Before Israel votes: Who are Israelis really voting for?

Part Two of a series explaining Israel’s political system before Israelis go to the polls

In the first installment of this series, we learned that Israel is unlike the United States in one fundamental respect: the entire country is a single electoral district. Israelis do not elect members of the Knesset from local constituencies. Instead, they vote for political parties. That naturally raises the next question.

If Israelis are voting for parties rather than individual candidates, who decides who actually serves in the Knesset?

The answer is the party list.

Before an election, every political...