Communists, Kahanists, annexationists, Hasidic rabbis and the social protest movement -- the race for seats in the next parliament features colorful figures from across the ideological spectrum
More than a dozen different factions sat in the 18th Knesset, which dissolved itself early Tuesday morning, and a few new parties are expected to join the 19th Knesset, which the Israeli people will elect on January 22, 2013. America somehow gets by with two political parties for its 300 million-strong population. We fewer than eight million Israelites, with our over-abundance of political democracy, evidently need dozens of choices.
It's been nearly four years since the last elections (which took place on February 10, 2009), when dozens of parties competed for the 120 seats -- including rank no-hopers like the taxi drivers' party, the battered husbands' party, and the combined legalize marijuana/Holocaust survivors' party (really). This time, one or more convicted criminals are planning comebacks, established parties are coping with new challenges (Labor after Ehud Barak's breakaway, Kadima after its voters' breakaway...), several new parties have been founded, and more are doubtless on the way.
read more at Times of Israel
Alpher discusses what was most significant about the third Obama-Romney debate last week from an Israeli standpoint, whether the joint electoral list agreed on
last week by Netanyahu and Lieberman ensures a right-wing
victory in Israel's elections, and explains the strange, seemingly contradictory, actions last week: the dramatic bombing raid in Khartoum that was
attributed to Israel, along with an upswing in Hamas rocket attacks from
the Gaza Strip that produced only limited, Israeli retaliation. 
