Israeli Politics

"If there is any rejuvenation or reorganization of Israeli politics it will have to come from below--through the people," Joel Migdal, associate professor of Government, said in a speech last night.

A new style is developing in Israeli political life, Migdal said, predicting a renewed political action on the part of the public and a growth of lobbying groups similar to those in the United States.

"The growth of new volunteer political organizations outside the party system supports this theory," Migdal said. In the past, he said, political initiative has been co-opted by a political elite.

The 1973 war provoked a crisis in Israeli political life in which groups such as the Sephardic Jews felt they had no access to the political process, Migdal said.

"The Israeli public has showed its dissafectation with the government through a series of crises. They ousted the labor government after 30 years and workers continue to protest by a series of wildcat strikes," he said.

"I do not think the new government will be any more successful in dealing with long-term problems than the old," Migdal said.