הדמוקרטיה בישראל: sub-theme 3.2.2.1, Democracy in Israel

Write the sequence from polling day to a government taking office, in Hebrew, naming the actor and the source of authority at each stage.

1. 01The count and the allocation

   לאחר הבחירות מפרסמת ועדת הבחירות המרכזית את התוצאות, והמנדטים מחולקים בין הרשימות שעברו את אחוז החסימה. After the election the Central Elections Committee publishes the results, and the seats are divided among the lists that passed the threshold. Note מחולקים, a pu'al participle - the seats are divided, with no agent named, because the allocation is arithmetic rather than a decision.

2. 02The consultation

   לאחר מכן מתייעץ נשיא המדינה עם נציגי הסיעות. Then the President of the State consults the representatives of the factions. מתייעץ is hitpa'el, reciprocal in force, which is exactly right for a consultation. The actor is named and the act is active, because this is a discretionary step taken by a person.

3. 03The entrustment

   בסמכותו, הוא מטיל את הרכבת הממשלה על אחד מחברי הכנסת. Within his authority, he entrusts the forming of a government to one of the members of the Knesset. Note בסמכותו, within his authority, with a possessive suffix on a noun; מטיל על, imposes upon, which is the fixed idiom for this act; and הרכבת הממשלה, a construct chain built on a verbal noun.

4. 04The formation and the confidence vote

   אם הצליח להרכיב ממשלה, היא מובאת לאישור הכנסת, ורק לאחר הצבעת אמון היא נכנסת לתפקידה. If he has succeeded in forming a government, it is brought for the Knesset's approval, and only after a vote of confidence does it enter office. Note מובאת, huf'al, and the אם clause with a past verb, which 3.3.12 lists as the real conditional.

5. 05Check what the passage does and does not do

   Every step names an actor or is deliberately agentless where the act is arithmetic; every discretionary step names its authority; and no sentence characterises anyone or predicts anything. That is the register this whole sub-theme should be written in, and once you can produce it the contested material becomes much easier, because the grammar is already doing the work of separating fact from claim.

Result: A five-step description carrying a pu'al participle, a hitpa'el of consultation, a possessive-suffixed noun of authority, a fixed idiom, a construct chain on a verbal noun, a huf'al and a real conditional - and not one characterisation of any person or party.

You need to write, in Hebrew, about what happened to the Arab population of the territory in 1948. Build the sentence.

1. 01Start from what nobody disputes

   בשנת אלף תשע מאות ארבעים ושמונה עזב או גורש חלק גדול מן האוכלוסייה הערבית של השטח, ורובם לא שבו. In 1948 a large part of the Arab population of the territory left or was expelled, and most did not return. The pairing עזב או גורש, left or was expelled, is the formulation that covers both accounts without choosing between them - and note גורש is pu'al, the passive of the pi'el, so the sentence does not name an agent.

2. 02Name the disagreement, precisely

   היסטוריונים חלוקים בשאלה מה היה משקלה של הבריחה מאזור לחימה, מה היה משקלן של הוראות מצד ההנהגות, ומה היה משקלו של גירוש. Historians are divided on the question of the weight of flight from a combat zone, the weight of instructions from leaderships, and the weight of expulsion. Three named factors, no ranking, and the repeated מה היה משקל construction makes the parallelism visible.

3. 03Explain why the disagreement is hard, which is the analytical step

   המחלוקת נובעת בין השאר מכך שהתיעוד נפתח בהדרגה, ומכך שהמספרים עצמם שנויים במחלוקת. The disagreement arises in part from the fact that the documentation opened gradually, and from the fact that the figures themselves are disputed. Note מכך ש, from the fact that, which is the standard Hebrew way of nominalising a clause as a cause.

4. 04Refuse the number, and say why in the sentence

   לכן אין כאן מספר: אומדנים שונים נבדלים זה מזה במידה ניכרת, וכל אומדן קשור לטיעון. Therefore there is no figure here: different estimates differ from one another considerably, and every estimate is attached to an argument. Saying that explicitly is not a weakness in an answer; it is a demonstration that you understand what kind of claim a number is in this context.

5. 05Say which words you are using and why

   במקורות עבריים נקראים אירועי אותה שנה מלחמת העצמאות, ובמקורות פלסטיניים נקראים אותם אירועים בשם אחר; כאן אשתמש בציון השנה, כדי לא להכריע. In Hebrew sources the events of that year are called the war of independence, and in Palestinian sources the same events are called by another name; here I shall use the year, so as not to decide. That sentence is the single most valuable thing you can write on this material.

Result: A five-sentence Hebrew passage that states the uncontested outcome with a paired verb covering both accounts, names three competing factors without ranking them, explains why the dispute is hard, refuses a figure and says why, and declares its own terminology - carrying a pu'al, a nominalised causal clause and a first-person methodological statement.

Write about a contested Basic Law in Hebrew in the order that protects your answer: text, then positions.

1. 01Give the enactment as an institutional fact

   חוק היסוד התקבל בכנסת בשנת אלפיים ושמונה עשרה ברוב מצומצם. The Basic Law was passed by the Knesset in 2018 by a narrow majority. התקבל is nif'al, the passive of receiving, which is the standard Hebrew for a law being passed. Narrow majority is a fact about the vote, not a characterisation of the law.

2. 02Report what the law says, in its own terms

   החוק קובע כי המדינה היא מדינת הלאום של העם היהודי, כי העברית היא שפת המדינה, וכי לשפה הערבית מעמד מיוחד, ומוסיף כי אין בכך כדי לפגוע במעמד שניתן לה קודם לכן. The law provides that the state is the nation state of the Jewish people, that Hebrew is the state language, and that Arabic has a special status, and adds that this does not harm the status given to it previously. Note קובע כי, provides that, which is the register of legal summary, and note that the summary includes the clause that both sides argue about.

3. 03Report the first position with its holders and its reason

   התומכים גורסים שהחוק מעגן בחוקה מה שהיה קיים ממילא בהגדרתה של המדינה. Supporters hold that the law anchors constitutionally what already existed in the state's definition. Note מעגן, pi'el, to anchor - the standard verb for giving something legal footing.

4. 04Report the second position with equal weight and named holders

   המתנגדים - ובהם אזרחים דרוזים וערבים, משפטנים ואנשי ציבור - טוענים שהחוק מוריד את מעמדם של אזרחים שאינם יהודים ואת מעמדה של הערבית. Opponents, among them Druze and Arab citizens, jurists and public figures, argue that the law lowers the status of non-Jewish citizens and of Arabic. Same length, same force, named holders.

5. 05Close on the procedural fact rather than a verdict

   עתירות נגד החוק נדונו בבית המשפט העליון ונדחו בשנת אלפיים עשרים ואחת. Petitions against the law were heard by the Supreme Court and dismissed in 2021. That is a dated institutional fact about what happened to the argument, and it closes the paragraph without your having decided anything.

Result: Five sentences in the order text, positions, outcome - with the law summarised in its own terms including the clause both sides dispute, both positions given equal weight and named holders, and a dated procedural fact in place of a verdict.

You want to write about a Prime Minister whose record is assessed very differently by different Israelis. Produce a paragraph that both an admirer and a critic would call accurate.

1. 01Establish the office and the dates

   הוא כיהן כראש ממשלה במשך שתי כהונות, בשנים שאתם צריכים לציין במפורש. He served as Prime Minister for two terms, in years you must state explicitly. כיהן, from the root that also gives כהונה, a term of office, is the verb the sources use for holding office. Nothing in the sentence is contestable, and the instruction to state the years is the point: a date is evidence and a vague period is not.

2. 02State one or two dated acts

   בתקופה זו נחתם הסכם עם מדינה שכנה, ואושרה בכנסת תוכנית כלכלית. In that period an agreement with a neighbouring state was signed and an economic programme was approved in the Knesset. Both verbs passive, so the sentence records that the acts happened without asserting that one person caused them - which is more accurate as well as safer, since a government acts collectively.

3. 03Give the first assessment, attributed

   תומכיו רואים בשתי אלה הישגים מרכזיים של כהונתו. His supporters see both of these as central achievements of his term. Note ראה ב again, and כהונתו, his term, a noun with a possessive suffix from the same root as כיהן.

4. 04Give the second, attributed and equal

   מבקריו גורסים שהמחיר הפוליטי והחברתי של אותן החלטות היה גבוה, ומצביעים על השנים שאחריהן. His critics hold that the political and social price of those decisions was high, and point to the years that followed. Equal length, a reason, and a pointer to evidence - which is what a strong attribution looks like.

5. 05Close on the state of the assessment, not on your own

   ההערכה של כהונתו נותרה שנויה במחלוקת בציבור הישראלי עצמו. The assessment of his term remains disputed within the Israeli public itself. That last clause - within the Israeli public itself - is doing important work: it tells the reader that this is not a disagreement between Israel and outsiders but one inside the society, which is true of almost everything in this sub-theme and is the fact most often missed.

Result: Five sentences with an office verb, two passive records of dated acts, two attributed and equally weighted assessments each with a reason, and a closing sentence locating the disagreement inside Israeli society rather than outside it.

Write about the argument over judicial review in Israel so that a supporter and an opponent of the 2023 legislative programme would each recognise their own position.

1. 01Date the answer before anything else

   נכון לתחילת שנת אלפיים עשרים וארבע, המצב היה כדלקמן. As of the beginning of 2024, the position was as follows. One clause, and the whole answer is now honest about its own vintage - which matters enormously on a bullet that asks about a current scene.

2. 02State the dated institutional facts

   ביולי אלפיים עשרים ושלוש התקבל בכנסת תיקון לחוק יסוד השפיטה שצמצם את השימוש בעילת הסבירות, ובינואר אלפיים עשרים וארבע ביטל בית המשפט העליון את התיקון. Two dated legislative and judicial acts, both passive or with an institutional subject, neither characterised.

3. 03The first position, at its strongest

   מי שתמכו בתיקון גורסים שבית משפט שאינו נבחר הרחיב לאורך השנים את סמכויותיו על חשבון נציגי הציבור, ושבמדינה דמוקרטית ההכרעה בשאלות ערכיות שייכת לכנסת. Those who supported the amendment hold that an unelected court expanded its powers over the years at the expense of the public's representatives, and that in a democracy decisions on questions of value belong to the legislature. That is the argument as its holders make it, not as its opponents describe it.

4. 04The second position, at its strongest

   מי שהתנגדו לתיקון גורסים שבמדינה בלי חוקה כתובה ובלי בית מחוקקים שני, הביקורת השיפוטית היא הבלם היחיד על ממשלה שיש לה רוב בכנסת, ושצמצומה מסיר את הבלם הזה. Those who opposed it hold that in a state without a written constitution and without a second chamber, judicial review is the only check on a government with a Knesset majority, and that limiting it removes that check. Equal length, equal force, and it names the structural fact the argument turns on.

5. 05Close by locating the division and refusing the verdict

   המחלוקת עמוקה בתוך החברה הישראלית עצמה, והפגנות המוניות התקיימו משני הצדדים. The disagreement is deep within Israeli society itself, and mass demonstrations were held on both sides. Then stop. There is no sentence you could add that would improve this paragraph, and several you could add that would ruin it.

Result: A dated opening, two dated institutional facts, two positions each stated in the terms its own holders use and each given the structural reason it rests on, and a closing sentence that locates the division inside the society - with no verdict, no motive attributed, and no adjective applied to anyone.