Only In Israel Can a Light Snow Wipe Elections Off of The News

Here we are in Israel, less than two weeks before national elections, when we must choose which party's Knesset list to vote for, and the big news is a laughably light "snowstorm."

Jerusalem of white: Snow falls in capital, northern Israel
Greatest snowfall since 1992 sees J'lem municipality announce closure of schools, kindergartens; police shut Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway as snow predicted to persist until afternoon.
Elisha Peleg, an official in charge of emergencies with the Jerusalem Municipality, urged the city's residents to remain at home and stay off the streets, telling Army Radio the area had overnight seen its greatest snowfall since 1992.
He said 10 to 15 centimetres (4 to 6 inches) of snow had piled up in the city center and more than that in outlying areas. "The downtown area is bathed in white," Peleg said.
 

Jerusalem of White: Residents Awake to 10 CM of Snow: 

Schools throughout the area are closed Thursday. Snow to fall until afternoon. Buses, light rail not running in Jerusalem.

Emphasis mine, yes, all that fell was well under half a foot of snow, and just thinking about it had schools close early yesterday in Jerusalem.  Those of you from New York, Chicago, Canada, Russia are probably laughing hysterically.  I was just out an hour ago, wearing my warm UGGs moccasins, which are not boots, and I was fine.

Granted, it looks very pretty, but declaring a "regional emergency" is a bit hysterical.  OK, so we don't have snow shovels, but the snow was light and low.  Shuffling our feet in it made a perfectly good path.

 

 

For our intrepid cousins who live just 40 minutes or so normal driving to the northwest of us, this was a treat of a trip, since their climate almost never gets snow. 

Yes, that's how small Israel is.  Frequently a drive of just five minutes will make you feel like you've entered a different climate entirely.

Suddenly the landscape changes and it's almost like we're not in Israel. 

For the past week, the news of possible snow has been competing with a very tense election campaign.  This has been the most negative campaign I remember,l and I've been here for almost forty-three years.  There is more "don't vote for" tactics than the positive emphasizing the good points of a candidate.

This negative campaign is very obvious on the Left, most probably because so many of the candidates have been playing "musical chairs" in terms of their party affiliation.  There is very little party loyalty among Israeli politicians of late.  While Binyamin Netanyahu has always been for and from the Likud, Shaul Mofaz, Tsippi Livni, Ehud Olmert, Tzchai Hanegbi, Amir Peretz have been "party hopping."  It's not just professional athletes who will wear any shirt as long as the pay is right.

Taking all that into account, it's a good idea to enjoy G-d's little gift to us, even if it's nothing compared to a real snowstorm.