Israel Debates No. 12 12 November 2012 What has been achieved? On the political balance of Israel’s social protest movement. There is an election campaign going on in Israel. On 22 January 2013, early elections for the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, will take place. The main reason to bring the date forward – regular elections were scheduled in the fall of 2013 – was the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu was neither able nor apparently willing to approve the State budget for 2013. It had foreseen necessary cuts in government spending and significant tax increases, which would inevitably have led to losses at the ballot box for both him and his coalition partners. So it was in his electoral interest to reschedule the elections and postpone the approval of the budget until afterwards. It seems Netanyahu, who until recently dominated, almost unchallenged, the political scenery in Israel, meanwhile worries about securing re-election. One of the reasons for this is that, as an immediate conse­quence of the social protest movement last year, Israel experiences a new awareness of social and eco­nomic policy issues. The feeling of increasing social injustice, the dismantling of social state principles, a growing gap between rich and poor, housing rents that could no longer be paid and the rising costs of living brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets in the summer of 2011. Despite efforts by its leaders, the protests did not continue into the year 2012. Nonetheless, the movement and its demands for social justice and a functioning welfare state managed to significantly impact the country’s political di s­course. In the previous decades in Israel, it was security policy issues that were decisive in elections. This will not see any fundamental change in future. In view of the developments in the Arab world, the conflict with Iran and the still unresolved Middle East conflict, competence in matters of security policy will continue to play the key role. But there is a good deal to indicate that this alone may not suffice. The protests have raised greater public awareness of the importance of issues of economic and social policy in their country. As a result, people are expecting their political leadership to come up with concrete responses on these issues as well. Another concern to Netanyahu is the resurgent Labor Party. It was that party’s new vigor – apart from other possible tactical considerations – that led him and the Likud Party which he presides(27 Knesset seats) to form an electoral alliance with foreign minister Liebermann’s nationalist right-wing party, Yisrael Beitenu 1