With election day approaching, a conservative Israeli NGO has released a Knesset report card to help voters who define themselves as right wing decide who deserves their vote.
The 2022 Mattot Arim comparative parliamentary achievement report, issued periodically by Mattot Arim over the past 20 years, was released just in time for the elections.
The report covers the period from 2019 to June 2022, with 70 pages scoring Knesset members and government ministers on the promotion of values and goals of the Israeli right.
It includes summary tables which present the total number of achievements for each Knesset member or minister alongside a general achievement level for each party as a whole.
The overall party scores are determined by averaging the contributions of a party’s legislators and ministers.
Each party’s general achievement level is based only on the candidates the party is fielding in realistic spots on its list, Mattot Arim told Israel National News.
“For example, MK’s Keti Shitrit and Zachi Hanegbi did not win realistic slots in Likud so their achievement levels are not averaged in. We want to give voters a realistic picture of how much they can expect from each party this term – so non-realistic candidates are not relevant,” the NGO explained.
The report adjusts each candidate’s score to compensate for their length of service in the Knesset, Mattot Arim said.
This was done because of differing lengths of service for MKs and ministers, with frequent elections and the so-called “Norwegian law" which results in MKs entering the Knesset late, to replace those who have become ministers.
One topic highlighted by the report was deterring Palestinian Arab efforts to takeover land in Judea and Samaria.
“That is a serious emergency topic,” Mattot Arim spokesperson Susie Dym told Israel National News. “The Palestinian invasion in Judea-Samaria is no different in intent from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
The average achievement level for each MK per year was found to be as follows: Religious Zionism – 20 achievements per MK per year; Likud – 11; Shas – 6; United Torah Judiaism – 3; Machane Mamlachti – 2; Yisrael Beytenu – 1.
The 10 top achievers were all from Religious Zionism and Likud.
MK Orit Struck (Religious Zionism) led the list with 38 achievements per year on average. Ariel Kallner (Likud) was next with 32 achievements per year on average. This was followed by Itamar Ben-Gvir and Simcha Rotman (both Religious Zionism – 27 and 26 achievements per year on average respectively), Amit Halevy, Micky Zohar, Yariv Levin and Shlom Kari ((all Likud, with 24, 21, 19 and 17 achievements per year on average, Michal Voldiger (15, Religious Zionism) and Amichai Shikli (Likud, 14 achievements per year on average).
The Mattot Arim report is published in Hebrew. However, Mattot Arim activists explained that the summary tables, which are numerical, “can easily be understood by voters with beginning-level Hebrew skills.”
The Mattot Arim report originated with the encouragement of the late Hanan Porat, a leading Israeli ideological figure. Based on his own period of service in the Knesset, Porat felt that MKs must be monitored and that voters have the right to know.
