Israeli politics are very complex, with multiple fractures amongst the non-homogenous population. Initially the government was founded by primarily European Jews (or Ashkenazi, the Jews who spoke Yiddish) who had lost their homes due to the Holocaust and post war persecutions. The big disagreement at that time was between the religious and secular Jews, about how theocratic the state would be. The agreement reached at the time, now referred to as the status quo, prevents bus service on Shabbat, obstructs interfaith marriage (inside of Israel, although marriage law is confusing in Israel) and forces the government to massively subsidize ultra orthodox religious schools and doll out welfare. 

There are ethnic tensions amongst Jews in Israel as well. The old Ashkenazi (German e.g. Yiddish) establishment is felt to be elitist by Arab Jews (also called Mizrahi) or Sephardi (Spanish-- from the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain, often from Arab countries) Jews. These Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews came in a later wave to Israel, after persecution began in their respective countries following the Arab-Israeli wars  Recent immigrants are Russian and from Soviet bloc countries, who receive some discrimination due to their new status. Often they are not considered Jewish by other Jews, and the question of who is a Jew is also complex, since it is tied to ethnicity. Because the Ultra-orthodox religious courts control immigration decisions, they will often deny Aliyah (immigration of a Jewish person to Israel) to groups they do not consider Jewish, e.g Chinese Jews. I met a Russian woman, who although she considered herself Jewish, she could not make Aliayah because she did not have "proof" that she was Jewish. Of course during the collapse of the Soviet Union, many immigrants were only seeking better economic stability rather than religious nonsense, and the thought by some religious people is that they had lied about being Jewish, just to escape instability in their home. This has translated into the Russian population feeling somewhat excluded from Israelis with more history in the country. Almost as compensation, the Russians have flocked to the nationalist party Yisrael Beiteinu, or "Israel Our Home," lead by Soviet born Avigdor Lieberman. I am often asked if I am Russian, due to my blonde hair and transportation choice primarily being birds of prey.

The next largest party (from the 2009 election, now the largest) is Likkud (consolidation) headed by the prime minister, Benyamin Netanyahu.  They are right of center. 

A nationalist party, primarily supported by recent immigrants from the Soviet Union, Israel Our Home, heads up the next largest party. Apart from reasons listed above Russians often live in areas in the south, closest to the frequent attacks by Hamas, and hunkering in a bunker tends to turn you a bit reactionary. Plus, Russians enjoy projecting strength. 

Formerly the largest party in Israel, the left wing Labor party represents the old guard Kibbutz secular Zionist crowd, that has been diminishing in power since the late seventies. This has recently split into another party, Independence lead by Ehud Barak. This party is now lead by Shelly Yachimovich. It seems there is a constant threat in Israeli politics that if a leader is not elected to the head of the party, he or she may simply leave and create a smaller party. This also occurred with Tzipi Livni, the former head of Kadima, listed above. 

Underneath these are some smaller parties that may participate in a coalition government. There are ultra-religious parties, such as Shas and United Torah Judaism, an Arab party and some ultranationalist parties, and my favorite, Hadash. They propose immediate recognition of Palestine in the west bank, immediate withdrawal of all settlements, and a lowering in the price of beer. On the left there is another smaller social deomocratic party, Meretz.

In general, the more hawkish parties lead by Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to win, especially considering the disintegration of the Israeli left, the major parties including Kadima and the Labour party. All of the parties essentially agree on Palestine-- publicly support a two state plan, but to only half-heartily pursue the plan's implementation. Although the West Bank has been peaceful for many years, Israelis are reluctant to "permit" it statehood. Part of this stems from a fear of another Gaza being created. Israel used to occupy Gaza, until 1994 when they signed a peace treaty with Yasser Arafat. The Israelis withdrew from Gaza, except for military bases and some 20 or so settlements in the south and let Gaza self-govern. Things worked until ~ 2000 when the Second Intifada broke out, with many suicide bombings and other attacks that lead to Israel to build a wall around Gaza and the West Bank. The Israelis completely withdrew from Gaza, and Yasser Arafat died, leading to chaos amongst the Gazan side. This unrest also allowed Hamas to take control of Gaza in a bloody civil war with Fatah, and basically run the strip like warlords, becoming wealthy through controlling trade through the tunnels to Egypt. Unfortunately, the Israelis seem be in a perpetual stalemate with Gaza. The current policy with Gaza seems to be, allow Hamas to bomb to south, until it gets to be too much, then the IDF will bomb a bunch of Hamas targets until they agree to stop. This peace treaty will hold for a few months while Hamas stocks back up on smuggled and hand made missiles, and they will slowly increase their bombings on the south until Israel feel they need to "cut the grass" again. They could easily flatten the whole area, but are, despite what international news suggests, Israelis are very concerned about loosing international support. During the recent conflict, I heard many people suggest IDF do just that; this was very popular amongst the Russians. One girl at work even stated, "In Russia, we know how to deal with Muslims," I suppose in reference to the great successes of long term peace Russians enjoy with Chechens. The long term strategy for peace seems to be that perhaps after a few generations, the Palestinians will realize that they lost the war, and should accept what they have. Unfortunately the Palestinians seem to hold onto the idea that they will somehow retake all of Israel, and until they accept their current reality, there can be no long lasting peace. It's true that the poor refugees should not have lost their homes in 1948 and 1967, but it's also true that generations of Israelis have been born here since those conflicts, and those generations of people are not going anywhere. If every country insisted on the borders of their countries remaining at their largest point, there would never be peace anywhere because borders shift throughout time. Sometimes leftists outside of the country like to pretend that the whole existence of Israel is based on the "god told me I could colonize you" argument, of which some settlers do agree with, but in reality this is a seldom held belief, and normal Israelis would give up the settlements for peace in a heartbeat. The same is likely true for Gazans, but the leadership structure there simply does not exist to enact the peace process. Israel should focus on the West Bank however, which has been mostly peaceful for almost a decade; this peaceful behavior should be rewarded, otherwise violence is the only method for securing better lives. 

Alright, the last paragraph was a bit of a rant... read it or don't! You can always leave a comment describing how stupid I am below! 

Get out and vote Chutzpanim!

Sauce

P.S. Special thanks to Eli Gottlieb for suggesting I add some other parties, e.g Meretz and distinguish Labour's splits.