ISRAELI AND U.S. POLITICAL SYSTEMS

The United States and Israel are both political democracies, and both share certain core values as involves the rights of citizens. However, the two nations are also profoundly different in the purpose and operation of their political systems, though both share a similar history as developments of the British parliamentary system. (Jenkins, 1990, 48)

The single most profound difference is that Israel is a "Jewish State," founded as the "last refuge" for Jews around the world, which thus favors one particular religion that has a strong influence on the national politics and government, while the United States is a nation founded by many ethnic groups of varying religious backgrounds. (Peretz, Doron, 1997, 5)

While the founders of Israel were secularists, and established the government to be a secular government, the fact of its innate "Jewishness" means there are aspects to the government that are profoundly religious, and thus operate to the exclusion of other residents, primarily Christians and Muslims; Israel is far from a theocracy - at least at present - but it is also not a secular democracy. (Peretz, Doron, 1997, 9)

The United States, though it has frequent difficulties over the separation of church and state, is a determinedly-secular nation as regards the operation of its political and governmental system. (Gerberg, 1991, 14)

THE ISRAELI POLITICAL SYSTEM AND GOVERNMENT COMPARED WITH THE UNITED STATES

. . .
ed only by a twothirds or threefifths Knesset majority; and the establishment of a welldefined system of judicial review. This was mostly accomplished in the laws that changed the election of Prime Minister. (Dowty, 1998, 278) Unlike the Israeli system, the American system operates with a written Constitution, which the actions of all branches of government must be in accordance with; this includes a written Bill of Rights of the people, which cannot be overriden by governmental action. (Gerberg, 1991, 32) The Legislative Branch: The primary difference between the Israeli and American systems of government is that the israeli government is based on the British parliamentary system, which excludes the separation of powers that is the hallmark of the American system of government. (Hoffman, 1996, 940) Additionally, unlike the American political system in which there is only one winner for each office, the Israeli system uses a system of "proportional representation," that results in there being a proliferation of political parties, due to the low number of votes required to send a representative to the parliament. The Knesset is a unicameral parliament and the supreme authority of the state. Its 120 members are elected by un
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Approximate Word count = 3148
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)