Israel is made up of Jews as the major ethnic, cultural, and religious group and Arab as the minority. Since the inception of Israel, the political system has been made up of mainly the Jews leading to polarizing peaceful coexistence in society. Political institutions in Israel influence how social cleavages in the country behave. Politics has led to social cleavages based on dimensions of the structure, attitude, and institutions and theorizing on its interactions. The political system caused the alignments and realignment of social cleavages. Such has resulted in collective identity differences, a challenge that has contributed to Israel's susceptibility to a full cleavage society. From 1977, Israel's political system was characterized by voting based on ethnic background, a process that has always been fuelled by political prompts ( Enos & Gidron, 2018) . Party cues, realignment, and nationalistic appeals caused realignment majorly based on religious groups. Government institutions in Israel deepen divisions through social identities and cleavages, whereas minority groups and the constitution are used by political institutions to polarize the country.
Politics and political institutions shape the formation of various divisions existing among identity groups in Israel. The country is composed of three social identities and cleavages. Notably, Jews and Arabs social identity and cleavages contribute to coherence in system identity in Israel. Jews community tends to interrelate positively, whereas the Arab system's sub-identities are characterized by negative correlation, especially on civic and national dimensions. Another social identity and cleavage existing in Israel are between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Jews. Mizrahi Jews have their descent in the Middle East, whereas Ashkenazi originates from Europe. Due to the difference in place of origin, the two Jews groups have different cultures mired by Zionist myths. Israel is also composed of ultra-orthodox Jews and other Jews groups. The social identity in the recent past has led to the displacement of the Ashkenazi-Mizrahi divide; however, its development has positive implications for Israel society. Social identities and cleavages have led to the polarization of the country. Despite the existing fragmentation, the political class has further led to the deepening of existing divisions. Notably, the political class has been pushing for the national identity of Jews in Israel. In 2019, Netanyahu's government passed a law stipulating that Israel is a nation of Jews people (Lewin, 2016). Similarly, the law also stipulates that Jews only Hebrew is the official language, thus excluding Israel's large minority group, the Arabs. The law encourages the settlement of Jews in the West Bank, a region that Arabs settled. Thus, the political institution has led to the country's polarization since one part, mainly from the Arabs, wants Israel for all its citizens despite being dominated by Jewish. The development of binary groups in Israel with dissimilar views over core identity and values is quite polarizing. The political system has also contributed to the formation of antagonistic identities among Jews. Israel is composed of secular, social democratic Zionists and ultra-Orthodox Jews. However, privileges vested upon religious Jews from government, the ultra-orthodox, the two Jews currently differ sharply due to the accommodation of Orthodox religious beliefs in public law. The problem is associated with religious freedom, beliefs, and how it affects how different Jews groups.
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Political institutions have contributed to the continuous marginalization of minority groups, the Arabs in Israel. Arabs have a population of approximately 1,890,000 that is, and 20.95% of Israel's total people. During the aftermath of the 1947-1949 war, the territory that was earlier administered by the British Emperor as Palestine was divided into three states: Jordan, Israel, and Egypt. During the division process, the region that became Israel was made up of 950000 Arabs; however, during the 1948 war, 80% fled, leaving 20% who later became part of Arab-Israelites ( Dara & Moslemi, 2018) . Arabs in Israel resides in Galilee, Little Triangle, and towns such as Tel Aviv. The Arab-Israel citizens have the right to apply for citizenship in Israel. After the six-day war of 1967, some Arabs who lived in Golan Heights and East Jerusalem were offered, Israeli citizens. However, some refused to recognize Israel's sovereignty, and thus, they were offered an opportunity to apply for citizenship of Israel later on. Arabs are also entitled to receive services from the municipality as well as participate in municipal voting. The privilege has helped enhance the livelihood of Arabs in terms of representation and receiving services from social amenities like hospitals and schools. Despite having the right to vote and application for Israel citizenship, the Arabs demand equality in Israel society. From 1993 to 2000, the Arabs have been involved actively in Israel's politics, with the principal desire to develop an integrated society in Israel and the subsequent achievement of equality. Regardless of Arab-Israelites desire to be integrated as part of societies in Israel like the Jews, political institutions have continued to play an essential role in their marginalization. In 2018, the government declared Hebrew as the national language, thus stripping the Arabs privilege of being part of Israel. Even in the areas in which they are the majority, limited Arabic use is expressed ( Lewin, 2016) . The marginalization also results from the declaration of Israel as a nation of Jews. The prime minister's sentiments demonstrate that Arabs do not have the autonomy of being part of the Israel nation.
Israel's constitution is associated with the deepening of social identities through its failure on inclusive representation in society. Israel has been using an unwritten constitution since its development. Israel's unwritten constitution is based on Basic Law. Currently, the Basic Law that was passed by Knesset in 2018 dictates that “Israel is Nation State of the Jewish People” ( Dara & Moslemi, 2018) . The constitution stipulates that Israel is the state of Jewish people, and therefore, they have the right to exercise self-determination in the country. Israel has a unitary government; thus, the central government has absolute powers over other ruling classes. The country has six districts whose jurisdiction is under the central government. The prime minister holds most of the political powers. The prime minister works closely with the Knesset (legislature). The president also heads the country as the state's chief but with limited political powers, mostly taking only the ceremonial role. The country is a parliamentary system—the president I elected by Knesset for a term of seven years. The legislative wing also elects the prime minister. The members of Knesset are voted by citizens every four years. The political institutions in Israel are mainly vested in the powers of Jew-majority leaders. Since the country comprises relatively 80% of Jews, the representative to Knesset, who appoints the president and prime ministers, will comprise many Jews ( Enos & Gidron, 2018) . Thus, to maintain the Jews' culture, religion, and sovereignty, the leaders chosen will represent their social cleavages' interest. For example, the current constitution favors only the interests of Jews because the majority of leaders in government institutions are Jews. The institutions of government in Israel do not offer inclusive representation for major social groups. In Israel, Jews from different groups exist. From a representation perspective, all the majority Jew groups such as Haradi, Dati, and Hiloni are represented equally. The privilege has led to harmonious relationships and integration among different groups of Jews in Israel.
The existing social identity groups contributed to the divisive political agenda during the 2019 general elections. During political campaigns, Arab-Israelites were in the spotlight in the divisive politics in the country. Unlike the Arabs living in Gaza and West Bank, most of them in Golan Heights have voting rights. The Arabs have four political parties that they used in campaigning against the re-election of Netanyahu as the prime minister. Similarly, the campaign was characterized by views on whether the sidelined Arab will vote for Jewish-majority or not due to their continuous experience resulting from discrimination. During the political competition, it was evident that Israel's heterogeneous religious, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds dominated the campaigns and voting process ( Lewin, 2016) . For instance, the voter turnout of the Arabs was low, considering the previous failure to elect a leader who could integrate them in Israel. Nonetheless, the Arabs in regions with voting rights campaigned against Netanyahu's re-election and possibly against discriminative Jews. However, most Jews supported, especially from non-elite groups, and part of orthodox groups supported Netanyahu's re-election. The merger of politicians among Arabs resulted in their increase in their representation in Knesset. The primary purpose of the joint alliance was to help in increasing their representation. The mergers helped in capitalizing on a series of racist campaigns perpetrated by Benjamin Netanyahu. The groups formed by Arabs were to serve as an inhibitor for Netanyahu's next election, who has been enjoying religious and ultranationalist allies during general elections.
Conclusion
Israel is composed of two major social cleavages, the Jews and Arabs. Regardless of the existing fragment among the Jews based on religious ideologies and origin, they form the majority group in Israel. The declaration of Israel as Jews nation is unfortunate for Arabs, and thus, from my analysis, the constant political instability experienced in the region will escalate. Arabs are aware of the creation of Israel as a result of their displacement. For that purpose, they will prefer to retaliate the underrepresentation and lack of identity through political instability rather than moving to Palestine.
References
Lewin, E. (2016). The mental cleavage of Israeli politics. Israel affaIrs , 22 (2), 355-378. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537121.2016.1140352
Enos, R. D., & Gidron, N. (2018). Exclusion and cooperation in diverse societies: Experimental evidence from Israel. American Political Science Review , 112 (4), 742-757. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055418000266
Dara, J., & Moslemi Arimi, E. (2018). Religious-Secular Cleavage and Political Stability in Israel. World Sociopolitical Studies , 2 (1), 1-33. https://dx.doi.org/10.22059/wsps.2018.65217
