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By Carol Clark
CNN Interactive Writer

(CNN) -- With three of the original five candidates for Israeli prime minister withdrawing from the fray a day before the elections, incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu and Labor Party candidate Ehud Barak are in a neck-and-neck race for the top spot. In these elections, 33 parties are vying for 120 seats in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.

The piecemeal government that's likely to result will face one of the most challenging political agendas in the world, including final-status negotations for the Palestinian peace process, a budget deficit and pressing social issues.

"If you're a political scientist, it's fascinating," said Asher Arian, a professor of political science at the graduate school of City University of New York. "But if you're somebody looking for a happy ending, it's not a good situation."

Whether embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can hang on to power is the question that has captured much of the attention in the run-up to the elections. But the more important question may be whether the Knesset can play a viable role amid such a profusion of parties.

Voters can opt for one of the two main political groups -- Netanyahu's conservative Likud Party and the liberal Labor Party -- or they can pick the new Center Party.

And if they don't like those options, there are dozens of other parties representing the mix of ethnic groups, social causes and religious persuasions that make up the vibrant state of Israel.

There is an environmentalist party, a pensioners party, a party for "men's rights in the family" and the eponymous Pnina Rosenbloom Party, which was formed by a 44-year-old former model turned businesswoman.

Adding to their choices is a relatively new Israeli election system -- unique in the world -- which allows voters to cast their ballots for a prime minister from one party and, if they wish, switch to another party when they choose members of the Knesset.

These are the second national elections under the new system and many observers say it's not working.

"It's a terrible system," said Joel Peters, a lecturer in the department of politics and government at Ben Gurion University, Beersheva. "What happens is you get this very split vote. It's very likely the next government will consist of six or seven parties."

Israel has always been a fragmented society, but in the early years it was too focused on being the first independent Jewish state in modern times to rein in special interest groups.

Now in its 51st year, Israel is struggling to come into its own. It is less a melting pot than a boiling pot. Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews, settlers and secularists and waves of immigrants from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East are all vying to project their vision of Israel.

"Many Israeli groups that did not participate in the past in politics are asserting themselves now in the system," said Shibley Telhami, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "I think they've learned that to get what you want you have to participate, be a power broker."

Central themes and issues are lost amid the confusion.

"We've got an identity crisis," Peters said. "Israel's a young country and it's still finding itself."

The Labor and Likud parties have always been subject to bargaining with splinter groups. The intent of the new election system was to reduce back-room dealing and strengthen the main parties. Instead, it has had the opposite effect, many analysts contend.

Israel Elections

"Many Israeli groups that did not participate in the past in politics are asserting themselves now in the system." — Shibley Telhami, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

"The new system has made the coalition bargaining process a non-stop, 24-hour-a- day, 365-day-a-year process," Arian said. "It has dealt the party system a fatal blow. A prime minister candidate no longer has a need for a party. He needs a coalition."

The result is more power for the prime minister at the expense of the Knesset. "The adminstration does pretty much what it wants," Arian said. "There is a form of separation, but no checks and balances."

The system also empowers narrow factions "that are less than totally committed to the democratic process," Arian added. "It polarizes in a dangerous way. The mainstream has become the minority."

Paradoxes abound to illustrate the point. Israel is now more secular than ever, and yet ultra-Orthodox parties hold more power than ever. While polls show most Israelis favor Palestinian statehood and a more open, privatized economy, both movements are blocked at every turn.

The two main parties are moving closer to the center, but special interest factions are still capable of pulling the strings of mainstream candidates.

Netanyahu, for instance, signed the Wye River agreement with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat last October, but has found numerous excuses not to implement them. The strange dance he has performed between the far right and center -- apparently due to pressure from hard-line members of his coalition -- has pleased no one and led to a call by the Knesset for early elections, cutting short his administration by 18 months.

In campaign mode, the politicians become even more difficult to decipher.

"The candidates have to project themselves as opposite," Arian said. "Netanyahu calls (Labor's prime minister candidate Ehud) Barak a leftist and Barak calls Netanyahu a captive of the right. In a sense, these statements may be correct, but if you look at their policies, they're both nearer the center."

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No matter who wins the prime ministerial election, Israel is likely to have a national unity government with Labor, Likud and the central parties somehow ruling together, Arian said.

"It will be a kind of uneasy consensus, like an unhappy marriage living by inertia," he said. "With such a fragmented country, how are you going to get a policy going?"

And yet, many see a national unity government as preferable to the possibility of another narrow coalition.

Telhami describes it as a kind of "stalemate" which would come just after the critical May 4 deadline set for completion of final-status negotiations with the Palestinians.

The Palestinians have deferred a decision on making a unilateral declaration of statehood, but it remains to be seen how long they are willing to wait.

Syria and Lebanon, with key territorial disputes on the table, are also watching the elections closely, as is Israel's closest ally, the United States.

"There's no question that (the election results) will have a dramatic impact on Israeli-U.S. relations and the peace process with the Arabs," Telhami said. "In the past few years it's become clear that Israel's domestic policies have a huge impact on its foreign policies."

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