Phase Three was finally completed on May 14th 2015, almost two months after the election, following the 61-59 vote in the Knesset plenum.
Israel’s 34th Government (Netanyahu’s 4th)
20 Ministers + PM
Prime Minister + Foreign Minister + Health Minister + Communications Minister + Regional Cooperation Minister + Authority of Jerusalem Affairs Minister – Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud)
Finance Minister – Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu)
Education Minister + Diaspora Affairs Minister – Naftali Bennett (Bayit Yehudi)
Economy Minister + Negev & Galil Minister – Aryeh Deri (Shas)
Defense Minister – Moshe Yaalon (Likud)
Interior Minister + Deputy Prime Minister – Silvan Shalom (Likud)
Justice Minister – Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi)
Transportation Minister + Intelligence Affairs Minister + Authority of Atomic Energy – Yisrael Katz (Likud)
Energy and Water + Partial authority of Strategic Affairs – Yuval Steinitz (Likud)
Housing Minister – Yoav Galant (Kulanu)
Religious Services Minister – David Azoulay (Shas)
Agriculture Minister – Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi)
Internal Security Minister + Tourism Minister + Minister Coordinating with Knesset – Yariv Levin (Likud)
Immigration & Absorption Minister + Partial authority of Strategic Affairs – Zeev Elkin (Likud)
Science, Technology & Space Minister – Danny Danon (Likud)
Welfare Minister – Chaim Katz (Likud)
Culture & Sport Minister – Miri Regev (Likud)
Senior Citizens Minister + Gender Equality Minister + Authority of Youth Department and Minority Affairs – Gila Gamliel (Likud)
Minister in Communications Ministry (under Communications Minister Netanyahu) – Ofir Akuins (Likud)
Minister without portfolio – Benny Begin (Likud)
Environment Minister – Avi Gabai (Kulanu)
Other Tidbits
Defense & Foreign Affairs Knesset Committee Chairman + Coalition Chairman Tzachi Hanegbi will swap places with Ofir Akunis as a Minister in the Communications Ministry in a year.
Deputy Health Minister Litzman (UTJ), Deputy Foreign Minister Hotovelly (Likud) and Deputy Regional Cooperation Minister Kara (Likud) will serve under Health, Foreign & Regional Cooperation Minister Netanyahu, without another Minister on top of them. The other Deputy Ministers, such as Deputy Defense Minister Ben-Dahan (Bayit Yehudi), will have Ministers above them.
Likud’s #2 Gilad Erdan refused a spot in Netanyahu’s cabinet because his requests for Foreign or Interior+Internal Security was denied.
Stay tuned for the Knesset Jeremy analysis later this weekend.
Jeremy's Knesset Insider 
So, if Erdan refused to take a lesser ministry, why did he vote in favor of the government? It just seems a little paradoxical to me, unless he didn’t want to be seen as the reason for new elections. Does this mean that Erdan becomes the unofficial opposition within the party?
He’s waiting in the tall grass. He most certainly didn’t want to be seen as the reason for new elections.
Are there new polls out yet? hahaha
These portfolios are distributed just as illogical as was expected – ministers sharing responsibilities and having portfolios overlapping each other’s responsibilities. Also I think that here are too many ministers – in the future the portfolios should be combined into bigger and more logical combinations.
So, here is a list that (from my point of view would make sense):
Prime Minister
Foreign Minister, Regional Cooperation Minister, Strategic Affairs Minister
Health Minister, Welfare Minister, Senior Citizens Minister
Communications Minister
Interior Minister, Internal Security Minister, Jerusalem Affairs Minister
Finance Minister
Education Minister, Diaspora Affairs Minister, Culture & Sport Minister, Science, Technology & Space Minister
Environment Minister, Energy and Water Minister (including Authority of Atomic Energy)
Defense Minister, Intelligence Affairs Minister
Agriculture Minister, Negev & Galil Minister
Economy Minister, Tourism Minister
Justice Minister, Gender Equality Minister
Transportation Minister
Housing Minister
Religious Services Minister
Immigration & Absorption Minister (including Authority of Youth Department and Minority Affairs)
Minister Coordinating with Knesset – could be added to any of the positions above
For the “giant” positions (= many titles) there would certainly have to be 2-3 deputies to take care of all the day-to-day work.
Comments, anyone?
PM + Three Ministers!
Interior Minister – To deal with what’s happening inside the country.
Foreign Minister – To deal with what’s happening outside the country.
Defense Minister – To prevent what’s outside from getting inside.
Everything else (Housing, Agriculture, religious services) should be operated on the regional/municipal level and positions that just dictate to people (Equality, Education, Health) should be eliminated altogether.
I like this idea!!
From an outsider’s perspective, it doesn’t seem like all that many cabinet ministers to me. We have 39 cabinet ministers in Canada right now. Obviously we’re a much larger country in terms of people and geography, but Israel’s a pretty complex state for its size. Even my home province (British Columbia) has 20 people in its cabinet. Frankly I find the Israeli cabinet quite trim compared to our bloated one.
In Canada the breakdown (currently) is:
Prime Minister
Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development
Justice and Attorney General
Health
Public Works and Government Services
President of the Treasury Board
Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (probably doesn’t need to be in cabinet)
National Defence
Agriculture and Agri-Food
International Development & La Francophonie
Industry
President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, Minister of Infrastructure, Communities and Intergovernmental Affairs
Environment, Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency and the Arctic Council
Transport
Fisheries and Oceans
Associate Minister of National Defence (probably not needed in cabinet)
Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
International Trade
Finance
National Revenue
Canadian Heritage and Official Languages
Natural Resources
Citizenship and Immigration
Labour & the Status of Women
Veteran Affairs
Employment and Social Development, the National Capital Commission & Democratic Reform
Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism, and Agriculture
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Consular Services
Minister of State for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
Minister of State for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
Minister of State and Chief Government Whip
Minister of State for Multiculturalism
Minister of State for Seniors
Minister of State for Sport
Minister of State for Finance
Minister of State for Social Development
Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification
Minister of State for Science and Technology)
The Ministers of State are junior cabinet members who don’t necessarily have a full department or a full ministerial budget, but still lol. I’m pretty envious of the size of Israel’s cabinet.
Well first of all I would guess there are MANY positions you could combine in the Canadian cabinet. Second, here in Scandinavia I am used to somewhere between 12 and 18 ministers – so it very much varies …
I’m sure there are, and the cabinet is inflated for the same reasons as Israel’s – keeping the government caucus happy. That being said, Israel’s cabinet doesn’t strike me as unreasonable given how complex a state Israel is.
They brought back Minister Without Portfolio. Disgraceful. Hopefully this government will at least limp through Obama’s term. That will likely be its only accomplishment unless these 61 show a level of discipline that has not been indicated over the last two months. Likud can’t even get Erdan under control.
Any word on if Lieberman’s party will vote in favor of legislation that is supported by its party manifesto or will Israel Beitnu reflexively vote against any and all legislation in order to hurt the government? At this point I expect maximum pettiness from all 120 MKs, especially Lieberman.
Running out the clock in anticipation of a new President only creates a political vacuum that the Europeans and the UN would be happy ro fill. Bibi for once in his career needs to be proactive on three fronts: an Israeli diplomatic plan that might change the international conversation; dramatically improving the economy and living conditions for Palestinians in the territories; and a quietly negotiated deal with the opposition on electoral reform that strengthens the large parties. (BTW, the one electoral reform that must await a solution to the Palestinian issue is moving to a district or constituency based model since Israel cannot get away with a constituency where only Jews can vote and is unlikely to annex the territoritories and enfranchise its Arab residents.
I dont think a district based system is advisable or practical, altho there is a case for the German mixed system, which is half and half. Or perhaps there is a case for the Greek system: award 20 of the 120 to the winner.
I am using this calculator, which approximates the actual results fairly well http://icon.cat/util/elections. (actual) calculator
likud (30): 30
zu (24): 24
arabs (13): 14
yesh atid (11): 11
kulanu (10): 9
jewish home (6.8%): 8
shas (5.8%): 7
YB (5.1%): 6
UTJ (5.0%): 6
meretz (3.9%): 5
Under the Greek method, seats are apportioned thus:
likud: 45 (25+20)
zu: 20
arabs: 11
yesh atid: 9
kulanu: 8
jewish home: 7
shas: 6
YB: 5
UTJ: 5
meretz: 4
Bibi then has wonderful options. He could form a unity government and say screw you to the rest. Or even better, form up Kulanu, Jewish Home and one other party.
The Israel Democracy Institute recommends increasing the Knesset to 180 seats and a variation on the mixed model. I think the Greek model a bit too extreme in the winner take all sense. However, were it in force in this past election it would have created a powerful psychological strategic voting dynamic in the electorate. Yesh Atid and Meretz would probably have merged into the Zionist Union and YB would have remerged into Likud. Whether Kulanu would come into being is a question mark but its voters would be a swing constituency. Likud would likely still take the prize but the left might give it a run for its money. Remember, including Kulanu there are 63 seats to the left of Likud in the current Knesset.
The Greek method hasn’t served Greece particularly well lol. I’m not sure why anyone in their right mind would look to Greece as a model to emulate over a Nordic country or Ireland or some other modern, successful democracy like that?
Awarding a “winners bonus” to anyone by definition means having governments that are opposed by most Israelis. Israel’s system has its flaws, but requiring governments to have the support of the representatives of most voters (or close to it) is not one of them. Most modern democracies have the same requirement, and it gives them an advantage over less modern democracies like France, Greece, the UK and Canada that do not.
Israel’s instability has three primary sources:
1) The use of closed lists, which tends to increase the number the number of parties by virtue of restricting choice within parties. Likud could more easily attract centrists from Yesh Atid and Kulanu if centrist voters could pick a centrist candidate from Likud for example. Open lists are the norm in northern Europe. It seems like the easiest reform to bring in, and it surprises me that it’s not on the political radar more in Israel. It’s usually unpopular with parties themselves, as MKs/MPs generally don’t like having to compete against members of their own party too lol.
2) The use of one very large (120 member) districts. Larger districts leads to more parties, though that in and of itself isn’t necessarily a source of instability – the Netherlands for example has very stable government with a very large number of parties – but it certainly doesn’t help. Single member districts aren’t the most stable either though – the “sweet spot” seems to be 4-8 member districts elected proportionally according to Profs. John Carey and Simon Hix (not sure about posting links here, but a quick google of “Carey and Hix” should turn up their work).
In Israel you might want to go a bit higher since you wouldn’t want of the main political groups to go unrepresented. If you had electoral districts that matched Israel’s regional districts you’d bring
3) The divisions within Israeli society itself. Israel’s electoral issues are as much a symptom as they are a cause. Until the Haredim and Israeli Arabs are better integrated into Israeli society and politics expect problems to continue. That’s an issue that both “sides” need to work on together too. Odeh is moving the Arab parties towards the mainstream, but hasn’t got there yet, and Lapid’s confrontational approach to the Haredim is not likely to bear fruit in the long term IMHO.
Avi – “(BTW, the one electoral reform that must await a solution to the Palestinian issue is moving to a district or constituency based model since Israel cannot get away with a constituency where only Jews can vote and is unlikely to annex the territories and enfranchise its Arab residents.”
Israel’s already effectively doing this. I agree it would be poor optics if you had to carve Judea and Samaria into single member districts (and thus make specific divisions between specific communities), but if it was a single district, perhaps lumped in with an “oversees” constituency, I don’t think the optics would be much worse than currently.
Agree with your points re: strategic voting. This sort of system would essentially kill the centre, to the benefit of the right and left.