I write these words on the last day of the general elections campaign, but by the time you read this column, it will already be after the ballots have been counted and the results published. By then, we should all know who won and who lost, correct? Makes sense, right? That is what elections are all about. Well, that’s not quite true when it comes to Israel. In our neighborhood, nothing is simple. No black and white.

We are a parliamentary democracy which means we do not vote for a person but rather for a party: a list of Knesset candidates. There are more than 25 such lists that are seeking our support. About 12 of them will get in and fill the Knesset’s 120 seats. Our next prime minister will be an elected member of Knesset who is able to build the most solid coalition among the Knesset factions. Usually, it is the head of the largest party who is asked by the president to do this, but it is not a must. So practically speaking, the election process is not finished on Election Day, but essentially that is when the process begins. What a mess.

The parties in the future governmental coalition will determine the agenda of our country for years to come, the direction in which we will be led and the nature of the national leadership. So the real question in Israel is not who won the elections but rather, which coalition will be formed. Confused? You should be. So are we. Five days before Election Day more than one million Israelis have not made up their minds who to vote for. Unbelievable.

And one more enigma: there is no such thing as geographical constituency in our system. Since the elections are national, Knesset members do not have accountability towards any particular region. We are a very good example: UJC MetroWest has partnership relationships with six different regions in Israel. In both the outgoing and the incoming Knesset, there are members who reside in our partner regions. We know many of them personally; from time to time we cooperate with them. Yet how strange it is that a Diaspora community from New Jersey feels more connected and accountable to a town in Israel than its own authentic political leadership. I am still playing with the idea of creating the “MW Israel Caucus,” which will include all mayors and Knesset members from our partner regions. We already have had some success in connecting some of the mayors. Perhaps, it is time to go national.

We are the only democracy in the Middle East and the only Jewish/democratic state in the world. In spite of all our complexities, we haven’t found a better way or an improved system to demonstrate our unique nature as a country and as a nation. We sometimes envy of the normality of other countries, but then we remember that nothing is normal about our collective history and identity. This is the reality here in our region, but it is also the magic vehicle of our survival.