If you ask, the reaction you receive will range from apathy to disgust to rage. Put gently, Knesset members as a group are not generally held in high esteem. Put bluntly, the Knesset is not widely regarded as a body that serves its citizens. Rather than being an organization committed to serving the principles of a Jewish democratic society, the Knesset is a collection of interest factions, sub-governments that answer only to party committees.

Ask a typical MK how much time she/he devotes to audiences with ordinary citizens and you will probably get a quizzical look; it's not exactly part of the job description. More to the point, ask a typical Israeli citizen, "Who represents you in your Knesset?" Again, you'll get a quizzical look. No MK actually represents any particular citizens. Herein lies the root of the failure of Israel's political failure: Israeli democracy is not a representative democracy.

The present Israeli system of elections ensures a democracy that is proportional. Citizens vote for various parties and these parties divide the Knesset chairs according to their proportion of votes. With few exceptions, the names of most Knesset members never appear on a ballot in a general election. Party committees choose who will fill those chairs. Citizens assume that the leadership of the empowered parties will serve national interests, or at least the interests of the party's charter. However, Israel's political history arguably defies this assumption. Individual MKs are neither motivated nor empowered to do anything but satisfy the party power structure.

Who in the Knesset represents the individual?

Ideally, everybody; in practice, nobody. When parties become the direct arbiters of power, individuals are not represented, "interests" are. Why should members of Knesset feel accountable to citizens when there is no granting of power from the citizens to their "representatives" via a direct vote? The result is the worst that political mediocrity has to offer; excellence in our legislators is an oxymoron. The standard of behavior by legislators has become a joke.

When our leaders fail to behave honorably, honorable behavior ceases to be a valued ideal. Scandals come and go, and Israelis do little more than shrug and move on. Children are raised with the idea that the worst crime is to be a freyer, a sucker. To act responsibly, to consider the effects of your actions in the wider environment, becomes negligible. This is the true source of the carnage on our roads, the source of our polluted beaches, the source of our moral decline. Ultimately, this is why we lose faith in ourselves.

Proportional democracy, as practiced in Israel, encourages narrow interests rather than finding common ground. The result is a tribalism in which politicial boundaries between groups are fortified and patronage is jealously guarded. We citizens fail to identify with each other across political lines. Our political dynamic becomes exemplified by shouting matches rather than reasoned debates. Philosophically, this approach is preoccupied with the sharing of power and not necessarily concerned with serving citizens. The search for solutions becomes eclipsed by the drive for power.

How do we prevent abuses of power in government?

At present, not very well. The supreme court nullifies Knesset decisions by making pronouncements that go beyond the interpretation of existing laws. The prime minister openly bribes and threatens Knesset members by offering, and threatening to remove, influential ministerial portfolios. There is an ombudsman, but his power is very limited. To form coalitions, prime ministers give control of government ministries, controlling billions of shekels to politicians, not to experts in their fields. These political ministers exploit the ministries' influence and resources for political or personal gain; their priorities are not necessarily to implement executive policy in the interests of the country.

When a Member of Knesset serves as a government minister in the executive branch, he serves "two masters," the prime minister and the constituency that elected him. He prioritizes amassing power for his ministry rather serving the interests and will of his district. Worst of all, the prime minister then has a lever of control over the legislator to influence the way he will vote on key topics. In this way, the legislator who controls a government portfolio ceases to be a representative of his constituents.

In short, under the current parliamentary system, there is no effective separation between the branches of government that are supposed to check one another. We do not have sufficient mechanisms to prevent systemic abuses of power.

We deserve better.

Voters should have the final say over who will and will not serve us as their representatives. We deserve real, built-in protections, through the separation of branches, against abuses of government power. MKs should serve our interests as representatives, without conflicts of interest, as long as they are Knesset members.