Beware of Avigdor Lieberman-Yisrael Beitenu by Yair Shalev

Lieberman
Besides making noise before elections, Lieberman hasn't "done" anything he claimed he would do.
Remember, he supported the Olmert-Labor government and created an unnecessary ministry for himself! "Minister of Strategic Affairs."

In the past he had promised to "shake up" the courts, to "straighten out" the police, but he didn't do any of that. The Olmert appointee Prof. Friedman has done much more about the courts, admitting most of the work is still before us...
Lieberman hasn't delivered on any of these promises. Just like today's rhetoric, those promises were feeding on primal emotions: You hate (insert- police/courts / [Israeli] Arabs)? Good! vote for me- I'll take care of them!

How? What will he do ? Do we really think this is a plan we can agree with?

So, now his main agenda is the problem of Israeli Arabs. There is no way he can solve this problem, but let's examine his plan:

It basically says:
1) he recognizes the PA and presumably doesn't oppose it attaining status of a full-fledged country.
2) he supports the destruction & depopulation of some Jewish villages in Yosh (how many? does he support balancing it with destruction of some Arab villages in Israel?)
3) he supports giving away sovereign Israeli territory to its enemies, for the first time in Israeli history. It's the only territory Israel attained through peaceful negotiations, recognized by the world as part of Israel, and even more so at Israel narrowest and most vulnerable part. If it wasn't bad enough to bomb Kfar Saba from Kalkilya- they'll be able to bomb Ra'anana from Tira and Netanya from Kalanswa. People should recall that 2 Jews were murdered on route 6 by Arab shooting, and there have been many incidents of stone throwing (lapidation?).
4) he advocates secession of parts of Jerusalem (those parts that, at present, have an Arab majority) to the PA.

There are other points to be made, but it strikes me as amazing that one who spouts such shocking drivel can be considered "right wing". I'd sooner trust most of the likud candidates.


b) Mafdal / Ichud Leumi: regarding what Josh wrote:

"One guy (non-religious but prays daily in our afternoon mincha) let me know that he was punishing them for not uniting with Mafdal."
- i think that spitting with the mafdal is more a blessing than not, but you'll have to follow this patiently:

1)people should have enough of a memory to recall that in previous elections the "right wing" has consistently lost between 1 to as much as 3 seats due to votes squandered lost to parties that didn't pass the threshold. just in the last elections: marzel lost for "us" 24,824 votes ( a Knesset seat was worth 24,619 votes), Michael Kleiner's herut lost 2387 votes. Avraham Nagosa, today serving as mafdal's token Ethiopian candidate, lost 14,005.
And does anyone remember such names (blunders?) like "Yamin Israel", Eliezer Mizrahi, Rabbi Moshe Levinger, Rav Ba-gad? - how many crucial Knesset seats have they lost for us?

2) the sad reality is that not only do many 'kippot srugot" go to vote for secular parties (how dati'im could vote for Labour or Kadima completely baffles me), many of them wouldn't even vote for mafdal (=habayit hayehudi), due to its "moderate" image. the situation is so drastic that the rabbis of many yosh villages have signed a letter beseeching their flock to just go to the polls to vote.
3) "our camp" is, sadly, seemingly even much more splintered than aguda; the hariedim have their "Hasidim" and "litvaks/misnagdim", the Hasidim are divided up into hundreds of different followings and sub-groups - but when it comes to voting- they all know, they vote "gimel" (of course there's that minority that doesn't vote, but they're also consistent).
4) summing up the above, the greatest accomplishment of "ha-ichud haleumi" is that it managed to incorporate all the splinter groups that exist in the nationalist camp. Marzel and Aryeh Eldad won't go off running on their own. There's nothing more to the "right" of the "ichud haleumi". there's something there for everyone- from the kachniks to the secular nationalists. And on the other hand, both Prof. Herskowitz and Orlev have been quoted saying that they wouldn't accept all or some of those groups in their new party (maybe they should have made an effort to incorporate Miemad?).

I only wish that NRP get 4 seats (to get Nissan in, and so their votes won't be lost), and that "ichud leumi" get more than Lieberman. let's work with what we have, and, maybe, unite the 2 parties eventually. it's much more important that votes won't be lost or wasted.

Yair Shalev
Shiloh

This movie is in Hebrew, but the graphics say it all.