Jeremy's Knesset Insider

Municipal elections are over in most cities however the national parties and politicians are still working hard. Although most municipalities went to the polls on October 22 there have been many cities where no mayoral candidate managed to reach the 40% election threshold. A second round of elections will take place November 5. Following the second round of elections there will be a three week time period of coalition negotiations before the new mayors and city council members take their seats. National party politicians will try to squeeze out a few extra victories over the next week. The local politicians will utilize their party’s national level connections to help them in coalition building handouts of deputy mayors and committee chairmanships.

There will be a second round of elections in Israel’s 5th largest city in population Petah Tikva and another top 15 city in Herzliya. Israeli citizens in Samaria will vote for a second time in Beit El and Elkana. In the north there will be a second round in a number of cities including Afula, Kiryat Shemona, Kiryat Tivon and Migdal. Cities with large amounts of middle to upper class residents will conduct a second vote in Hod Hasharon, Pardesia and Mevaseret Tzion.

Although things have quieted down for the national politicians their local counterparts will make sure they have plenty of work to do until November 26 when the new five year term begins.

The Knesset started its winter session this week. The session will focus on many controversial legislative issues including the National Referendum Bill, Ultra-Orthodox Draft Bill, Electoral Reform Bill and the Illegal Infiltrators Bill. The peace talks will most likely be discussed every week during the no-confidence votes on Mondays and as the main topic of the urgent motions on Wednesdays.

With Knesset returning to session this week after a three month break, this was a perfect excuse for Haaertz to order for this weekend the first national poll in over six weeks. Most polling companies have been focused for the last few months on the municipal elections that will take place on Tuesday. Most papers chose to focus on the municipal elections instead of the Knesset session with their polls as Yisrael Hayom did with their New Wave poll and Kol Ha’ir did with their Panels poll. Many polling companies such as Maagar Mochot and Smith are working for the national parties during the municipal elections and have little time to devote to newspapers or television stations during “crunch time”.

This will be an interesting, challenging and entertaining Knesset session. The parties going in might look different on the way out and there will be many storylines to follow. What will happen following Labor’s leadership election? Can Lapid prevent his party’s collapse? Will Yisrael Beitenu split from Likud? Can Meretz improve on their impressive recent rise in the polls? How will the Shas era post-Rav Ovadia Yosef look like and will Yishai split the party? Will UTJ remain united and will they take sides on Deri-Yishai rift? Will Livni’s party agree to vote for raising the threshold or vote in favor of a national referendum that might torpedo peace talks? Can Bennett keep Bayit Yehudi in the coalition throughout the peace talks? Will Hadash, Ra’am-Ta’al and Balad unite in order to survive planned electoral threshold increase? Will former Prime Minister Olmert officially return to Kadima during the winter or will we have to wait a little longer?

March 19^th is the last day of the winter session and that could be the day where all of the controversial bills are passed into law as part of a joint coalition package. We should have answers to many of the above questions before the Knesset goes on Passover vacation/spring break.

Latest Poll on Knesset Jeremy: https://knessetjeremy.com/2013/10/18/haaretzdialogue-poll-likud-beitenu-32-labor-17-bayit-yehudi-15-meretz-12-yesh-atid-10-shas-10/