CHICAGO

ISRAEL’S ELECTION last February highlighted the demographic shift that has been taking place in the country during the last two decades. The poor parliamentary results of the Labor Party were an eye-opener to observers.

This is the party that was pivotal in leading Israel since its inception in 1948. It was the party of David Ben-Gurion, Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, and Yitzhak Rabin. Yet the fourth-place showing behind the controversial Yisrael Beiteinu — the party of Avigdor Lieberman — illustrated how Israeli voters have evolved politically in the last 20 years. In part this has owed to the hardening ideology of many Israelis as well as the demographic shift that has given larger political clout to immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

The political landscape is changing quickly in Israel. Religious extremism — derived from the increasing share of those with fundamentalist views in the national population — is on the rise. Israel has been slowly evolving from a culturally Jewish democracy into a religiously dominated one. About 20 percent of all high school graduates today are ultra-orthodox Jews, and this figure is expected to increase because of the increased birth rate among this group (averaging three times that of the population as a whole).

The nation is now increasingly polarized, forcing the leadership to forge political alliances with various competing parties. As a result, fragmented coalitions are giving disproportionate power to very small parties. Effectively, the prime minister is a hostage to his own governing coalition; he knows that some parties could easily pull out of the coalition, risking government collapse. This dilemma makes it harder for the elected leader to make bold decisions — such as concessions in the peace process. It is a predicament that, perhaps, Israelis living outside the country may assist in overcoming.

It is estimated that 1 million Israelis now live abroad. Most of them happen to be educated and secular, and are choosing to emigrate in search of a life without the endless conflicts that plague the Mideast. About half a million people, including 25 percent of Israel’s leading scholars, now reside in the United States. Indeed, some 40,000 Israelis reside in Silicon Valley alone. These emigrants are indirectly accelerating the demographic shift and feeding the rise of the religious right in Israel. Yet, because they live in the United States, they are not allowed to participate in the Israeli elections because Israeli law does not provide for absentee ballots.

Absentee ballots are used by many democracies around the world, including the United States. In Israel, the law stipulates that voting must take place on Israeli soil. The argument is that only people living in Israel should have a voice in issues of importance to the nation. But being a complete Israeli citizen should not be based on residency requirements alone.

Changing the law to let Israelis abroad vote may prove to be a stabilizing initiative. Because of their predominantly secular and intellectual predisposition, Israelis living abroad would likely strengthen the three mainstream political parties at home: Labor, Likud, and Kadima. This, in turn, would grant the parties greater political clout.

As a result, the designated Israeli prime minister could form a government with little or no support from the smaller and more extreme parties, such as Shas. In this way, the small political parties would not have disproportionate political power, allowing them to hinder and dilute how the Israeli government is run.

With absentee ballots, the national agenda would be hijacked far less frequently by those with minority-party aims. The participation of Israelis abroad would also provide a counterbalance to the multiplying powers of the religious right and fundamentalists. This new segment of voters would bring a much-needed fresh outlook to the Israeli strategy for pursuing peace with the Palestinian Authority. It would also provide a larger margin of maneuver to Israeli leaders willing to implement such a fresh outlook on peace.

The participation of Israelis abroad in the Israeli political elections would probably strengthen both Jewish cultural identity and secular democracy in Israel. This represents far less radical and far more efficient a method than trying to completely restructure the Israeli political system, which is at best flawed. Weakening Israel’s secular democratic identity and allowing the country’s national policies to be defined by extremists is hardly in Israel’s best interests.

Raja Kamal is the senior associate dean at the Harris School for Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago.