Talk:The Democrats (Israel)

Logo needed for header
Logo needed for header 74.71.4.108 (talk) 18:29, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
 * The party was just created today, I doubt there is a logo yet. Wellington Bay (talk) 18:46, 30 June 2024 (UTC)

Color
The Knesset chart on Wikipedia is dominated by blue-colored parties, making it one of the more challenging parliament diagrams to read on the site. While it's common for Israeli parties to incorporate their national flag color into their branding, many of them also use another one as their co-official branding color.

I believe in these cases it makes sense to use that distinctive branding color for clarity's sake. I believe it’s a worthy trade-off if we use red as the main color (in charts, etc.) to represent the new Labor-Meretz alliance/party. 沁水湾 (talk) 19:06, 1 July 2024 (UTC)

Political orientation
Given that Labor was described as centre left to left wing and Meretz as left wing - and given that Yesh Atid is described as centre and National Unity as centre to centre-right, I think it makes sense to place the Democrats as Centre-left to left, particularly given their stated orientation as "the broad home for the liberal democratic public". There is no other "centre left" party in Israel so by default the Democrats fill that niche. Wellington Bay (talk) 19:59, 1 July 2024 (UTC)


 * Let's just have something generic like "centre-left" for now, given its the (planned) successor to Israel's main centre-left party, but obviously back that up with reliable references as they become available. (I'm not keen on listing two positions in Infoboxes, FWIW.)-- Autospark (talk) 16:24, 3 July 2024 (UTC)
 * is labor really left-wing, i think its a recent addition Braganza (talk) 18:03, 4 July 2024 (UTC)


 * Given that I oppose the "xxxxx to xxxxx" format and political positions in infoboxes, I support "centre-left", pure and simple. --Checco (talk) 16:40, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

Electoral history of predecessors
Is this really necessary? Wouldn't you just redirect to the original articles for Meretz and Labor? It feels kind of weird since this isn't even a uniquely interesting topic. Totalstgamer (talk) 21:37, 1 July 2024 (UTC)


 * I agree. It seems out of place in this article. David O. Johnson (talk) 21:42, 1 July 2024 (UTC)
 * I'll be deleting it since i think its a pretty clear cut case. If anyone opposes it we can hash it out in the talk page. Totalstgamer (talk) 19:11, 2 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Yes, there's no precedent for it. I can understand the use of the "Predecessor parties/alliances" boxout with the proposed party's 'family tree', but the "Electoral history of predecessors" section, completely no need for it. It isn't the common occurrence on any political party article, as far as I've seen.-- Autospark (talk) 16:20, 3 July 2024 (UTC)
 * yeah its too much and too complicated to do it (Rafi, Arab satellites, Maki ect. make it nearly impossible)
 * the only elections i would understand are the elections starting in 2019 Braganza (talk) 14:04, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
 * That feels synthetic though. What's to determine 2019 is the cutoff point? Why not 1996 or 1992 or 1977 for that matter? I think we should omit it entirely Totalstgamer (talk) 16:11, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
 * im not saying we *should* i said i would "understand", because its the starting point of election circle Braganza (talk) 17:30, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
 * I think it’s totally useful. What was the historic role and political power of the predecessor entities? How quickly did their fortunes fall? Etc? It’s helpful to have a concise illustration of this for newbies to Israeli politics and a clearer illustration for even those who are well-read SecretName101 (talk) 17:13, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

The chart and table might be useful in List of political parties in Israel or Politics of Israel - though if so there should also be a family tree for right wing parties - but it doesn't belong here. Wellington Bay (talk) 14:15, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Is there maybe a page about the history of the Israeli Left where this could fit? Totalstgamer (talk) 16:11, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
 * maybe Labor Zionism? Braganza (talk) 17:30, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
 * But does Meretz fit Labor Zionism? Maybe there's another page that fits. Totalstgamer (talk) 19:51, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
 * i would say rather Maki is the problem but yeah
 * Liberalism in Israel exists so something like left could exist Braganza (talk) 20:00, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Mapam was a left Labour Zionist party and a descendent of Left Poale Zion which was an offshoot of Poale Zion - the original party of the Labour Zionist movement, Ratz split from the Labour Alignment and was founded by former Labor MK Shulamit Aloni. Shinui had liberal antecedents but it was the smallest component of Meretz and much of Shinui left Meretz and reestablished itself as a separate party. Meretz considered itself social democratic. Wellington Bay (talk) 20:07, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

As for Maki, if you look at its origins the original Communist Party of Palestine it split from Poale Zion so it is part of the Labour Zionist family tree- though it would help if that were made clearer in the chart. Also, the longtime leader of Maki, Meir Vilner crossed the floor from Mapam in the 50s and was part of a faction that split from Mapam to join Maki. Wellington Bay (talk) 20:07, 4 July 2024 (UTC)


 * There is no need to mention the electoral histories of this would-be party's precursor parties. --Checco (talk) 16:40, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

Ideology
To be clear, "liberal democracy" is not a party ideology, "liberalism", "social liberalism", "social democracy", "democratic socialism", etc. are. Also, "progressivism" and "third way" are generic descriptions. Finally, "two-state solution" is a policy, not an ideology. The Democrats would be the merger of the social-democratic and centre-left Labour Party and the democratic-socialist and left-wing Meretz". Why should it be so difficult to describe the would-be party as social-democratic (ideology) and "centre-left" (position) in the infobox? -- Checco (talk) 17:12, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Liberal democracy is described as an ideology here and it is the only term thus far the party has used to describe itself. The party has not yet identified itself as either social democratic or Labour Zionist, nor has it articulated any social democratic economic policies. That may change but it shouldn't be assumed. Wellington Bay (talk) 17:17, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Given that the given source is not particularly authoritative, liberal democracy is mainly a form of government, indeed. It is not used for parties, please believe me—"liberalism" is the ideology used for them. Self-characterisations by parties are not relevant and surely the source is not third-party. --Checco (talk) 17:21, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
 * A belief in a form of government is ideological, particularly when that belief is contested. Communism, monarchism, federalism are all forms of government but they are also ideologies - in Canada for instance we have federalist parties and parties that are (Quebec) sovereigntist. Liberalism is a very vague descriptor, more so than progressive. If we just say liberalism is that a reference to economic policy (centre-right) or social policy? Given that this party is explicitly saying it wants to unite the "liberal democratic camp" what do you think "liberal democratic" refers to without any ideological reference? Wellington Bay (talk) 17:48, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Liberal democracy as a form of governance and social organisation, of course, not liberalism the political ideology. (Even then, it is a self-description, and should not be used in the Infobox.)— Autospark (talk) 19:14, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
 * I will remove it from the infobox, while adding "social democracy" for which I found an authoritative source. I would possibly keep "labor Zionism", while I would remove "progressivism" (generic, redundant characterisation) and "two-state solution" (policy, political goal, not an ideology)—I will keep them for now. --Checco (talk) 22:14, 5 July 2024 (UTC)
 * The Jewish Press is not a credible source - it's a far right paper and the headline calls the party "extreme left" which is absurd. Be patient and some credible sources will emerge one way or the other. Wellington Bay (talk) 01:08, 6 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Labour Zionism has become a dated concept and it remains to be seen if the new party identifies itself or is identified as such. The party will likely fit in the broader modern usage of "social democratic" but until it articulates its economic policy I think its premature to say they are or aren't social democratic. Wellington Bay (talk) 12:48, 6 July 2024 (UTC)

Knesset
Is there any reason why the four Labor MKs haven't yet redesignated as Democrats? Is it just a matter of Knesset bureaucracy or is there a political issue? Wellington Bay (talk) 15:24, 21 July 2024 (UTC)
 * I'd wager they just didn't rename their Caucus, or its a bueraucratic thing where the party hasn't been properly formed or registered. Totalstgamer (talk) 18:50, 21 July 2024 (UTC)