On Saturday, June 15th heard from Middle Wasteland expert Avi Ben-Hur, and the topic was Israeli politics, and how it differs from American politics. Israel's political system is called a parliament, and it includes many parties that are voted into a total of 120 seats. The leader that is running for prime minister has to form a coalition with different parties and if they fail to do so then they can not be prime minister. Right now the prime minister is Bebe Netanyahu. He has been prime minister on and off for close to 18 years. Presently, he is facing a total of six criminal charges - this concerns the Israeli people.
The government is considering extending the service of both the standing and reserve duties. However, there is a war going on, which is why the contemplation to extend the service duty in the standing and reserves is creating disagreements among many. We also learned that the two biggest populations in Israel do not have mandatory service which is creating a manpower problem. These communities consist of the ultra orthodox and the arab communities, who are also the fastest growing populations in the country right now.
Overall, being able to learn further about what is going on behind the scenes of the Israeli government, alongside the war was helpful for Americans. Prior to getting this information we only knew about the outside perspective. It was very interesting to hear the perspective from an Israeli citizen who is an expert on the middle-eastern conflicts.