LESSONS FROM THE ISRAELI EXPERIENCE WITH A NATIONAL UNITY PARITY COALITION, 1984-88. Dr. Gideon Rahat& Dr. Reuven Y. Hazan Department of Political Science Hebrew University of Jerusalem Background Early elections were called in Israel for July 1984. The results for the two big parties – the Labor Alignment and the Likud – showed a close and competitive election which separated one from the other by only 3 seats(the same number of seats that separates the CDU/CSU and the SPD after the most recent German elections), out of the total of 120 seats in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. The Alignment won 44 seats. The potential coalition partners of the Alignment, the Citizens Rights Movement and Shinui[Change], each won 3 seats. Two new center parties, Yahad[Together] and Ometz[Courage], won 3 and 1 seats, respectively, and supported a government lead by the Alignment. The Israeli Arab parties, the Democratic Front for Change and Equality and the Jewish-Arab Progressive List for Peace won 4 and 2 seats, respectively. Likud won 41 seats. Its potential coalition partners included Tehiya[Renaissance] which won 5 seats, and the six religious parties who together won 14 seats. The balance of supporters for each side created a political stalemate: Center-left parties(50)+ Arab parties(6)+ center parties(4)= 60 seats. Center-right(46)+ religious parties(14)= 60 seats. According to the“Basic Law: The Government”, after a legislative election the President of Israel – a largely ceremonial position, elected by the parliament – consults with the leaders of all the political parties who have won seats in the Knesset. He then decides to designate one of them to form a coalition government. The stalemate made it impossible for any leader to form a majority coalition government. In this aspect the 1984 election results in Israel differ from the most recent German elections – the SPD has“arithmetic” possibilities for forming a majority coalition. However, since the CDU/CSU won more seats, the political impasse is similar. In order to avoid another election or a minority government, the result was the formation of a national unity parity coalition. The coalition was made up of both the Alignment and the Likud, which together held 85 seats and were thus a clear majority, along with six additional parties for a total of 97 seats. The Alignment and Likud each had 10 ministers in the national unity parity coalition, while the remaining six parties had 1 minister each. The position of Prime Minister was to be rotated between the two leaders of the main parties, each serving for two years. The national unity parity coalition stayed in power for almost its entire term of office, a major accomplishment in Israeli politics, until the 1988 elections.