Hamas War

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Points to Ponder About the Israeli Elections

Yesterday, on Shabbat, when I was taking a walk around the neighborhood, I saw some neighbors, and we talked politics. No surprise.

My neighbor mentioned some things about Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu, Israel is Our Home Party. I told him that he was making some very important points, and I would really appreciate if he'd write them up, because I'd like to post them on the blog. Here they are:
Though people say Israel Beitenu rejects a Palestinian state, they do promote the idea of exchanging territories, and of giving the Palestinians Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem - but if you give it away, who do you give it to?

Israel Beitenu will get around 15 seats. We don't know these people and it might turn out to be another Zomet, people who would leave their party for political bribes. Yes, the LIkud does have some left-wing leaning people, but we know who they are. Most of the Likud members are not 'nobodies.'


I'm voting Ichud Le'umi, National Union, but I can see his point that Likud is better than Yisrael Beitenu.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm giving you a scoop a week before the elections; Yisrael Beitenu is going to rise high. This is from an informal survey I did in my department that is filled with non-religious sabra singles and newlyweds living in Tel Aviv and Gush Dan. It really surprised me. No more protest party like the Pensioners this time. People want someone to kick butt, and the media has actually done Lieberman a favour by making him into the image of a raging bulldog.

I've had little success in pushing the Ichud Leumi within this crowd and I thank the media which has done well to ignore them. One guy (non-religious but prays daily in our afternoon mincha) let me know that he was punishing them for not uniting with Mafdal. Instead voting Likud!?

FWIW though, I don't really trust Lieberman to represent the right at all. The media has ignored his party as well, so we don't know who his people are either. The media is also making him out to be our far-right party to avoid at all costs, though the I've read that other parties are trying not to gang up on Y Beitenu because they are afraid of the number of mandates that he'll get.

Batya said...

No doubt that Lieberman has more natural charisma than anyone else in politics here. That's why Uzi Landau feels safe as his #2.

I'll never forget one time at Zion Sq Jm, I felt someone looking at me, turned around and it was Lieberman. I'm sure he can control his people with those eyes.

I'm still voting Ichud Le'umi. It takes more than charisma and audacity to get my vote.