Israeli Politics, Facts, Fiction and Guesswork

There's nothing very staid or boring about Israeli politics.  Now that we're into "election mode" it's a whole new learning experience for many of us.  It is not just a feeling, but it's true that for many Israeli voters, each Knesset Elections means learning the name and "election code" of a new party.  The party primaries may be totally computerized, but actual elections are simply paper and human counting. 

The establishment of new parties, breakaways and combining old ones make it much harder to predict the outcome.   34 Parties to Run for Knesset

Politicians and wannabees keep switching allegiances to get Knesset seats as if they're children playing "musical chairs."  One thing that is showing up as an undeniable trend is the shrinking of the Left.

A poll released Friday shows the political left falling to a mere 34 seats. The Mishal Ham survey, published by Maariv, showed Labor as the second-largest party with 19 seats.

The center-left Movement party founded by Tzipi Livni was projected to win 10 seats, while Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party dropped to 5. Kadima and Meretz both remain on track to fail to pass the minimum voting threshold to enter Knesset, leaving the left and center-left with just 34 seats out of 120.

Now, why is the Israeli Left imploding?  I'd say that they have denied reality in so many ways, they just can't continue to exist in this world of facts, numbers and science. 

• The Israeli Left denies the Jewish religious, spiritual connection of the Jewish People to the traditional Biblical Land of Israel.  That makes it extremely difficult to defend their connection and rights to any part of the Land of Israel.  It also makes it difficult in not impossible to explain to their children* the importance of our being in the Land of Israel.
• *Over the decades, the relative family size of Left vs Right has grown enormously.  A typical secular Left family has  fewer children than a religious Right family.  Simple math shows that relative voting strength follows number of children per family.
• The Israeli Left is looking for "love" and support in the wrong places.  We will never be a treasured and accepted member of the "world of nations."  We'd be a lot safer and healthier once we recognize that simple, though possibly unpleasant fact.  Read this:

  Il Giornale, December 1st, 2012
  At Israel’s place, I’d leave the UN: it only serves the purpose of collecting isolation and delegitimation. Israel is tough though, being accustomed to the isolation born in the sick heart of fiery words, like the ones Abu Mazen repeatedly uttered: Israel is a monster, an apartheid, a Nazi state, killing those poor, innocent Palestinians... And everyone voted it, we also did. Not even one single word of peace or recognition of the Jewish State, or else condemnation of terrorism was to be heard, likewise their commitment not to throw away the Oslo accords, the road map, the meetings betrayed by the same Palestinians were to be heard... Only hatred, condemnation was to be heard; yet it was echoed by ayes. The world once again isolated Israel...

A number of years ago, I heard a very interesting statement by MK Dr. Arye Eldad MD in which he said that it's interesting that the leaders of Israel's Right are scientists, people who pay attention to facts and not fiction.  That's something we should remember.  The realists, the pragmatists in Israeli politics are on the Right.  There's logic, not dreams and presumptions behind the Right ideology. 

Simply put:

It's Realistic to be Right