in peace. Her earliest memories are of Menahem Begin shaking hands with then president Anwar Sadat of Egypt. Having learned Arabic, she worked in intelligence for the Army during the first Intifada. While she was horrified by some of the things the Palestinians were writing, she was also bothered by some of Israel’s actions in the Territories. She supported the Oslo peace accords but became disenchanted with them after the series of suicide bombings in 1996. After the second Intifada and the recent Hamas election victory, she is sick and tired of the violence but doesn’t know whom Israel can talk to anymore.

Menahem Eisenstadt was born in 1972 to a religious family in Ramat Gan. After the Yom Kippur War, his parents decided to follow the Greater Israel movement and moved to Qedumim near Shechem (Nablus). A few years later they felt a little too isolated and moved to a newer, more urban settlement known as Karnei Shomron. Menahem served in a Hesder unit, where he learned part time and soldiered part time. Menahem has always felt most at home in the biblical Land of Israel and could not believe that any government would want to give it up. He feels that the “Palestinians” have only given the country grief with their terror and he was active in opposing the Disengagement Plan. 

Voter profiles explained

Note: these profiles are by no means comprehensive but, rather, provide a simplified selection of floating voters between the major and significant minor parties.

Avi Mizrahi represents the crowd wavering between Shas and Likud. The Likud party had attracted many Sephardi Jews, who were bitter about their immigrant experience and thus disenchanted with the Labor establishment, in the 1970s. However, the Shas party grew from 4 seats in 1984 to 17 seats in 1999, mainly at the expense of Likud, as it focused on purely social issues concerning Sephardi Jews and greatly increased Sephardi representation in the Knesset. Shas also benefited from the Direct Election Law that allowed the electorate to split its vote. Shas had a very dynamic leader, Arye Deri, replaced by Eli Yishai.

Yevgeniya Abramov represents the wave of nearly 1,000,000 immigrants from the Former Soviet Union, who arrived since 1989. Many are centrist to hawkish on the Territories, but they are as much, if not more concerned, with the difficult transition to a new culture and society. Tens of thousands come from mixed parentage and want to see more civil laws enacted. Hence, people like Yevgeniya are likely to waver between Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beytenu and one of the newer parties, like Lev, or vote for the Likud. Those on the more dovish side might prefer Shinui or Hetz, which split from Shinui in the outgoing Knesset.

Tal Lipkin represents the liberal crowd that wants Israel to be a Jewish, secular state. Their opposition to Israel’s presence in the Territories and the settlements therein has grown over the years. While they want to protect Israel’s security during the current conflict, they see the dismantling of most settlements and Israel’s evacuation from the Territories as the best guarantee for Israel’s long-term security as well as its Jewish-democratic character. They also oppose what they see as religious coercion that keeps buses from running on Shabbat and people marrying whom they please in the ceremony of their choice. People like Tal are considering either Meretz, which emphasizes the peace issue, or Hetz, which emphasizes the secular issue.

Orli Bar-Lev represents the swing vote between Labor and Kadima which looks as if it will go mainly to Kadima. Polls indicate that more people are leaning towards Kadima, but the hesitation still exists. Many say that the differences between the Kadima and Labor are in the nuances [and the same for Kadima and the Likud]. Indeed, all Prime Ministerial candidates support the idea of a Palestinian state - albeit with different levels of party support and ideas about the final borders of that state. The Hamas election victory in the PA worries everyone who supported Oslo and the Peace Process, but disenchanted Labor supporters are cautious about voting for a party that emerged from the Likud.

Menahem Eisenstadt represents the hard-line sector of Israeli society, whose views have only been sharpened by the violence of the al-Aqsa Intifada and Disengagement. They predicted that Oslo would fail and it did. Many did not support the idea of transferring Arabs, but the violence in recent years has convinced some that Israel might have no other choice, if it wants to control Judea and Samaria and preserve Israel’s security. As a religious Jew, Menahem’s loyalties are split between Ichud Leumi and new right-wing fractions.