What is exactly the basis for having a special election in Israel? Is it simply based on when the prime minister loses support/coalition?
Can special elections be held whenever?
Thanks.
I believe they can hold elections whenever they want. I’m not sure whether they need a vote of confidence before doing so, however. Barak is calling early elections because he’s been indecisive in the Israeli/Palestinian struggle, and Netanyahu is sitting outside his window drooling. Hopefully he’ll be elected and this tragedy in the Middle East will be stopped once and for all.
Note that an election for the entire parliament of a country is a general election, whether the parliament is dissolved in advance of the expiration of its term or not.
A special election would be if, say, the MP from Tottering-on-the-Brink dropped dead, in which case an election would only be held in Tottering-on-the-Brink to replace her. Since Israel does not elect MPs (MKs?) from territorial districts, I can’t say offhand what is done if a member of the Knesset dies, resigns, etc.
…also known in the UK as by-elections.
hope they don’t have punch card ballots. Do palestinians have a vote?
Those that are citizens (and yes, quite a few are), do. Those that aren’t, don’t. Just like here in the U.S.
Zev Steinhardt
If a member of Knesset dies or resigns, the next person on the party list enters the Knesset.
The special election in this case is only for the office of Prime Minister, as opposed to general elections for the entire Knesset.
Since no one has answered the OP in its entirety, I will attempt to do so. Forgive me in advance if I am not entirely accurate about Israel’s law; it’s not like I am practiced at working with it. 
Israel has a somewhat modified and unusual system of parliamentary government. As we know, a parliamentary government is one in which there are democratically elected representatives who meet in a body that functions as legislature, and from which the executive ministers and, sometimes, even some of the judiciary are selected. Great Britain has the most commonly thought of Parliament, but several countries today use this model. In a normal parliamentary government, the Prime Minister is simply the person chosen by his/her party as the person who will act as the chief executive minister should the party be in charge of forming a government (usually, but not always, a result of having more members of the Parliament than any other party). Tony Blair is currently in that position in Great Britain, as the Labour Party leader.
In Israel, on the other hand, the Prime Minister can be chosen either as a result of the general election of the Knesset members (the Israeli parliament), or by a special election that is nationwide. Here, I am quoting from a web site that purports to show Israel’s Basic Law. I can’t tell if Israel ever codifies its laws (that is, compliles them into some sort of organized code, as opposed to a sequential listing of all bills that have passed and become law), but this web site, http://www.us-israel.org, appears to have the text of Basic Law: The Government 5752-1992, a bill passed by the Knesset during the period that Yitzak Shamir was Prime Minister.
According to Basic Law: The Government 5752-1992, and its companion law, Basic Law: The Knesset (passed in 5718 (1958), as amended multiple times, the Knesset is elected every four years, or sooner should it pass a law dissolving itself, the election taking place on the third Tuesday in the month of Cheshvan (sections 8 and 9, Basic Law: The Knesset). These elections are, “general, national, direct, equal, secret and proportional” (BL: The Knesset Section 4; see the Knesset Elections Law). That is, there is a national election, during which the electorate votes as to which party it wishes to have run the government. Prior to the election, each party puts forth a slate of proposed Knesset members; the list is ranked by preference (Knesset Elections Law). For any party with more than ten members in the Knesset (presumably the outgoing Knesset), the person at the head of the list is the proposed Prime Minister; other parties can band together in a coalition with at least ten members and propose a Prime Minister candidate to head their lists (BL: The Government, §9). As a result of the election, each party gets allocated membership in the Knesset on a proportional basis equal to the proportion of popular votes it got; the members from that party are seated based on the proposed list, starting at the top and working down it as far as there are allocated seats (Knesset Elections Law).
Now, it gets a bit wierd. The Prime Minister must be elected by a majority of votes cast in the general election. If no party got a majority of votes, then there is a runoff election two weeks later, between the two Prime Minister candidates whose party’s got the two highest vote totals. If one of the candidates dies before the run-off election, then the vote turns into a national vote of confirmation on the other candidate, with the two options being ‘yes’ or ‘no’ (BL: The Government, §13).
Further, there are a number of reasons that there might be a ‘special election’ for Prime Minister. Among these is the resignation of the Prime Minister (BL: The Government, §23). Should a special election be held, then the candidates for Prime Minister are proposed from those parties with at least ten seats in the Knesset, or a coalition of such parties totalling at least ten seats (BL: The Government, §9(b) [ yes, I do know that any faction with at least 50,000 adherents from among the electorate can also propose a candidate; I am trying to simplify somewhat 
]. In such case, the special election is held roughly 60 days after the event triggering the need for it (BL: The Government, §10).
Now this explains what is ongoing in Israel. The Knesset had already decided to end its term of service early, setting elections next spring under the terms of BL: The Knesset, §§34, 35). But this would have allowed the political opponent of Ehud Barak, the current Prime Minister, one Benjamin Netanyahu, to run for Prime Minister (assuming, of course, that the Likud had not selected as their candidate Ariel Sharon instead); currently polls show that Mr. Netanyahu would cremate Mr. Barak in such an election. So, Mr. Barak has resigned under BL: The Government, §23, forcing special elections within 60 days. This precludes Mr. Netanyahu from running for Prime Minister, because under BL: The Government, §8(c), a candidate for Prime Minister in a special election MUST be a sitting member of the Knesset, and Mr. Netanyahu, after his defeat by Mr. Barak some 18 months ago, took a ‘sabbatical’ from politics and resigned his seat in the Knesset, thus making him ineligible for the special election. Mr. Barak is gambling that he can beat Mr. Sharon where he knows he has little chance of overcoming Mr. Netanyahu.
BUT, it isn’t always as easy as it seems. For one thing, there is no reason the Knesset couldn’t pass another law moving the date of the general election up to coincide with the special election. Not only is this allowed under the provisions of BL: The Knesset, §35, but it is in accord with the spirit of BL: The Government, §10(b), which would force the general election to be held at the time of the special election if the special election were to occur within one year of the natural end of the term of the Knesset. In short, it seems a good idea to have a general election if you need a special election and there is already a general election in the near future. This prevents duplication of effort, as would happen right now: a campaign followed almost immediately by another campaign.
A couple of points:
a) Israel does not have a constitution.
b) The law calling for the direct election of the Prime Minister replaced the law that had the Prime Minister elected by members of the Knesset.
A response to one of your points:
Israel may not have a written constitution, but it has a constitution as surely as any other country has one. It is a misconception to equate lack of a written constitution as the equivalent of no constitution; just ask any professor who teaches British Constitutional History.
In theory, that might be true, but according to all Israeli scholars and politicians, there is no Israeli constitution. The writing or not writing of one has been a very hot political issue for the last 50 years.
I think you will find that what they debate is not whether or not to have a constitution, but whether or not to write one down.
There is difficulty with a written constitution, as we often find out in this country. In many parliamentary systems, the constitution consists of the body of law enacted over time, which sets precedents usually followed by future parliaments. This won’t necessarily mean that the rules won’t be changed; as an example, the bill altering the composition of the House of Lords in Britain substantially modified the constitution.
Perhaps you could cite an authority for the proposition there is no constitution at all. Theoretically this could be the case, I suppose, in the sense that the Knesset could assert that it is not bound by ANY precedence in making future law. I’d be interested in this concept.