THE UPSIDE DOWN PYRAMID

You'd think that a pyramid that is balanced on it's tiny top (upside down) would eventually fall over. All the upside down pyramid that is Israel's system of government was set up so craftily by the founders that the closest it gets to tipping over is a very gentle sway in the wind. As Israelis don't understand what a real democracy is (they it's enough to have elections) I despair that we will ever fix the insanity that is our system of government and electoral procedures. It still works the way it was set up at the beginning. Back then it was pretty much the Union's game. The Histadrut which was the governing body for the pre state Jewish settlers chose who would run for any office. The Histadrut eventually mutated through several stages into what is today the Labor Party and the Histadrut is now the very corrupt union that still tries to run things. Eventually the Histadrut's rival organization (Leumit's Likud-Jabotinsky's followers) became popular enough to elect Begin, to just about everyone's surprise.
Being true politicians they had absolutely no incentive to change the way candidates were chosen, until Bibi Netanyahu became chairman and introduced an Israeli version of primaries. All the other parties followed suit and Israelis were more convinced than ever that this is a democracy. The point they keep missing is that in a real democracy, the power base should be the people, rather than the few at the top who are only interested in preserving their own power and to continue choosing who will run on their list for Knesset. It goes without saying that only people in the country who can set that pyramid on it's proper base are the government and Knesset. There is really no mechanism by which the people can force a change.
The MKs only represent loyalty factions in their parties and are selected in a strange primary vote that only decides their rank on the list. There is no such animal as local or even regional representation.
I would love nothing more than to turn that pyramid right side up, and work with a group that is trying to do just that. It's not going to happen as long as the 120 MKs hold out.
All the above is in partial explaination of why it's so hard to get rid of Olmert. Those 120 MKs have to vote him out and we the people don't have the necessary leverage to make them do it. Catch 22 anyone?