Action Yisrael
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Action Yisrael פעולה ישראל | |
|---|---|
| name | Modern Hebrew |
| Leader | Shaul Frum |
| Transportation Minister | Aryeh Leib Hurwitz |
| Economic Development Minister | Ayelet Shakir |
| Founder | Michel Amash |
| Founded | May 24, 2009 |
| Preceded by | March for Yisrael |
| Headquarters | Yerushalayim, Yisrael |
| Newspaper | Action News Daily |
| Student wing | Students for Action and Progress |
| Ideology | Centrism Middle-income family interests Secular interests Internal Factions: Classical liberalism Ordoliberalism Economic liberalism Green liberalism |
| Political position | Center |
| Religion | Secular |
| Colors | Light gray |
| Seats in the Royal Knesset | 12 / 142
|
Action Yisrael, also commonly called AY or simply Action Now (colloquially), is a contemporary centrist, middle-income family interests, and Traditional social sector interests secondary political party in Yisrael. The Royalist Conservatives are currently the governing party of Yisrael, whose leader Noah Feldman is the incumbent President, as well as commanding a coalition majority government in the Knesset of which the Northern League and the Action Yisrael are apart. In the Feldman administration, the AY holds the Cabinet posts of the Ministry of Transportation and Ministry of Economic Development. It has 12 Members of Knesset. Its political base is largely confined to the middle-income-heavy suburban areas throughout the country. It has traditional strongholds in the suburban towns that ring Ashkelon, Modiin, Dervaylik, and Beersheva.
Platform and philosophy
The party is the successor of the now-defunct March for Yisrael, an earlier centrist, middle-income-interests political platform that felt the Conservatives were too restrained with social and transportation funding, while also rejecting the pro-tax Con Libs as too eager to expand such funding but at the cost of higher or new taxes on a middle strata that already felt over-burdened.
The party's predecessor had had limited political success, able to elect just a few town and city councilmen and legislators to the District councils. Currently, under Shaul Frum, Action Yisrael is considered a right-leaning centrist political party whose policies are at the very center of the political mainstream.
It is a party that contains a number of radical centrists and uses its swing vote position to extract concessions from either governing party it is in coalition with, or if in no coalition, to earn its MK bloc's support, much to the chagrin of the majority-party Blues and Golds. It is heavily focused on economic and fiscal issues; it permits its members to vote their conscience on foreign ad national security. While most of its MKs tend to lean right on foreign policy, it has several members whose views put them in voting alignment with the left-wing of the Constitutional Liberals. It is fiercely protective of the Yarden Accords (with many of its political base being aging veterans of the Fourth West Scipian War) and engages in chronic spats - often public - with the Northern League over the issue, as the far-right has several open Yarden Revisionists within its ranks.
Action Yisrael routinely advocates for more expanded welfare and transportation budgets, including the reduction of gas and congestion taxes as well as lower tolls. On welfare, the party's mainstream clique pushes for more family and education tax reductions and public subsidies.
The party is also the official political home for the "Traditional" sector of Yisraeli society - Yisraeli Jews who publicly and privately follow religious law and practice but often are still lax or not fully observant in their practice in the eyes of halacha.
History
Organization and hierarchy
Election results and current representation
Current representation
The AY currently have 12 MKs in the Royal Knesset. It is apart of the governing majority, led by the Conservatives as well as the third party Northern League.
As part of the majority, Action Now member Aryeh Leib Hurwitz holds the Cabinet post of Minister of Transportation and Ayelet Shakir is the Minister of Economic Development.
Election results
International affiliation and criticism
The party has is affiliated with the Belisarian Community's Parliament bloc the Alliance of Centrists.