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Israel Affairs
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MK websites and the personalization of
Israeli politics
Lior Livak a , Azi Lev-On b & Gideon Doron a
a Department of Political Science, Tel Aviv University, Israel
b School of Communication, Ariel University Center, Israel
Available online: 25 Jul 2011
To cite this article: Lior Livak, Azi Lev-On & Gideon Doron (2011): MK websites and the
personalization of Israeli politics, Israel Affairs, 17:3, 445-466
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13537121.2011.584676
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MK websites and the personalization of Israeli politics
Lior Livak
a
*, Azi Lev-On
b
* and Gideon Doron
a
*
a
Department of Political Science, Tel Aviv University, Israel;
b
School of Communication,
Ariel University Center, Israel
The article explores the contribution of MKs’ websites to political
personalization by addressing three questions. Is it more likely that MKs who
belong to parties that conduct primaries will establish a website than MKs who
belong to parties which select their candidates in a more centralized fashion?
Are MKs’ websites richer, more interactive and more frequently updated than
their respective party’s websites? Finally, do MKs link their websites to the
websites of their parties? We find some evidence that MKs’ personal websites
further support and enhance the personalization of Israeli politics.
Keywords: Political communication; new media; political personalization;
political websites; elections; Knesset; Israeli political system; Israel;
parliament; Internet; primaries; selection methods; political parties; online
politics
Introduction
Democracies have institutionalized channels of mediation between constitu-
encies and their representatives. These channels function to transmit and receive
information, recruit and mobilize resources and support, and ultimately stabilize
the social and political system. The institutional structure, and in particular the
type of elections in a specific political system, have an impact on the dominance
of certain mediation channels, and the manner in which politicians and parties
communicate with their constituencies.
1
This study asks if, and in what ways, the
rise of personal websites for members of the Knesset (MKs) in Israel, a new and
direct channel of communication between MKs and the public, impacts on
processes of personalization which are already prevalent in Israeli politics.
Studies demonstrate that presidential political systems are characterized by
more personal communication between politicians and the public. In the USA, for
example, voters directly elect the members of Congress in single-member districts;
hence, the campaigns tend to focus on the candidates, their platform, opinions,
beliefs and personality. The party with which a candidate is associated mostly
functions as an organizational framework that sponsors the candidate during the
campaign in exchange for support of the party’s activities in Congress while in
office.
2
ISSN 1353-7121 print/ISSN 1743-9086 online
q2011 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2011.584676
http://www.informaworld.com
*Email: liorlivak@gmail.com; azilevon@gmail.com; gideondoron@yahoo.com
Israel Affairs
Vol. 17, No. 3, July 2011, 445–466
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When elections take place in multi-member districts and when party lists are
used, one can expect that the most salient political unit, in terms of maintaining
contact with the public, would be the party.
3
The same applies to Israel, a
parliamentary democracy in which the elections to the Knesset take place on a
single district with 120 representatives. During the campaigns, voters are
introduced to party lists which cannot be modified between elections. These lists
include the names of all the candidates of the party. Representatives are not directly
elected by their constituencies and the public cannot affect their place on the
party’s list. The incentives for them to run personal campaigns and conduct direct
communication with the public seem to be lower than in presidential systems.
Still, a gradual trend of personalization has developed in the Israeli system
which, arguably, results from the deterioration of the party as the pivotal political
unit. In Israel, which was labelled in the past as a ‘Party State’, the shift to placing
the individual politician at the centre of politics is especially intriguing.
4
A
number of noteworthy transformations in the Israeli institutional and
communicative landscapes during the 1990s have contributed to the decline of
the parties as the key mediators between the public and the political system, and
have strengthened the position of individual politicians.
5
One such transformation
is the rise of the Internet as a central arena for communication not just between
parties and supporters, but more directly between individual MKs and the public.
The study explores the impact of institutional and communicative
transformations over the acceleration of political personalization in Israel. The
study focuses on three research questions. Is it more likely that MKs from parties
which conduct primaries establish a website than MKs who belong to parties that
select their candidates in a more centralized fashion? Are MKs’ websites richer,
more interactive and more frequently updated than their parties’ websites?
Finally, do MKs link their websites to the websites of their parties?
Institutional change and political personalization
Since the 1970s, the Israeli political system has been undergoing a gradual
process in which the power of political parties has been declining and
simultaneously that of individual politicians strengthening. The decline of the
parties is a familiar phenomenon which exists in many democracies and is
manifested in the decline of their electoral power and shrinking of their scope of
operation and impact over the societies in which they operate.
6
The Yom Kippur War was a significant turning point in the relationship
between the political elite and the Israeli public. The war fractured the trust of
Israelis in their political system, which was centred since the pre-state period on
political parties.
7
The distrust of citizens is evident in polls and studies that
consistently show a high level of trust in the army and in the Supreme Court,
compared to low levels of trust in the parties and members of Knesset.
8
As in many democracies in Europe, the decline of the parties in Israel is
manifestedin a decline in the scope of party membership, the weakening connection
L. Livak et al.446
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with labour and other organizations, and the gradual replacement of the model of
mass parties in favour of the electoral party model.
9
In the past, the Israeli parties
were based on a large popular support base, strong central control, well-defined
ideology and a variety of activities in multiple spheres. Starting from the 1990s,
parties were based on limitedmembership, run by a small group of party activists and
had a limited number of members. They are active especially during the election
season.
10
One of the factors that exacerbated the electoral decline of the big parties in
Israel was the change in the election system which took effect in the general
elections of 1996.
11
Until these elections, Israel had a parliamentary system with
proportional elections of 120 parliament members in a single district. The
electoral reform introduced for the first time in Israel direct election of the prime
minister alongside the choice of a party for representation in the Knesset. For the
Israeli political system, which had maintained its character as a parliamentary
system with proportional representation since the state was established, this
ground-breaking change aimed at strengthening the governability of the executive
branch and, at the same time, preventing small parties from maintaining excessive
bargaining power, derived from their swing positions.
12
Implementing the electoral reform significantly supported the personal
element in Israeli politics and yet, did not support stability in governance. In the
1996 and 1999 elections, many voters split their vote between a prime minister
and a party that best fit their ideological positions, not necessarily the party that
the candidate for prime minister represented. Election results demonstrated that
the power of sectarian parties increased at the expense of the two major parties,
and the ability of the executive branch to govern actually weakened.
13
This was
demonstrated by the short term in office of the two governments which were
established after the elections of 1996 and 1999, which were among the most
short-lived in Israel’s political history. In 2001, the Knesset eliminated the direct
election for prime minister and by the elections of 2003, the original
parliamentary system had been reinstated.
14
In spite of the short time for which
direct elections for prime minister prevailed, its impact was evident in the years
to come and is still manifest in the continued electoral decline of the big parties.
Another major change that the political system experienced during the 1990s
was the change in the manners in which the major parties chose to select their
candidates and compose their party lists. Arguably, the democratization of
candidate selection in these parties supported a process of personalization in
Israeli politics and resulted in the further decline of the parties.
Candidate selection methods may have an impact on the behaviour of MKs
during their term in office. Candidates who are selected by a small group of
leaders may be more inclined to stay close to party discipline in order to improve
their chances of being re-elected by the party. On the other hand, when the choice
is made by a large-scale voting body, the chances increase that those elected will
be more inclined to fulfil the interest and wishes of large groups of voters and as a
result party discipline and cohesiveness may deteriorate.
15
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One may position the different selection methods on a scale anchored by
inclusivity or exclusivity. On the one hand, candidates are selected by a single
leader and, on the other, by all eligible voters in the entire state (Figure 1).
16
Between these two extremes, there are some other methods in which candidates
are selected by a committee or a non-selected party agency (public council), a
selected party agency or all the members of the party (closed primaries).
17
The political system in Israel is composed of a variety of parties that appeal to
varied constituencies: from centrist parties that address the majority of voters
through peripheral parties with a more specifically defined political identity to
sectarian parties that address communities with distinct ethnic or religious
identities. Parties select their candidates to the Knesset according to their own
rules. For example, Shas or Yahadut Hatorah, which address the Ultra-Orthodox
and traditional voters, use an exclusive method in which a council of rabbinical
figures decides upon a list of candidates. On the other hand, since the 1990s the
Labor (Avoda) and Likud parties, which address much larger audiences, have
maintained a more open process of primaries in which many voters (from a few
thousand to hundreds of thousands) participate.
18
Primaries took place in Israel for the first time in 1977, when the Democratic
Movement for Change (DASH) selected its candidates for the Knesset. But
DASH disintegrated after one term in the Knesset and although it introduced the
concept to the Israeli political system, no primaries of a similar scope occurred in
Israel until 1992.
19
In 1992, the Labor party, preceded by the Likud and Meretz
(the three big parties in the 13th Knesset), opened the process of candidate
selection to thousands of party members.
20
This process was the peak of a gradual
shift from selection through a committee, headed by party leaders, going through
larger party institutions, to conducting primaries in the 1990s.
21
Among the reasons for a change in parties’ selection mechanisms was the
desire to solicit new candidates, which was thought to improve parties’
problematic public image. Supporters of the primaries argued that it involved a
democratization of candidate selection that would increase parties’ membership
base, enhance public involvement in the campaigns, and allow new and fresh
forces into the parliament.
22
Another key reason behind the move to primaries
was the belief among Labor members (followed by Likud members) that
changing the system may assist their party at the polls. Doron argues that behind
the decisions to adopt both primaries and the direct election of the prime minister
was the short-term interest of the big parties.
23
Single
Inclusive
Exclusive
Electorate Members Party Agency Party Agency Leader
General Party Selected Non-Selected
Figure 1. Party selectorates and levels of inclusiveness. Source: Based on Reuven
Y. Hazan and Gideon Rahat, “Candidate Selection,” in Handbook of Party Politics, ed.
Richard Katz and William Crotty (London: Sage, 2006), 109 – 21.
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But in practice, the move to primaries led to an additional deterioration of the
parties and increased the independence of Knesset members. Candidates who
were elected by the voting public to a high place on the candidate list assured
their place in the Knesset, independently of the interests of the party leadership.
24
As a result, MKs’ political future was no longer dependent upon party institutions
and leadership. Primaries increased the MKs’ independence and populist politics,
which added to the deterioration of party discipline. MKs’ expected sources of
votes and funding became a much greater potential determinant of their voting
behaviour as opposed to the parties to which they belonged.
25
In a study that
analyzes the development of personalization in Israeli politics, Rahat and Sheafer
demonstrate that a personalization at the institutional level, i.e. changing the
method of candidate selection among some of the parties, shifted media coverage
to focus on the individual politician instead of the party, eventually affecting the
manner in which the MKs function in the Knesset and the issues they focus on.
26
Another noteworthy characteristic of the primaries in Israel is the strengthening
of the local element. Competition in the local districts aimed at refreshing the party
lists and focused MKs on the interests of local audiences and associations who
knew how to use their organization as scaffolding for political power.
27
The shift to more inclusive and transparent methods of election has become
prevalent in the last few years in many parliamentary systems across the world.
Many parties have adopted more democratic electoral methods to confront the
decline in registered party members and voter loyalty.
28
As in Israel, not all
democracies enact laws which clearly specify the manner in which parties’
candidates for Parliament should be elected. Among the few countries who did
enact such laws, one can mention the USA, in which every state determines its
own primary laws, as well as Germany and New Zealand, in which the law sets up
a general framework for candidates’ selection in primaries.
29
Comparative
studies demonstrate that, as in Israel, alongside the advantage of including voters
in making the decision about parties’ candidates, inclusive selection methods that
encourage personal politics may be detrimental for party cohesiveness.
30
These
methods open a door to massive vote recruitment and increase the dependence of
candidates on their sponsors due to the high costs of campaigning.
Since the shift to primaries in Likud and Labor, the two parties have moved
along the scale between choosing the candidates in the party council to choosing
them via closed primaries. In Kadima, which was established in 2005, candidates
were first selected by a small number of leaders, and after that primaries were
adopted. Before the 2009 elections, the three big parties conducted closed
primaries separately for the leader of the party and for its Knesset candidates.
31
The new media environment and political personalization
Along with the institutional changes in Israeli politics, far-reaching changes have
occurred in the Israeli media environment which may also have supported the
decline of the parties and the consequent rise in political personalization. These
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changes brought about a more open and pluralistic media map in which private
media organizations have gained considerable power and the political and
governmental hold on the media has declined considerably.
32
During the 1970s and 1980s, the Israeli newspaper market experienced a
sharp decline in the circulation of the parties’ news outlets, which had served as
an important instrument of the parties since the pre-state period but were unable
to compete with privately owned newspapers and were shut down one after the
other.
33
During the 1990s, radio and TV had also experienced a major transfor-
mation, where a very centralized media market (which included one state
operated television channel and a limited number of state and military operated
radio stations) turned into a privatized market with dozens of regional radio
stations, cable TV channels and even a first commercial television station.
34
Television is still considered to be most influential for political exposure, and
arguably politics lends itself to the language of the television in which images are
more significant than ideology and personality characteristics take centre stage.
This is manifested in the rise of politicians who know how to present themselves
to the media, at the expense of more ‘grey’ politicians who climbed their way up
the party system but lack a more polished media presence. Often politicians give
greater weight to issues with ‘added TV value’ and prefer to concentrate on
matters that are salient to the media, in order to obtain positive coverage.
35
One of the central characteristics of such mediated politics is personalization,
i.e. where the ‘person’ carries the message of the party and, in fact, becomes the
‘issue’ itself.
36
It also results in the rise of professional strategic advisers,
spokespersons, PR experts, pollsters and other professionals who specialize in
‘spinning’ the agenda and mediating between politicians and journalists and,
indirectly, the public. Both Caspi and Aronoff call this trend the Americanization
of Israeli politics.
37
Since the 1990s electoral campaigns have gradually changed from
ideological battles to competitions between leaders. In the elections of 1992,
even before the direct elections were introduced, former Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin’s name was emphasized in the Labor campaign due to his advisors’ view
that his image as a centrist would assist his party to win the elections.
38
The
following campaigns further emphasized party leaders Benjamin Netanyahu and
Shimon Peres in 1996, Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and Yitzhak Mordechai in 1999,
and Barak and Ariel Sharon in 2001. Even after returning to the parliamentary
system in 2003, the leaders of the major parties who competed in the elections,
Ariel Sharon, Amram Mitzna, Benjamin Netanyahu, Amir Peretz, Ehud Olmert
and Tzipi Livni, gained personal salience at the expense of the party.
Since the mid 1990s, as more Israelis became connected to the Internet,
political usage of the web has increased. The advantages of Internet use for MKs
are multiple. They can send their messages directly to constituencies and to the
public at large, bypassing the mediation of media organizations and political
gatekeepers.
L. Livak et al.450
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Politicians can use the Internet to collect information, store it in databases and
use it to keep in touch with potential voters.
39
The Internet can also be used to
gather donations online and recruit supporters and volunteers. Personal websites
may even function as a medium to express an opinion which runs counter to the
opinion of the party.
40
Lastly, personal websites may also improve communi-
cation with other political players such as representatives, local branches and
administrators of the party machine.
41
One of the variables affecting the decision of politicians to establish a
personal website is the level of competition in the political environment in which
they function. Gibson and McAlister argue that the greater the competitiveness
between candidates, the higher the incentives for candidates to set up websites.
42
An additional study, which examined the period in which Congressmen first
started using the Internet, found that Congress members who were less certain
that they would win their district and were elected after a fierce competition in the
last elections were more likely than others to include contact information in their
websites.
43
A personal website enables the MKs to distinguish themselves from the party
on whose list they are competing. Stanyer compared the image that British MPs
and US members of the House of Representatives displayed on their personal
websites and demonstrated that in the American system the personal ingredient is
much more emphasized with regard to family values and the region from which
they come, while British MPs emphasize party affiliation.
44
Stanyer explains that
many of the Congressmen in the USA cannot rely on voters’ loyalty to the party and
thus emphasize their personal qualities and the district which they represent on
their website while their party affiliation is not mentioned. In the UK, even though
the MPs are also personally elected in their districts, the personal loyalty of the
voters is more to the party than to the candidate. Alongside the personal qualities
and actions of the candidate, British MPs emphasize their party.
45
Additional
evidence lends further support to these differences. Most of the candidates in the
US Senate elections in 1996 refrained from making their party affiliation salient
and 14 out of the 50 candidates made no mention of their party at all.
46
On the other
hand, a study from 2003 showed that most of the websites of British MPs included
links to their party’s website and posted information on behalf of the party.
47
The importance of the party in the Internet activities of its members is
manifested in other parliamentary systems as well. A study that looked into
websites of MPs in South Korea in 2005 shows that 86% of the 222 MPs’ websites
that were available at the time included a link to the party website.
48
An additional
study conducted in the same country three years later demonstrated a similar
proportion of personal websites linked to the corresponding party websites. The
authors argue that the parties’ wide presence in their MPs’ personal websites
demonstrate their central role in the South Korean parliamentary system.
49
The scholarly literature demonstrates that in Israel, as in other countries,
politicians use this medium especially during campaigns and less during
incumbency. However, there have been studies of MKs’ Internet activities during
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their term in office as well. In spite of the medium’s richness and the interactivity
that it allows, in most cases MKs use their personal websites more as a platform
for information and less for bi-directional communication, recruiting activists
and interacting with constituencies. Parties typically use the websites as
complementary marketing platforms.
50
An analysis of the activities of individual politicians in the primaries
demonstrated that, in this case as well, most of the activity is unidirectional and the
medium is hardly used for interaction with voters, mobilizing and fundraising.
51
Analysis of the web activities of candidates for mayoral elections in Israeli
municipalities also demonstrated very limited usage of the medium.
52
Still, in time,
the awareness of MKs to the advantages of the Internet seems to grow. Most of the
MKs who use personal websites perceive the site as a tool for exchanging ideas
with the public, getting ideas about legislation and as a platform to send information
to the public. Still, some of the MKs perceive the website as a tool which is used
mainly for political marketing and PR, especially during the primaries.
53
In addition to personal websites, the rising popularity of social networking
sites in Israel led many of the MKs to open personal profiles or Fan Pages. Social
networks, mainly Facebook, are used by a very high percentage of young people
in Israel and so function as fertile ground to recruit potential activists or
volunteers. The use of Facebook is even more prevalent than the use of personal
websites. This is probably due to the low costs of creating a page or a profile on
Facebook. According to Haleva-Amir, in January 2009 more than half of MKs
had some kind of presence on Facebook while in September 2010, 70% of them
(84) were active on Facebook. Political parties are also quite active on Facebook.
Six parties (50% of the parties that are represented in the Knesset) have official
Facebook pages that include updates about the parties’ activities.
54
MKs are indeed present on Facebook in large numbers but often fail to take
advantage of its interactivity and use it mostly to disseminate information about
their activities. More often than not, MKs do not respond to questions posted by
Facebook users on their wall.
55
Still, a limited number of MKs take advantage of
their social presence by posting daily updates, present links to their personal
websites, use social networks to recruit supporters for their online as well as
offline activities and, above all, encourage direct dialogue (by their actual
communication with the public), and address citizens’ concerns.
56
It seems that
social networks have an important place in the toolbox of politicians, but the study
of this phenomenon is still new and focuses almost exclusively on campaigns.
57
Study questions and hypotheses
This study focuses on website usage by MKs and parties. In light of the
personalization process of Israeli politics it is interesting to observe to what
extent do MKs use the Internet and what activities they engage in. This study
examines the personalization of Israeli politics through three hypotheses about
the online activities of MKs and parties.
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Hypothesis 1: In parties where the primaries are open and inclusive, more MKs
set up personal websites compared to parties where the selection
method is closed and centralized. This is based on the assumption
that the more inclusive the election method is, the more the
candidates should have to keep in touch with a larger public which
may impact on their election or re-election. Personal websites may
function as an official platform for MKs to send their messages
directly to party members who decide their fate in the next
election. In parties that have a more centralized selection method
for candidates, the fate of the MKs depends on a smaller number of
people, and so there is less need for personal websites. To examine
this hypothesis, for each party that is represented in the Knesset,
we looked at the number of MKs with a personal website and the
method of candidate selection.
Hypothesis 2: Personal websites of the MKs focus on the MKs’ activities and not
on their party affiliation. We examined this hypothesis by
observing whether the MKs’ personal websites included a link to
their party’s website. In the academic literature, there is some
evidence that in parliamentary systems the MPs’ websites
highlight the party to which they belong and include a link to
their party’s website. On the other hand, in the US the party is
scarcely mentioned and the candidates’ websites seldom link to
their parties’ websites. In Israel, elections take place in one multi-
member district, so one can hypothesize that MKs will clearly
mention the party on their website but opposite findings would
provide solid support for the personalization hypothesis.
58
Hypothesis 3: MKs’ websites are more frequently updated and richer in features
than party websites. Earlier studies demonstrated that parties use
the websites mainly for campaigning. Parties are most active during
election campaigns while MKs maintain a high level of activity
throughout their incumbency. The assumption is that while
collecting the data for this study in July 2010, a year and a half after
the general elections (when signs of the next elections were not
evident), MKs’ websites would demonstrate more activity than
parties’ websites. If this hypothesis is supported then this is another
manifestation of the personalization of Israeli politics.
Method
The hypotheses were examined using content analysis of political websites, a
method commonly used in the scholarly literature to examine the activities of
parties, candidates and MPs. The index used in this study is composed of four
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distinct dimensions of Internet activity, proposed by Gibson and Ward and later
used (with modifications) by other scholars.
59
All the official websites of the parties and MKs in the 18th Knesset were
located using search engines, the Knesset website, party websites and mass media
publications. MKs’ websites were defined as a website with an independent URL,
which is used exclusively by the MK.
The study includes websites that were updated during the six months prior to
their retrieval, where the last date on which the website was updated was determined
by checking the content and news section of the websites. The content analysis was
performed between 15 and 31 July 2010, and each website was analyzed using an
index developed for the study and adapted from Gibson andWard’s four dimensions
of analysis. Each dimension is composed of a list of variables which stand for
content and interaction components on the website. The four dimensions are:
(1) Information Provision (19 variables that address unidirectional informa-
tional items that were found on the site);
(2) Resource Generation (seven variables representing fundraising and
recruitment of activists and supporters);
(3) Interactivity (seven variables that examine whether the website enables the
users to communicate with representatives and express their opinions);
(4) Connectivity (three variables that examine the existence of links to external
websites). (The full list of variables appears in Appendix 1.)
Analyzing the websites according to the index enabled us to compare party
websites to the websites of MKs who represent them in the Knesset and see if the
personal websites trump party websites in terms of their richness, interactivity,
mobilizational ability and connectivity.
Findings
According to the analysis, 40 of the 120 members of the 18th Knesset have an
updated personal website. Kadima, Likud and Labor have the highest number of
MKs with personal websites. Each of these parties has nine MKs with personal
websites.
60
Each one of the right-wing parties, Israel Beytenu (Israel Our Home),
HaBayit HaYehudi (The Jewish Home) and Ha’Ikhud HaLeumi (National Unity)
are represented by three MKs with personal websites. In the cases of Ha’Ikhud
HaLeumi and HaBayit HaYehudi, which are represented in the Knesset by only
four and three MKs respectively, this is a relatively high rate of MKs with websites.
On the other hand, only a fifth of the 15 MKs of Israel Beytenu have a personal
website. Hadash has two MKs with a website, and the New Movement– Meretz and
Shas have only one MK with a personal website. There are no MKs with a personal
website representing the parties Yahadut HaTorah, Ra’am-Ta’al and Balad.
These results support Hypothesis 1 (Table 1). The majority of MKs with a
personal website belong to Kadima, Likud and Labor, which conduct primaries
among their tens of thousands of party members. The three parties are
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represented in the Knesset by 68 MKs, 27 of whom (nearly 40%) have a personal
website. The other nine parties use less inclusive methods to select their party
lists (ranging from the multi-level elections in Meretz through elections in a
selected party agency, as in Hadash, and through selection by a small group of
leaders, as in the ultra-Orthodox parties). These parties are represented in the
Knesset by 52 MKs, out of whom only 13 have a personal website (25%).
Whereas the three parties that conduct primaries are centrist parties that
address large audiences, the other nine parties are smaller and represent more
nominal groups. Especially interesting are Israel Beytenu and Shas, represented
by 26 MKs combined, but only four members from both parties have a website. It
seems that this negligible online presence is associated with the more centralized
leadership style of these parties.
Israel Beytenu, the third largest party in Israel, which gained 15 seats in the
last election, was established in 1999 by Avigdor Leiberman, who still heads the
party today. It is considered a highly centralized party; it has relatively few
employees and has a small organizing committee that selects its candidates for
the Knesset. Until the last elections, Lieberman himself individually selected the
candidates. Only three of the party’s MKs have websites and these sites contain
very limited information compared to other personal websites.
Shas, which appeals mainly to traditional and ultra-Orthodox voters, is
controlled by a narrow council of rabbis who also select its candidates for
the Knesset, and maintain a strict party discipline. Another party representing
Table 1. Number of MK websites and the candidates’ selection method shown by party.
Party
Candidates’ selection
method
MKs
serving in
the Knesset
MKs with
website
Percentage
of MKs with
websites
Kadima Party members (closed
primaries)
28 9 32
Likud Party members (closed
primaries)
27 9 33
Israel Beytenu Non-selected party agency 15 3 20
Labor Party members (closed
primaries)
13 9 69
Shas Non-selected party agency 11 1 9
Yahadut Hatorah Non-selected party agency 5 0 0
Ha’Ikhud HaLeumi Non-selected party agency 4 3 75
Hadash Selected party agency 4 2 50
Ra’am-Ta’al Non-selected party agency 4 0 0
The New Movement
– Meretz
Two-phase method com-
bining selected and non-
selected party agencies
31 33
HaBayit HaYehudi Non-selected party agency 3 3 100
Balad Selected party agency 3 0 0
Total 120 40 33
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the ultra-Orthodox public is Yahadut Hatorah, also run by a council of rabbis.
While the ultra-orthodox MKs (Usually five or six) represent a large public, in
reality they need to be accountable for a very small number of leaders who
determine their fate before each election. In addition, it seems that the character
of their constituency makes the use of personal websites even less necessary.
The only Knesset member of Shas who has a personal website is MK Chaim
Amsellem who is unique in the ultra-Orthodox political landscape. During his
service in the 18th Knesset, MK Amsellem stood out as an oppositional voice to
the leadership of Shas and rejected the party leadership’s call that he resign his
post in the Knesset.
61
Amsellem’s decision to operate a personal website in a
party in which the method of candidate selection is so centralized may be a sign
of his ambition to gain publicity and status based on his personal traits. It may
even open a path to political activity outside his current party.
To clarify the picture, we present the percentage of personal websites among
the five largest parties (10 mandates or above), on a scale of inclusiveness of
candidate selection (Figure 2). The three big parties, Kadima, Likud and Labor,
which hold primaries, are responsible for most of the MKs that operate websites
(40% of their MKs have personal websites). On the other hand, Israel Beytenu
and Shas, who select their candidates through a small group of leaders, are
responsible for only four websites (only 16% of their MKs have websites).
100
90
80 69
32
33
20
Labor
Percentage of MKs with websites and inclusiveness of MKs
selection method in the largest five parties
Likud
Kadima
Israel Beytenu
Shas
9
70
60
50
Percentage of MKs with websites
40
30
20
10
0
Party members in
closed primaries Selected party
agency
Party selectorates
Non-selected
party agency
Figure 2. Percentage of MKs with websites and inclusiveness of selection method for
MKs in the five largest parties.
L. Livak et al.456
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Hypothesis 2 is partly supported. Of the 40 MKs who have websites, 33 have a
party website that they can link to from their website (for seven MKs there is no
corresponding party website to link to because the party does not have a website).
Out of the 33 sites, only 16 include a link to the party website (48%). The MKs who
choose to link to the party website come from a large variety of parties and a
particular pattern cannot be identified to explain why some choose to link and some
choose not to. Still, the fact that more than half of MKs do not place a link to the party
website runs counter to findings from other parliamentary systems in which MPs’
websites were much more often connected to their respective party’s website.
62
On
the other hand, these findings do not correspond to findings from political systems in
which the choice is personal and in which such links are much less prevalent.
63
It
seems that, in this regard, the linking pattern of Israeli MKs is somewhere in between
the patterns previously found in parliamentary and presidential systems.
Analyzing and comparing the websites of MKs and parties only partially
supports Hypothesis 3. With the exception of the Labor party, in all cases where
personal websites of MKs could have been compared to party websites, the party
website was richer in information and in ability to mobilize as well as interaction
and connectivity, compared to the average features available on the websites of
MKs from that party (Table 2). Still, a number of MKs ‘lead over’ their party in
the accumulative index or in some of the dimensions. In addition, there are some
parties that do not operate a website while some of their MKs do.
Of the 12 parties that are represented in the Knesset, eight have a party
website. Of the eight there are only six parties whose members have personal
websites. In three cases, some MKs have an updated website while their party
does not (Ha’Ikhud HaLeumi, HaBayit HaYehudi and Shas). In two cases, the
situation is reversed: Balad and Ra’am-Ta’al have a website but their MKs do
not. Yahadut HaTorah does not have a party or any MK Internet presence.
The website ofIsrael Beytenu leads by the biggest margin over the websites of its
MKs. The website contains richer information and more opportunities for resource
generationand interactivity compared to its three personal MK websites which tend
to be very poor in content compared to other MKs’ websites. The website of
Table 2. Comparing the scores of the websites of the three major parties with the average
scores of the websites of the MKs representing those parties, across the four dimensions of
the Index.
Kadima Likud Israel Beytenu
Dimension Party MKs Party MKs Party MKs
Information 14 13.8 22 15.8 20 7.3
Resource generation 2 0.8 3 1.1 4 0
Interactivity 2 2.4 2 2.1 3 0.3
Networking 1 0.4 1 0.4 0 0.3
Total 19 17.4 28 19.4 27 8
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the Likud also leads by a big margin over the average scores received by the
personal websites of its MKs. Still, two MKs are equal or better than the party
website.
64
Unlike the case of most parties, the findings about the online activity of the
Labor party and its MKs support Hypothesis 3. After the 2009 elections, the
website of the Labor party went offline and was replaced by a poorly designed,
amateurish website containing few contact details for the party. The inactivity of
the party on the Internet corresponds to its current poor position in the political
system.
65
In the last elections, for the first time, Labor lost its place as one of the
two major parties and became the fourth largest party in the Knesset. Its weakness
is also manifested in internal struggles between its MKs, which eventually led to
the resignation of five MKs led by party chairman Ehud Barak who started a new
party, Atzmaut (Independence).
66
Given the lack of party activity on the Internet,
the online activity of its MKs is dominant. Their websites were among the
richest compared to the average of other MKs’ websites (Table 3). The high
rank of MKs with an active website (69%) further demonstrates the gap between
the party and its MKs’ activities and serves as evidence of the personalization of
the MKs’ activities, at least where communication with constituencies is
concerned.
The data about Ha’Ikhud HaLeumi and HaBayit HaYehudi also supports
Hypothesis 3. The fact that neither party operates a website whereas six of their
seven MKs do have a personal website is a clear sign of their MKs’ electoral
strength compared to the parties’ electoral weakness. The two right-wing parties
have lost some of their electoral strength over the last decade and recurring
attempts to merge them into one strong right-wing party have failed.
67
The absence of websites for these two parties compared to the high rate of
personal websites among their MKs demonstrates a high degree of
personalization. It may be that the independent activities of the right-wing
MKs online are derived from their wish to maintain a high profile among their
constituencies in light of their parties’ weaknesses. An MK who can use his
website as a platform to improve his public presence may increase his chances of
getting elected regardless of his current party’s public status.
Table 3. Scores of the websites of MKs whose parties do not have a website, compared to
the average score of MKs’ websites.
Dimension
Shas MK
Chaim Amsellem
Ha’Ikhud
HaLeumi MKs
HaBayit
HaYehudi MKs
Labor
MKs
Average score
of MK websites
Information 15 14.0 13.6 14.5 14.0
Resource generation 0 0 0 1.8 0.9
Interactivity 2 2.3 1.7 2.2 2.0
Networking 0 0.3 0.7 0.1 0.4
Total 17 16.7 16.0 18.7 17.3
L. Livak et al.458
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Conclusions
The Israeli political system is undergoing a gradual process in which the power of
the political parties is declining and the status of the individual politicians is
rising. This process is manifested in the way in which messages are conveyed
from politicians to the public. At present, although the Israeli political system is
party based, the communicative behaviour of many of the MKs is characterized
by a high degree of independence.
It seems that adopting personal websites, as some of the MKs do, is another
step in the disassociation of the individual politician from his party. Many MKs
run personal websites which act as useful tools for disseminating information to
the public and maintaining contact with their constituencies.
MKs from parties that conduct primaries among a large voting population
have more incentives than MKs who compete in more centralized parties to
establish websites, and indeed do so. Most of the MKs with personal websites
come from the only three parties in the Knesset which run primaries. Unlike MKs
from other parties who are selected by a more exclusive group of leaders and
activists, MKs from these parties find it more important to maintain contact with
the tens of thousands of party members who decide their fate in the primaries.
Still, only a third of MKs operate personal websites and even among the parties
who have primaries, the percentage of MKs with websites stands, with one
exception, at less than half.
Comparing the activity of party websites to that of personal websites leads to
inconclusive results. On the one hand, in all cases where parties have official
websites, the party website was more active and richer than the average personal
website of their MKs. Most MKs’ websites do not compare in their richness and
frequency of update to their party’s website. On the other hand, there are
exceptions. That is, parties that do not have an operating website but the rate of
their MKs with a website is relatively high. This is the situation in the Labor
party, Ha’Ikhud HaLeumi and HaBayit HaYehudi.
The research field of online political activity in Israel is still relatively young,
and the landscape is shifting fast. Future studies should delve into the realm of
social networking sites, which carry millions of people into social and political
engagement online. The ability of social networking sites to create and maintain
social ties, their usage for viral information transmission, their ease of use and the
reduced threshold for participation both for the public and the politicians increase
their chances of being adopted by MKs as central venues for contact with the
public. MKs’ personal websites should also be studied further, especially the
concept of intra-party selection methods as a possible indicator for the presence
of MKs’ websites.
Notes on contributors
Lior Livak completed his MA in the department of Political Science at Tel Aviv
University. He studies the various ways in which parties and politicians use new
Israel Affairs 459
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media to connect with the public and was involved in several research projects in this
field.
Dr. Azi Lev-On is the head of the new media track at the Ariel University Center in Israel.
Azi’s studies explore behaviours and collective action in computer-mediated
environments, employing a variety of methods such as link analysis, surveys and
laboratory experiments. Recent research analyzes how and why computer-mediated
communication impacts on monetary transfers and trust, how people rank news stories
online, Internet usage by candidates in the Israeli municipal elections 2008, and by Ultra-
Orthodox women who participate in closed forums online. For more information, see
http://www.azilevon.com.
Professor Gideon Doron teaches political science, political communication and public
policy at Tel Aviv University and serves as the Chairman of the Department of Political
Science at the Yezreel Valley College. He is the President of the Israeli Association of
Political Science, the author of 17 books and dozens of articles. Doron served as the
chairman of the board of the public council of the second authority for television and
regional radio.
Notes
1. Gianpietro Mazzoleni and Winfried Schultz, “‘Mediatization’ of Politics: A
Challenge for Democracy?,” Political Communication 16, no. 3 (1999): 247 – 61.
2. Martin P. Wattenberg, The Decline of American Political Parties, 1952 – 1996
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998); Richard F. Fenno, Home Style:
House Members in Their Districts (Boston: Little, Brown, 1978).
3. Mazzoleni and Schultz, “‘Mediatization’ of Politics”; Max Kaase, “Is There
Personalization in Politics? Candidates and Voting Behaviour in Germany,”
International Political Science Review 15, no. 3 (1994): 211– 230.
4. Benjamin Akzin used the term “Party State”, see Benjamin Akzin, “The Role of
Parties in Israeli Democracy,” The Journal of Politics 17 (1955): 507 – 45.
5. Gideon Rahat and Tamir Sheafer, “The Personalizations(s) of Politics: Israel, 1949 –
2003,” Political Communication 24, no. 1 (2007): 65– 80; Yoram Peri,
Telepopulism: Media and Politics in Israel (Stanford, CA: Stanford University
Press, 2004).
6. Dani Korn, ed., The Demise of Parties in Israel (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad,
1998) [in Hebrew].
7. Efraim Torgovnik, “The Political Organization and the Social Setting,” in The
Demise of Parties in Israel, ed. Korn, 179 – 19 [in Hebrew].
8. Yochanan Peres and Ephraim Yuchtman-Yaar, Between Consent and Dissent
(Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000); Ephraim Yuchtman-Yaar,
“Parties and Public Trust,” in The Demise of Parties in Israel, ed. Korn, 224 – 39
[in Hebrew]; The Knesset Research and Information Center, The Knesset Index: The
Public Perceptions of the Legislative Branch (2001) [in Hebrew].
9. Korn, The Demise of Parties in Israel.
10. Benjamin Neuberger, Political Parties in Israel (Tel Aviv: The Open University,
1997) [in Hebrew].
11. “The Government Basic Law (1992), http://www.knesset.gov.il/laws/special/heb/
yesod7.pdf; Reuven Y. Hazan, “Presidential Parliamentarism: Direct Popular
Election of the Prime Minister, Israel’s New Electoral and Political System,”
Electoral Studies 15, no. 1 (1996): 21 – 37; Michael Harris and Gideon Doron,
“Assessing the Electoral Reform of 1992 and its Impact on the Elections of 1996 and
1999,” Israel Studies 4, no. 2 (1999): 16 – 39; Hanna Diskin and Abraham Diskin,
L. Livak et al.460
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“The Politics of Electoral Reform in Israel,” International Political Science Review
16, no. 1 (January 1995): 31 – 45.
12. Hazan, “Presidential Parliamentarism.”
13. Harris and Doron, “Assessing the Electoral Reform of 1992”; Asher Arian, “The
Israeli Election for Prime Minister and the Knesset, 1996,” Electoral Studies 15
(1996): 570– 75; Don Peretz and Gideon Doron, “Israel’s 1996 Elections: A Second
Political Earthquake?,” The Middle East Journal 50, no. 4 (Autumn 1996): 529 – 46;
Don Peretz and Gideon Doron, “Sectarian Politics and The Peace Process: The 1999
Israel Elections,” The Middle East Journal 54, no. 2 (Spring, 2000): 259– 73;
Abraham Diskin, “The Demise of Political Parties and Direct Election of the Prime
Minister,” in The Demise of Parties in Israel, ed. Korn, 67 – 77 [in Hebrew].
14. Don Peretz, Rebecca Kook, and Gideon Doron, “Knesset Election 2003: Why Likud
Regained its Political Domination and Labor Continued to Fade Out,” The Middle
East Journal 75, no. 4 (Autumn 2003): 588 – 603.
15. Gideon Rahat, “Candidate Selection: The Choice before the Choice,” Journal of
Democracy 18, no. 1 (January 2007): 157– 70.
16. Ibid.
17. Reuven Y. Hazan and Gideon Rahat, “Candidate Selection,” in Handbook of Party
Politics, ed. Richard Katz and William Crotty (London: Sage, 2006), 109 – 21.
18. Asher Arian, Politics in Israel: The Second Republic, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: CQ
Press, 2005).
19. Giora Goldberg and Steven Hoffman, “Nominations in Israel: The Politics of
Institutionalization,” in The Elections in Israel – 1981, ed. Asher Arian (Tel Aviv:
Ramot, 1983), 61– 87; Gideon Doron and Giora Goldberg, “No Big Deal:
Democratization of the Nominating Process,” in The Election in Israel 1988, ed.
Asher Arian and Michal Shamir, (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1990), 155– 71.
20. Reuven Y. Hazan, “The 1996 Intra-Party Elections in Israel: Adopting Party
Primaries,” Electoral Studies 16, no. 1 (1997): 95– 103.
21. Doron and Goldberg, “No Big Deal”; Boaz Shapira, “Electoral Reforms in Israel,
1949–1996,” in The Electoral Revolution: Primaries and Direct Election of the
Prime Minister, ed. Gideon Doron (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1996), 16 – 37
[in Hebrew].
22. Dan Avnun, “Parties in Israel between ‘Primaries’ and Parliamentarism,” in
Primaries and Other Methods of Candidate Selection, ed. Aliza Bar (Jerusalem: The
Israel Democracy Institute, 1996), 11– 25 [in Hebrew].
23. Gideon Doron, “The Political Rational of Reforms in Democratic Selection
Methods,” in The Electoral Revolution, ed. Doron, 54 – 79 [in Hebrew].
24. Reuven Y. Hazan, “Your Destroyers and Devastators Will Depart from You:
Implications of the Primaries on the Political Parties,” in The Demise of Parties in
Israel, ed. Korn, 78 – 90 [in Hebrew].
25. Avnun, “Parties in Israel between ‘Primaries’ and Parliamentarism,” Hazan, “Your
Destroyers and Devastators.”
26. Rahat and Sheafer, “The Personalization(s) of Politics.”
27. Avnun, “Parties in Israel between ‘Primaries’ and Parliamentarism.”
28. Paul Pennings and Reuven Y. Hazan, “Democratizing Candidate Selection,” Party
Politics 7, no. 3 (May 2001): 267 – 75.
29. Rahat, “Candidate Selection: The Choice before the Choice.”
30. Ibid.
31. Yael Hadar and Naomi Himein-Raisch, “Political Parties Shape a Candidate List,”
The Israel Democracy Institute (December 8’ 2008) [in Hebrew], http://www.idi.org.
il/BreakingNews/Pages/Breaking_the_News_73.aspx.
Israel Affairs 461
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32. Dan Caspi and Yechiel Limor, The Mediators: The Mass Media in Israel (Tel Aviv:
Am Oved, 1992).
33. Giora Goldberg, Political Parties in Israel: From Mass Parties to Electoral Parties
(Tel Aviv: Ramot – Tel Aviv University, 1992); Caspi and Limor, The Mediators:
The Mass Media in Israel.
34. Gideon Doron, “The Politics of Mass Communication in Israel,” The ANNALS of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science 555 (January 1998): 163 – 79.
35. Yoram Peri, “From Party State to Telepopulism,” Panim 9 (May 1999): 17– 23,
[in Hebrew]; Itzhak Galnoor, “Parties, Media and the Israeli Democracy,” in The
Demise of Parties in Israel, ed. Korn, 195 – 215 [in Hebrew].
36. Gideon Doron, Rational Politics in Israel (Tel Aviv: Ramot, 1988) [in Hebrew].
37. Dan Caspi, “American Style Electioneering in Israel: Americanization versus
Modernization,” in Politics, Media and Modern Democracy, ed. David L. Swanson
and Paolo Mancini (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996), 173 – 92;
Myron J. Aronoff, “The ‘Americanization’ of Israeli Politics: Political and Cultural
Change,” Israel Studies 5, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 92 – 127.
38. Gideon Doron, Strategy of Election (Rechovot: Kiunim, 1996) [in Hebrew]; Caspi,
“American Style Electioneering in Israel.”
39. Walter J. Oleszek, “Congress and the Internet: Highlights,” Congressional Research
Report, (August 29, 2007).
40. Peter Filzmaier, Kathrin Stainer-Hammerle, and Shellen Ignace, “Information
Management of MPs: Experiences from Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands,”
Information Polity 9 (2004): 17– 28; Girish J. Gulaty, “Members of Congress and
Presentation of Self on the World Wide Web,” The International Journal of
Press/Politics 9, no. 1 (2004): 22– 40.
41. Karina Pedersen and Jo Saglie, “New Technology in Ageing Parties: Internet Use
among Danish and Norwegian Party Members” (paper presented to the workshop
‘The Changing Media and Civil Society’ at the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops,
Edinburgh, March 2003); Filzmaier, Stainer-Hammerle, and Ignace, “Information
management of MPs.”
42. Rachel K. Gibson and Ian McAllister. “Does Cyber-campaigning Win Votes? Online
Communication in the 2004 Australian Election,” Journal of Elections, Public
Opinion and Parties 16, no. 3 (2006): 243 – 63.
43. E. Scott Adler, Chariti E. Gent, and Cary B. Overmeyer, “The Home Style
Homepage: Legislator Use of the World Wide Web for Constituency Contact,”
Legislative Studies Quarterly 23, no. 4 (November 1998): 585 – 95.
44. James Stanyer, “Elected Representatives, Online Self-Presentation and the Personal
Vote: Party, Personality and Webstyles in the United States and United Kingdom,”
Information, Communication and Society 11, no. 3 (2008): 414– 32.
45. Ibid.
46. Robert Klotz, “Positive Spin: Senate Campaigning on the Web,” PS: Political
Science and Politics 30, no. 3 (1997): 482 – 86.
47. Nigel Jackson, “MPs and Web Technologies: An Untapped Opportunity?,” Journal
of Public Affairs 3, no. 2 (2003): 124 – 37; Philip Norton, “Four Models of Political
Representation: British MPs and the Use of ICT,” The Journal of legislative Studies
13, no. 3 (2007): 354 – 69.
48. Han Woo Park, Mike Thelwall, and Randolph Kluver, “Political Hyperlinking in
South Korea: Technical Indicators of Ideology and Content,” Sociological Research
Online 10, no. 3 (2005), http://www.socresonline.org.uk/10/3/park.html.
49. Han Woo Park and Mike Thelwall, “Link Analysis: Hyperlink Patterns and Social
Structure on Politicians’ Web Sites in South Korea,” Quality and Quantity 42, no. 5
(2008): 687–97.
L. Livak et al.462
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50. Sam Lehman-Wilzig, “Worth an Agora? 2003 E-lection Party Sites and Public
Discourse,” Israel Affairs 10, no. 4 (2004): 242 – 62; Nir Atmor, “Race for the Web:
Parties and Online Campaigns in the 2006 Elections,” in The Election in Israel 2006,
ed. Asher Arian and Michal Shamir (Jerusalem: The Israel Democracy Institute,
2008), 365–400 [in Hebrew]; Nir Atmor and Assaf Siani, “Party Websites in the
2009 Elections: A Comparative View,” in Connected: Politics, Technology and
Society in Israel, ed. Erez Cohen and Azi Lev-On (Tel Aviv: Israeli Political Science
Association Press, 2011) [in Hebrew]; Azi Lev-On, “Campaigning Online: Use of
the Internet by Parties, Candidates and Voters in National and Local Election
Campaigns in Israel,” Policy and Internet 3, no. 1 (2011), http://www.psocommons.
org/policyandinternet/vol3/iss1/art6; Sharon Haleva-Amir, “Online Israeli Politics:
Current State of the Art” (in this volume).
51. Azi Lev-On, “Still Weaving the Web,” The Seventh Eye, October 27, 2008 [in
Hebrew], http://www.the7eye.org.il/Thesis/Pages/261008_The_kadima_primaries_
and_the_internet.aspx?RetUrl¼/WRITTERS/Pages/Azi_Lev_On.aspx.
52. Azi Lev-On, “Campaigning Online: Use of the Internet by Parties, Candidates and
Voters in National and Local Election Campaigns in Israel”, Policy and Internet 3, no.
1, (2011), Available at: http://www.psocommons.org/policyandinternet/vol3/iss1/art6
53. Sharon Haleva-Amir, “This Site’s Aim is to Maintain a Useful, Stable, Ongoing
Connection with the Public: On the Gap between Texts and Features in Israeli MPs’
Personal Websites” (in preparation).
54. Haleva-Amir, “Online Israeli Politics: Current State of the Art.”
55. Tomer Avital and Omer Kabir, “Waiting for a Response: Most MKs Don’t Refer to
Facebook Appeals,” Calcalist, January 4, 2010 [in Hebrew], http://www.calcalist.co.
il/internet/articles/0,7340,L-3385003,00.html.
56. Haleva-Amir, “Online Israeli Politics: Current State of the Art”; Mazal Mualem, “In
Today’s Politics, Parties Branches are Abandoned and Replaced by Twitter,”
Haaretz, October 12, 2010 [in Hebrew], http://www.haaretz.co.il/captain/spages/
1203278.html.
57. Girish J. Gulaty and Christine B. Williams, “Social Networks in Political Campaigns:
Facebook and the 2006 Midterm Elections” (paper prepared for delivery at the 2007
Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association Chicago, Illinois);
Scott P. Robertson, Ravi K. Vatrapu, and Richard Medina, “The Social Life of Social
Networks: Facebook Linkage Patterns in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election” (paper
prepared for the Proceedings of the 10th International Digital Government Research
Conference, 2009); Andy Williamson, “The Effect of Digital Media on MPs’
Communication with Constituents,” Parliamentary Affairs 62, no. 3 (2009): 514 –27.
58. The phenomenon of politicians who disassociate themselves from their party is very
evident in the municipal politics in Israel. Until the mid 1970s local politics
functioned in the hospices of the National Party System and the parties that ran
in general elections introduced party lists at the municipal level as well and had
an impact in the municipalities. Since 1978, however, the election system has been
modified and now voters cast two ballots, one for the head of the municipality and one
for the party that runs for the municipality council. As a result of this change, many
contenders for heads of municipalities prefer to run as heads of independent parties
that are not formally associated with a major party, even if it is de facto supported
by it. This is done to avoid the potential burden of identifying with a party and not
in order to avoid alienating potential voters and increase the number of potential
voters. See Dana Blander, “Is there a Connection between the 2008 Local Elections
and the 2009 General Elections?,” The Israel Democracy Institute, January 1, 2009
[in Hebrew], http://www.idi.org.il/breakingnews/pages/breaking_the_news_82.
aspx.
Israel Affairs 463
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59. Rachel K. Gibson and Stephen J. Ward, “A Proposed Methodology for Studying the
Function and Effectiveness of Party and Candidate Web Sites,” Social Science
Computer Review 18, no. 3 (2000): 301–19; James L. Newell, “Italian Political
Parties on the Web,” The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 6, no. 4
(2001): 60– 87; Matthew Conway and Dan Dorner, “An Evaluation of New Zealand
Political Party Websites,” Information Research 9, no. 4 (July 2004); Christine
B. Williams and Girish J. Gulati, The Evolutionary Development of Campaign Web
Sites: The U.S. Senate, 2000– 2004, paper presented at the annual meeting of the
American Political Science Association, Marriott, Loews Philadelphia, and the
Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA, August 31, 2006. Available at:
http://blogsandwikis.bentley.edu/politechmedia/up-content/uploads/2007/09/prq-
onlineevolution.pdf; Marc Hooghe and Sara Vissers, “Belgium: Websites as Party
Campaign Tools – Comparing the 2000 and 2006 Local Election Campaigns,” in
Making a Difference, ed. Stephen Ward et al. (Lexington Books, 2008), 171 – 97;
Stephen Ward, Rachel Gibson, and Wainer Lusoli, “The United Kingdom: Parties
and the 2005 Virtual Election Campaign – Not Quite Normal?,” Making a
Difference, ed. Ward et al., 133–61.
60. The Labor party has split into two separate parties during the 18th Knesset, after the
research for this paper was completed. The data and analysis in this paper is based on
the original Labor party with all 13 Knesset members that were elected in the 2009
elections. For more on the split, see Jonathan Lis and Mazal Mualem, “Ehud Barak
Leaves the Labor Party,” Haaretz, January 17, 2011 [in Hebrew], http://www.
haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1210069.html; the Likud party website acts also as a
website for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his role as chairman of the Likud.
The website was not counted as a personal website because of the difficulty of
discerning between the Likud and Netanyahu’s segments.
61. Yair Ettinger, “Ousted Shas MK Refuses to Give Up Knesset Seat,” Haaretz,
November 24, 2011, http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/ousted-shas-mk-
refuses-to-give-up-knesset-seat-1.326456.
62. Stayner, “Elected Representatives, Online Self-Presentation and the Personal Vote,”
427; Jackson, “MPs and Web Technologies: An Untapped Opportunity?”; Norton,
“Four Models of Political Representation,” 361; Park, Thelwall, and Kluver,
“Political Hyperlinking in South Korea.”
63. Klotz, “Positive Spin,” 484; Stanyer, “Elected Representatives, Online Self-
Presentation and the Personal Vote.”
64. The websites of MKs Silvan Shalom and Tzipi Hotoveli gained 27 and 24 points
respectively.
65. Michal Shamir et al., “Kadima – Forward in a Dealigned Party System,” in The
Election in Israel 2006, ed. Arian and Shamir, 25 – 61 [in Hebrew]; Mazal Mualem,
“Labor Party Sank to an Unprecedented Slump: Number of Party Members Stands at
Only Thirty Thousand,” Haaretz, May 5, 2010 [in Hebrew], http://www.haaretz.co.
il/hasite/spages/1167560.html; Efraim Inbar, “The Decline of the Labour Party,”
Israel Affairs 16, no. 1 (January 2010): 69– 81.
66. Lis and Mualem, “Ehud Barak Leaves the Labor Party.”
67. Yehuda Ben Meir, “The Rise and Fall of Mafda,l, The Israel Democracy Institute,
December 10, 2008 [in Hebrew], http://www.idi.org.il/BreakingNews/Pages/
Breaking_the_News_74.aspx; Ofer Kenig, “Farewell to Mafdal,” The Israel
Democracy Institute, November 19, 2008 [in Hebrew], http://www.idi.org.il/
BreakingNews/Pages/Breaking_the_News_74.aspx; Kobi Nachshoni, “Habayit
Hayehudi Splits: Uri Ariel Resigns,”,Ynet, December 25, 2008 [in Hebrew], http://
www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3644582,00.html.
L. Livak et al.464
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APPENDIX
Appendix 1. The list of variables used in the content analysis of MKs and parties
websites
Dimension Variable Value
Information provision Leader profile/biography Present – 1; Absent – 0
Political platform/values and ideology Present – 1; Absent – 0
Official documents/bill proposals Present – 1; Absent – 0
Issues on the agenda Present – 1; Absent – 0
Personal blog/articles Present – 1; Absent – 0
Personal blog/articles – frequency of
publication
No articles – 0
No articles in the last
month – 1
One article a month – 2
2–7 articles a month – 3
Two articles a week – 4
News updates Present – 1; Absent – 0
News updates – frequency of
publication
No updates – 0
No updates in the last
month – 1
One update a month – 2
2–7 updates a month – 3
Two updates a week – 4
Publications in the mass media Present – 1; Absent – 0
Calendar of events Present – 1; Absent – 0
Photos Present – 1; Absent – 0
Photo gallery on the website Present – 1; Absent – 0
Video clips on the website Present – 1; Absent – 0
Link to photos/videos outside the
website
Present – 1; Absent – 0
Website search Present – 1; Absent – 0
Tag cloud Present – 1; Absent – 0
Information on donations and/or
donators
Present – 1; Absent – 0
Offline contact information Present – 1; Absent – 0
Speeches Present – 1; Absent – 0
Resources generation Updates and or invitations to events Present – 1; Absent – 0
Registration information for volunteers Present – 1; Absent – 0
Online registration for volunteers Present – 1; Absent – 0
Information for donators Present – 1; Absent – 0
Online donation Present – 1; Absent – 0
Registration information for party
membership
Present – 1; Absent – 0
Online Registration for party
membership
Present – 1; Absent – 0
Interactivity Contact form/email Present – 1; Absent – 0
Post comments for articles/posts Present – 1; Absent – 0
Link to social networks Present – 1; Absent – 0
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Appendix 1 – continued
Dimension Variable Value
Sign an petition Present – 1; Absent – 0
Upload content to the website
(text/photo)
Present – 1; Absent – 0
Sign up for a newsletter Present – 1; Absent – 0
Sign up for RSS updates Present – 1; Absent – 0
Connectivity Constant link to the website of
MK from the party
Present – 1; Absent – 0
Constant link to the website of
MK from another party
Present – 1; Absent – 0
Constant link to websites related to
the government, the Knesset or other
public institutions
Present – 1; Absent – 0
L. Livak et al.466
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