Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Secretary General on the aftermath of the latest election campaign in Israel
 
The elections are over in Israel, and the first thing to do is to present heartfelt congratulations on behalf of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress to all of the elected deputies, many of whom turned out to be new to the Knesset.

The most recent election campaign had been exceptionally tumultuous and had been accompanied by a multitude of predictions, both withing the Jewish state itself and in the wider Jewish world. The prognoses written in Russian had predicted en masse that Israel would sway to the right after the elections. A powerful block of right-wing parties had been predicted to come into being, which had been supposed to define the policy of the Jewish state in the upcoming four years.

The reality of the elections has amended most of the predictions that had been made. First of all, Israeli society has voted with an obvious lean to the center, both from the left and from the right. Even though Likud Beitenu, the right-wing block, has formally won the elections, in reality, they lost a lot of votes in comparison with the previous campaign – which is the most important and yet furthest from all of the predictions result of the elections. At the same time, it is obvious that this block will be able to steer the state, and it is quite unlikely that another Prime Minister will be elected instead of Binyamin Netanyahu.

Second, the main sensation of these elections was the success of the Yesh Atid party (“There is a Future”), even though the policy of the party is largely unclear. It is obvious that many voted for it just to avoid voting for the same old politicians.

It seems to be one of the characteristic features of Israeli life that new centrist parties spring up from time to time, gaining many voices during their first election. The most prominent example was the Kadima party, which had a resounding victory in its time, but which is now at the wayside of political life. I'd like to hope that Yesh Atid has a future and will be more long-lived than its predecessors.

Third, it is impossible not to note the impressive results of Avodah, the oldest political party of Israel, which had been almost forced out of the political race during the last elections. Now it can once again influence political processes, become an important part of a coalition or, like many times before, lead the opposition.

So what are the preliminary conclusions we can come to? It seems that the ruling coalition will be more centrist and that it is unlikely that the new Israeli government will take any kind of radical steps. On one hand, this will provide a certain stability to Israel's society, on the other – since Likud is still in the lead – guarantees a steady position in security matters. What is also important is that the new format of the coalition may make the process of establishing a working relationship with the Obama administration in his second term as President easier.

However, no matter how the government of Israel changes, the position of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress remains unchanged: we always support the will expressed by the Israelis and never support any particular party. Our task is to strengthen solidarity with the Jewish state, and we will work with any democratically chosen government of Israel. The years of our successful work in this direction and the firm camaraderie established over the years with many representatives of the Israeli political scene demonstrate the validity of this position.