Politics vs Democracy: Why The Left Doesn't Want Judicial Reform

 

Israel just had elections a few months ago, the 1st of November, if I remember correctly. The present coalition has only been in office a very short time, and the streets are full of Leftist political rabble-rousers.  Gevalt, why am I using such a weak, harmless term for them?

The truth is that foreign anti-Israel money/backers are trying to destroy the country. They've crafted slogans that totally mask/distort their true aim. The vast majority of the demonstrators haven't a clue as to the truth, nor the meaning of democracy.

Yes, they claim they're for DEMOCRACY, but their very being on the streets demanding that the legally DEMORATICALLY  ELECTED government surrender to their demands is totally absurdly UNDEMOCRATIC.

Bibi Netanyahu's not handling this with the skill and competence he once had. He's of retirement age, and it shows. 

Contrary to the demonstrators' main slogan, Israel's present way of choosing judges is undemocratic and unknown in any of the world's democracies. Israel's "founding fathers" were controlled by a cadre of Leftists, socialists who wanted to make sure that if any of the Revisionists the forerunners of the Likud would ever form a ruling coalition, the Judicial System would remain Leftist. That's why they came up with the idea that the High Court Justices and members of the "Bar" have a majority of the votes in choosing replacements. 

I may not agree with their policies and priorities, but I wouldn't call them stupid. That's why even though for most of the past forty-five 45 years the Likud has been able to make more Right wing coalitions, they have been stymied policy-wise by the Leftist High Court.

When former President of Israel's High Court demands that it is of the utmost importance that the court remain "independent," he means that the court must be the true ruler of the State of Israel. Barak invented a principle of "reasonableness" to decide if a law should stand or not. That's his euphemism for being consistent with his political ideology, not any law or legal precedent. He set himself up as an unelected dictator, and then passed the powers to his replacements, whom he put into power. Is that democracy?

Judicial Reform is an attempt to correct this political anomaly and make Israel more like other democracies. But to be honest, it doesn't go far enough. It's still based on the old system but will give a bit more votes to the Knesset members. And considering that the justices don't resign/retire all that quickly, it will take a long time for us to see any real differences. Of course the sitting justices will claim the law "illegal." 

But in the meantime thousands of Israelis are having fun at "street carnivals" trying to take down the legally elected government and sowing chaos in the country. Obviously, they are wealthy enough to take off from work, or someone is....

. 

Antidemocracy Rioters Disrupt Life in Jerusalem -- The Truth About Judicial Reform

Black day for Israeli democracy and liberty. 

Please get this right. I'm talking about the attempt by the elitist Israeli Left to overthrow the legally elected government. 

Democracy is a numbers game. It means that if you get the most votes, you've won. In Israel, to be more precise, if you can create a coalition of a majority of the 120 Members of Knesset, 61 or more that's a legal government. THAT'S DEMOCRACY! 

If you didn't get enough votes to create a coalition, if you don't have the MKs, you've lost. That's it. Very simple. Try harder next time. Marching and screaming in the streets won't give you the right to rule. If you insist on demonstrating, then you're acting like fascists or worse. I don't know why those demonstrators on Monday took black flags, but it really showed their true color. 

They can scream all they want, but grow up! That won't give them more votes, more MKs. Rule by taking over the streets? That's dystopia, not utopia.

The antidemocracy anti-judicial reform protests on Monday stopped public transportation and inconvenienced, to put it mildly, tens of thousands or more ordinary Israelis like myself. I had been at the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens with the Ayelet Chapter of Amit Women and discovered that bus service to the center of Jerusalem or Ammunition Hill, where I needed to get a bus home to Shiloh, had been stopped. Yes, the buses were stopped because of those demonstrators.

Thank Gd, I found the physical strength to walk, and please remember that in a few months Gd willing I'll be 74, towards the lightrail on King George and Yaffo. I finally caught a bus on King George and took it less than two stops. Why less? That very junction where I needed to transfer from the bus to the lightrail had been taken over by the mobs, and the bus had been forced to stop, and the lightrail stopped, too.

Since the rioters had stopped public transportation, I was forced to keep walking and finally caught a bus at the Buchari Shuk.

It was clear that the demonstrators were having fun, but lots of ordinary Jerusalemites and visitors like myself were inconvenienced and angry. I saw people trying to explain to the rioters that they were interfering with our human rights, but... you can finish the sentence...

These antigovernment demonstrations/riots have been going on since Netanyahu's previous administration, then stopped when he was out of office and now resumed. Now they're harping on the Judicial Reform issue. They claim that the judges need "independence." That's absurd! 

Do you know what they mean by it? They mean that judges should use their "judgement," their personal ideology/philosophy to decide what's right and just. They don't decide according to law. They decide if a law suits their moral, political opinions. That's means that the courts are political, not legally based. Not only that! They get to choose their replacements. It's not the elected Knesset Members who choose judges, it's the judges themselves. That way, although the judges don't hold the opinions of the majority of the citizens, they can perpetuate their ideological power over the citizens and the elected government. 

Does that sound kosher to you?

Who made them god? 

Most of us ordinary Israelis are too busy getting through our busy days to take to the streets, like the elitist Leftists. Also, we did our patriotic duty, voted. There's a coalition that holds the ideology of the majority of Israelis. We definitely need Judicial Reform, so our courts will be based on law, not politics.

Why should the minority have the right utter chutzpah to overrule the majority?

Davka, very much like last week's Torah Portion, Yitro, someone who isn't Israeli explains our situation very well, Mark Levin. Please listen to what he has to say.

Israel's Political System and Judicial Reform-- What's Going On?

I almost titled this post "Israeli Judicial Reform for Dummies," but didn't want to antagonize people. Also the topic is no joke. This is serious stuff, and it's complicated.

Oy. Where should I start?

Let's start with the Israeli political system, which may be unique; though others may be similar in some ways. Let the adjectives used here be different or unique. I don't want any judgmental ones like better and worse. It doesn't pay to go there, since there is no country like the State of Israel in size, history, sociology, security needs etc. Being a democracy, Israel has developed into the country we know today, and in most ways it actually works well. 

Israel is a Parliamentary Democracy. Our parliament, called the Knesset, has one hundred and twenty 120 members. There are many political parties represented in the Knesset, and certainly even more that didn't get enough votes to be included. Now a party needs 4.5% of the votes, called the Electoral Threshold, to get any of their list in.

Each political party submits a list to election board by a certain date, and it's according to the order on the list that people become Members of Knesset. After the votes are counted, the failed parties subtracted and the numbers of MKs per party calculated, the President of the State of Israel then calls the leader #1 of the largest party and offers him/her to chance to form a coalition.

OK, I know that some of you are jumping in your seats trying to get my attention and ask why we have so many political parties. I'll start with a joke:

"two Jews five opinions"

OK, some say only three opinions, but Israeli society is too complex --remember that Israeli Arabs also vote and have a few political parties-- for two political parties to suffice. The political/social spectrum isn't a simple right/left. It also includes religious observance and many other factors. 

The Knesset reflects Israeli diversity, and that diversity isn't reflected at all in the High Court. The democratically elected MKs do not have a say in who sits as a justice on that court. The justices vote in their replacements, and they choose very carefully to find people who follow their ideology, which is far to the Left of the Israeli population. In recent years they have been making legal decisions that go against laws voted in by the elected MKs. That's not democracy. 

The justices don't base their decision on laws. They base their decisions on their political ideology, which is what they treasure and want to preserve. They call it "judicial independence." It's davka that "independence" which endangers Israeli democracy. 

Justice Minister Yariv Levin's plan will reduce the power of the High Court in a number of ways. I'm not getting into the details of the laws he proposes. You can click Judicial Reform for the details. I just wanted to show that reform is needed. 

Nobody has the right to play god, not even High Court justices. 

Why Not To Vote Likud and Its Puppet Parties

My antipathy to the Likud is very old, almost as old as the party itself, which is strange considering my Betar background and has nothing to do with today's politics, or does it? 

Our aliyah, fifty-two 52 years ago this week was very connected to Menachem Begin's Herut Party and Betar, especially considering that we spent the greater part of our first year living in Maon Betar, the Betar Youth/Student Hostel, now known as the Plugat Hakotel building in Jerusalem's Old City. Like our friends from Betar, we joined, and are still members of, Kupat Cholim Leumit, and we became dues paying members of Herut, the Revisionist/Betar party. Herut joined with the Liberal Party making Gush Cherut Liberalim, aka GaHaL, which evolved into Likud.

In 1970, after over twenty years of independence, there was only one dominant party, Mapai/Labor, Leftist, secular and socialist. The National Religious Party, which besides having a few rabbis and a lot of kippot had similar policies and joined them religiously in their coalition governments and the Rabbinate. Only during the time of emergency just before the 1967 Six Days War had Menachem Begin and Gahal been invited to join the government.

Cracks in the close political partnership between Mapai/Labor and the NRP began to surface after the great miraculous 1967 Six Days War victory. The government and its agricultural monopoly chose which land to settle only according to financial export advantages probably chosen by Agrexco which was the export monopoly, the Golan for growing fruit and the warmer Jordan Valley and northern Sinai where melons and summer vegetables could be grown for export in the winter. The National Religious Party and its Bnai Akiva youth movement began pushing to return to its former kibbutzim in Gush Etzion, which had been destroyed by the Arabs in the War for Independence. In addition, there were attempts to settle Hebron and various locations in the Shomron because of their Jewish/Biblical importance. The government opposed such settlements and gave in on just a symbolic few.

Post Six Days War the IDF and government/military leaders were cocky and overconfident. The "conceptziah" was that the Arabs would never dare attack us again after our great victory, so we weren't at all prepared for the surprise attack on Yom Kippur 1973. After a few very difficult weeks and many dead, wounded and captured Israelis, Gd gave us another miraculous victory. 

The Israeli electorate was shell-shocked, mourning and talked of not celebrating the upcoming Independence Day, but they voted for their usual parties, returning the veteran/traditional coalition to power in the elections soon after the war. Israelis have trouble changing political choices. 

Polls had been showing more of the same for the 1977 elections, but when the votes were counted the pundits were totally shocked to discover that Menachem Begin's Likud had gotten the most votes. His longtime supporters were overjoyed expecting government support of new Jewish communities all over Judea and Samaria, besides the exiting ones in the Golan, Jordan Valley and Sinai. Instead of annexing all the land liberated in 1967 and promoting building Jewish communities all over, Begin crossed Mapai's redlines and offered Anwar Sadaat a Judenrein Sinai as a peace deal cheered on by US President Jimmy Carter. The homeless Jews from the Sinai were offered new communities in Gush Katif, and then a few decades later, another Likud Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, destroyed Gush Katif making a new generation of Jewish pioneers homeless. As a Likud election campaign slogan stated: "Only the Likud can..."

Here we are almost a half a century later... The religious public has changed; the National Religious Party is no more, though the backroom boys keep trying to repackage and resurrect it. We began to see more and more religious MKs, who were members of other political parties, since religious Israelis had begun to see themselves as Israelis first, free to choose a political party by ideology. I see this as a maturation of Israeli society. And on the Left, today the Labor Party is an anorexic shadow of its former self barely getting the minimum votes for Knesset representation. 

During the decade plus that Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu has ruled the Likud and served as Prime Minister, the chareidi political parties give Bibi their full support in exchange for the Rabbinate. Non-chareidi Torah observant Jews are blocked. This concerns, Kashrut, conversion, marriage and many other crucial issues that affect us all. 

The bottom line here is that most Likud voters actually don't like this chareidi monopoly on the Rabbinate, though they support and strengthen it with their Likud vote. The Bennett-Lapid coalition gave Matan Kahane the Ministry for Religion which controls the Rabbinate. I have no doubt that most Likud voters, if they bother checking what he has been doing, really would support him much more than the chareidi control.

Very important is to consider whether or not Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud actually promotes Right wing policies. The truth is that it doesn't, and I for one am not surprised, because I heard Bibi announce that he wouldn't. At the International Jewish Bloggers Conference in 2008, Netanyahu was the guest speaker and told us of his plans for when he would be reelected Prime Minister. I was standing barely a meter from him and heard him very clearly state that:

 "as Prime Minister I will be Centrist."

Netanyahu's stated reason was that he thinks that a "national leader" should have a policy in the middle. Whatever hope and loyalty to Likud that had somehow survived Begin and Sharon's destructive policies was totally wiped out by that, as far as I'm concerned. We've seen since then how when Bibi's campaigning for votes he loves the Right label, but if you look at his policies, riddled with building freezes, Jewish community and housing destruction. 

Most recently we all witnessed the despicable act of ordering his MKs to vote against the Settlement Law, because Bibi and his cronies, Likud and Chareidi MKs, have only one aim-- returning to power. They don't care whom they harm or bribe (with promises of "safe" places on the Likud list) as they do it. Their only principle is preserving their power, and they want to be back in the drivers seat.

Davka, I consider the criminal investigation of Bibi to be a political witch hunt, and I think the street demonstrations telling him to resign to be antidemocratic. There's a legal political process in a democracy, and top office should never be chosen by the police or the street. We vote.

I do see a distortion/loophole that Netanyahu has exploited to preserve power, which goes against the spirit of the law, though it's technically legal. Until Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid put together their coalition, Bibi had established a pattern of serial/perpetual power. It looked like he'd be the "interim" or  caretaker Prime Minister forever alternating with elections that didn't result in MKs who could agree on a coalition. Look carefully at what had been happening before the Bennett-Lapid agreement.

Sorry this is so long; it's the longest blog post I've written in years. I suggest clicking the links to give you more information. I welcome your questions and comments.

Guide To The Perplexed, Israeli Political System Simplified

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett 

After over half a century in Israel, I have a pretty good idea how the political system works. I don't think it's like many others. I'm going to try to simplify it here, aiming to say how it's run in positive rather than negative sentences/points. I will try to use easy to understand terminology.

• The Israeli Political System is a parliamentary democracy.
• The Israeli Political System has only proportional representation.
• Israeli citizens vote for political parties*.
• The 120 Knesset seats are proportionately divided among the political parties that received a legally set percentage of the votes and more.
• After votes are fully counted, the political parties negotiate a coalition government, because no single party has ever gotten a majority of the Knesset seats.
• The Prime Minister is chosen/voted in by the majority of Knesset Members who generally are in the political parties that have joined the coalition. 
• Coalition negotiations decide which participating political parties get which ministries, committee chairmanships and other important positions.
• When a government falls and new elections are called, the sitting government continues until after a new coalition is voted in.**

*Each political party has a numbered list of candidates who become MKs according to election results.

**That interim government cannot be voted out. Netanyahu had spent the last few years as interim Prime Minister, perfectly safe from losing his position as long as no new coalition run by another party could be formed.

Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett

I hope that this explanation is clear. If you have any questions, please write in the comments. 

This isn't the place/post to complain that YOU think it's a dumb system. The purpose of this post is just to explain the existing  Israeli Political System.

Why Isaac Herzog is Now President of the State of Israel, Even Though The People Wanted Miriam Peretz

Isaac Herzog newly elected President of the State of Israel

The State of Israel has both a Prime Minister and a President. Their roles are very different as are the methods used to elect them.

As I typed the final words of the previous sentence, I realized that superficially what I had written wasn't exactly true. Both the Prime Minister and the President are voted in by Members of Knesset. The major difference is that once once the President is voted in, he or she then will no longer need approval from MKs. The position is more formal, diplomatic, almost like a monarch who meets and greets foreign ambassadors and delegations. The President will also represent the State of Israel at various foreign events freeing the Prime Minister and other government ministers from these formal occasions. That's one of the reasons that in the time leading up to today's elections that the press made a big deal over the fluent English of Herzog versus Peretz's weaker English speaking abilities. 

When it comes to the public, Miriam Peretz is far more popular than Isaac Herzog. I read and reviewed her biography-click here and immediately joined the fan club. Peretz is a former teacher, and two of her sons were killed in army action. She has become a unifying symbol of faith, patriotism and survival. I have no doubt that Peretz would make an excellent President, but in the decades that Herzog has been involved in the Israeli political scene, including being head of the Jewish Agency, his political connections and smarts in Israel and abroad are unsurpassed. Even in the secret ballot, Miriam Peretz hadn't a chance.

If Peretz really wants the job of President of the State of Israel, she now has seven years to campaign.

Miriam Peretz with some of her children

True "Democracy" is Neither Right, Left or Center

"Democracy" or "democratic" is actually more a mathematical concept than political ideology. Any political party that describes, or labels itself as "democratic" is and oxymoron, just throwing around popular terms.

Definition of democracy

1a: government by the people especially : rule of the majority
b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

Simply put. There is a vote, and the majority rules. Some countries have a "winner takes all" system like the United States. A candidate can lose by just a handful of votes or get a fraction of the winner's number, and he/she is totally out of the picture.

In Israel there is "proportional representation." This is actually the most democratic system of all. We have a parliament, The Knesset, of one hundred and twenty 120 members. The candidates run on party lists, which are generally ideological. It is no longer possible for a "one person party" to get in by receiving .833% of the vote. Now the minimum percentage has been raised so there won't be any tiny parties. But still there is a recognized Opposition, In the Israeli system, the losers also have a right to be heard and not only during election campaigns.

Tomorrow here in Israel there will be elections yet again. The past two elections didn't result in enough Knesset Members willing to work together in a coalition. It can be considered an electoral "still birth."

Gd willing, we'll nave a good healthy live coalition to govern the State of Israel after round three.

Politics: Sometimes You Have to Hold Your Nose...

I had a talk with a neighbor at the makolet* last night about it**. We both felt that in the world of politics/compromise/deals, Otzma is useless. Sometimes you have to hold your nose and vote either Likud or Yamina or whatever they're calling themselves this time round.

* local supermarket
**upcoming Israeli Elections

"Politics is the art of compromise." 

This is a popular version of what Otto von Bismarck had said:

"Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable - the art of the next best."

In Israel, more than in some other countries, the meaning of this slogan is 1,000% accurate.

The Israeli Political System does not include direct voting for the Prime Minister, executive branch of government. Actually we don't vote for individuals at all. We vote for a list of potential Knesset Members, and the head (#1) of the list succeeds in crafting/negotiating a ruling majority, minimally sixty-one 61 out of the one hundred and twenty 120 MKs becomes Prime Minister.

This isn't a simple process. I guess we should be grateful that for the first seventy 70 years of statehood, we never needed a "redo" election. Now we're about to try a third time, and the polls again predict a standoff, unless elected MKs break ranks and follow Bismark's suggestion. Neither side has to luxury of uncompromising principles.

We must choose to vote for a political party that has a serious platform for the security and betterment of the State of Israel. Politics isn't supposed to be a personality game. That's why those who decided on our political system decided against direct elections for Prime Minister.

Gd willing, in our next Knesset Elections, the voting citizens of the State of Israel will choose wisely, even if it necessitates going against uncompromising idealism.

Third Try Israeli Elections, I Vote Häagen-Dazs

Here in Israel, we've recently had two national Knesset Elections with the same unsuccessful results. The Israeli political system requires a coalition government if no political party gets a majority of the one hundred and twenty Knesset seats.

In 2019, neither the Bibi-Likud Bloc nor the Anti-Bibi Blue and White Bloc succeeded in negotiating deals that would bring them to that magic sixty-one-plus, 61+. So we're scheduled for a third round of elections in a few weeks.

Most of the public is rather nauseated, sick of all these useless elections. There's a saying in Hebrew if you meet someone a second time within a short period. I've written about it before, Knesset Elections Ad Nauseum.

פעם שלישית גלידה
Pa'am shlishit glida
Third time ice cream

My guess is that the winning bloc will be the one whose supporters are less jaded and bored. Whichever side can galvanize its voters to show up and vote has the best chance to win, meaning get enough MKs to form a ruling coalition. Polls are showing Likud behind, which suits Bibi's favorite "gevalt-we're losing" campaign strategy.

Right now the small satellite parties of the Right and Left are negotiating to run to form two larger parties, one pro-Bibi and one anti-Bibi, in order not to waste votes for parties that don't pass the minimum.

Elections are scheduled for March, 2020, the Jewish Month of Adar, 5780. Adar is traditionally a month of surprises, so there's no way of predicting results or what the results will result in...

ונהפוך הוא
Vinahaphoch huAnd everything will be reversed

So, beware of pundits. Gd has something up His sleeve for sure. That's the most accurate prediction one can make.

I'm a Häagen-Dazs fan. The ice cream brand was founded by good pro-Israel Jews, Rose and Reuben Mattus, who supported Jewish Rights in all of the Land of Israel. This is diametrically opposed to Ben & Jerry's which supports Leftist causes, including endangering Israel by being pro-Palestine.

Let's have a Häagen-Dazs party! How can we go wrong with good ice cream?

Likud Primaries Tomorrow, Not Good

Generally before Likud primaries, my phone doesn't stop ringing, and the messages come in like a tsunami flooding the shores. This time, until today/tonight, nothing.

A few hours ago, I even started reading the SMSs I had been ignoring, because I wanted to check if I was really a member of the party. I couldn't find anything from Bibi or Saar. Then I got two phone calls, one a recording of Bibi and the other a Gidon Sa'ar activist who hung up when I refused to commit to supporting him.

In the February Likud Primaries, less than a year ago, I voted in Jerusalem. Tomorrow I plan on voting here in Shiloh. I hope I don't have a problem. If so, they'll have to transport me to and from Jerusalem. In this weather I have no plans, nor desire to travel.

You may be curious about my choice. Who should get my vote tomorrow?

I'm very upset with Gidon Sa'ar for trying to replace Bibi Netanyahu at this crucial time in history.

Maybe Gidon Sa'ar is a good, honest man with the capabilities to be Israel's Prime Minister as leader of the Likud Party. I seriously don't like his timing.

I think Gidon Sa'ar would have done better to support Netanyahu against the Blue & White Party, which was patched together to demolish the Likud, not just be anti-Bibi. The instigators/backers/conspirators who are behind the establishment of Blue & White have changed the face of Israeli politics and government. They've headed their party with a man who has no political Knesset experience, wasn't a Knesset Member, wasn't a Government Minister. Especially since the Prime Minister needs to form and control a coalition of MKs of various parties, the "American style" of voting for the "head executive" is a recipe for disaster.

With all of my complaints about Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu, and I do have many, I think that this is the time to support him. Sa'ar should have shown party loyalty, rather than supporting the basic Blue & White campaign platform that "Bibi has to go."

If Sa'ar had made a point of saying that he came out of his temporary "retirement" to support the party leader, he would have shown more leadership and sense of responsibility. Don't forget that in Israel we don't vote for a Prime Minister. We vote for a political party, and the party that gets the most Knesset seats gets first crack in trying to form a ruling coalition.

IMHO and a half a century carefully following Israeli politics, I think that Gidon Sa'ar made a mistake. Win or lose, he didn't do the right thing, and win or lose it will come back to haunt him.

Let's just pray for the State of Israel. Gd willing, we'll survive this electoral mess.

The Prayer for the State of Israel

Sa'ar versus Netanyahu Bad For Likud

I never really thought much of Gidon Saar, the wannabe running against Bibi in the Likud Primaries. I've voted in many Likud Primaries in the past, and this one is bad news.

That's because it's obvious that Blue and White will be marking down all the nasty stuff said against each of Likud's candidates in order to use the dirt against the winner. So whoever wins will lose.

Saar should have declared that although in the future he thinks he'll be Likud leader, but for the good of the country and the party, he's supporting Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu so Likud will win the national Knesset Elections.

Could Saar be a pawn of whoever is bankrolling Blue and White?

Knesset Elections Ad Nauseum

I've just renamed a Facebook page/group I run "Knesset Elections Ad Nauseum." It used to be "Knesset Elections, 2019." That title worded rather efficiently even for the useless redo elections we went through later in the year, but then I had to add 2020, when Ad Nauseum seemed more suitable. Polls, which are polls not elections, keep predicting "more of the same," which makes us Israelis feel rather sick. Things are running fine, so maybe we don't need a coalition.

But the truth is, I'd like to call the upcoming elections:

"I Want Ice Cream, But Not Ben & Jerry's Elections" 

Do you know what this is based on?

I'm not sure of the source, but here in Israel, when you pass (run into) someone by chance the second time it's said:

פעם שלישית גלידה
Pa'am shlishit glida
Third time ice cream

So now, since we have elections scheduled for the third time in a year...

"you scream
I scream
we all scream for
ice cream"

But since the profits from Ben & Jerry's ice cream are used to support Extreme Leftist political causes, I'd rather starve than get theirs. I prefer Häagen-Dazs, which was established by Reuben and Rose Mattus who supported Jewish rights and communities all over. They even came to Shiloh in the early 1980s, where I met them.

Gevalt, what have I done? Now I'm craving Häagen-Dazs!

Quiet on The Coalition Building Front, Good or Bad?

Israel has been in the Election and Government coalition building mode for close to a year already. We've had two national Knesset Elections, and still Bibi's steering a "temporary," lame duck government.

After the first 2019 Elections, Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu, the sitting prime minister and #1 in Likud, was entrusted with forming a ruling coalition, because he appeared to be the only party leader with a chance. He failed. And Benny Gantz, head of the Blue & White Party didn't do what the wily and experienced Bibi would have tried. Gantz didn't work behind the scenes to craft a coalition and surprise the country with it at the Knesset vote to disband and call a second 2019 Knesset Elections.

2019 Knesset Elections Redo also ended with a tie. There are basically four blocs of Knesset Members:

• Right 
• Left 
• Hareidi (ultra-religious)
• Arab

Likud leads the Right, though it prefers calling itself Center, and Blue & White leads the Left, though it prefers calling itself Center. Please don't get too confused, because they define Center differently. "Center" is one of those code words that politicians think make them popular with citizens of all stripes, like parve food in a kosher kitchen which can be served with both meat or dairy.

Center doesn't work with me. I don't vote for anyone whose ideology is "get me elected." I must know what the person plans to do for the country, their vision, red lines etc.

Simply put, the Likud can work with the Hareidi, while Blue & White campaigned to delegitimize chareidim from Israeli society and government. Blue & White promised a chareidi-free government. Their stated reason is the lack of patriotism of the chareidi public and their relatively low IDF army service. They'd like the support of the Arabs instead, but truth be told, Arabs are even less patriotic and less apt to serve in the army. Hmmm... does that make sense?

The best way for one of the big parties to make a coalition is to get deserters from the other side. Or are we going to have elections yet again?

Guide to the Politically Perplexed: Israeli Elections 2019, 5779, Redo, More Info Clarification

Bli eyin haraa, not to tempt the "evil eye," tomorrow I plan on voting in the Israeli Elections 2019, 5779, Redo.

Unlike previous elections, so far, even though the voting stations will be open in about 24 hours, I've noticed relatively few signs and potential trash. There could be a simple reason, money or lack of it. The political parties and wannabes just can't find the money they had a half a year ago for the first Israeli Elections 2019, 5779. Generally loans are taken out, or the government provides political parties with a certain amount, which will be covered if the party wins enough seats. If they don't win the required amount, then the money must be returned... somehow.

Yesterday I posted about the Israeli political system, which is rather misunderstood. Likud and Blue & White are, davka, taking advantage of people's ignorance. To simplify and repeat:

In Israel we don't vote directly for a Prime Minister. We vote for lists of potential Knesset Members. The party leader who can negotiate a ruling coalition of at least 61 Members of Knesset becomes Prime Minister of the State of Israel.

People, especially those raised abroad, ask if having districts would make it easier to form stable governments. My answer is a firm "NO."

There are two very simple reasons for this:

1. GERRYMANDERING. Gerrymandering is the "art" of drawing election districts to achieve goals in favor of, or the detriment of specific political parties. 
2. In a country like Israel, especially with gerrymandered districts and the fact that we have many established political parties, there can still be a variety of political parties and not a simple two party system.

It may help to return to the one-time "experiment" of two ballots, one for Prime Minister and the other for the Knesset. This sort of system exists in Israel in municipalities. People vote separately for the mayor and city council members.

Sometimes the mayor and his party's council members do well, so he has an easy time making a working coalition. Other times, like Moshe Lion, Mayor of Jerusalem, the winning mayor doesn't have council members from his party, and he/she must make a coalition with those who had wanted him/her to lose. A skilled politician can pull it off.

Politics is the art of compromise. People/politicians have to work together for the good of the people/country/city/state.

Whether prime minister, president, governor, mayor etc one must be fair also to those with different opinions, not just to supporters.

I'm voting Yemina, and davka one of the reasons is because the various factions now running together for the Knesset have shown that despite their "bad history," they are willing to work together. Even though many times I've said that I wouldn't vote for NRP-Jewish Home, this time I am, since they're working with politicians I support. Nobody's perfect, especially in politics. We have to vote and then pray that the winners will do the right thing for the good of the country.

Bibi-Feiglin Deal, Good for...?

Let's make it clear. I was never a Moshe Feiglin fan. How many of his diehard fans will really follow him back to Likud?

If you haven't heard. Prime Minister Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu has offered Moshe Feiglin a cabinet post if he'd agree to close down his political party and not run in the upcoming elections. Since Feiglin hadn't a chance to get into the Knesset, and his funds/donors have been drying out, he took the deal.

Feiglin missed out on getting into Knesset in the elections a few months ago, and polls have been showing that he'd do worse this time. By running again, he would have wasted one or two Knesset seats. The Zehut voters will probably go to a variety of political parties, to the Likud and further Right.

On the whole, this has been a rather pathetic "election season." That's no surprise, since Israel has been in "school vacation" mode since the end of June. Sunday, September 1 schools will reopen, Gd willing, and then, since it will also be Rosh Chodesh Elul, we'll enter "before the chaggim/Holidays" mode. Elections are scheduled for before Rosh Hashanah, a time when people are shopping, cooking or planning more vacations.

"None of the above" seems to be a very popular voting choice this time around. The winning parties, don't forget that Israeli Governments are coalitions," will be the ones that manage to convince their supporters that Election Day is for voting, not vacationing. You don't have to be a top notch pundit to predict that voter turnout will be awfully low. The Redo Knesset 2019 Israeli Elections have turned more Israelis into apathetic cynics.

 Gd willing we will have a good viable, strong government when this round of voting is over.

Israel's Right United, Right?

Israeli Politics is complicated

It seems that Shaked, Bennett, Peretz and Smotrich have done their pragmatic best to unite their political parties for the upcoming elections. And I'm even happier to see that Moshe Feiglin isn't part of the bloq.

I have no doubt that this hasn't been easy. The NRP is now headed by a political newbie who doesn't seem to have a clue, and there's bad blood between the parties. But for the good of the State of Israel they've figured out how to make a coalition of sorts and run as one party.

They haven't yet published the exact Knesset list, but I'm glad to see that Matan Kahana is included. I was very impressed by him when he spoke in Shiloh a few months ago.

I want a strong Right wing party to the Right of the Likud in the Knesset. Like a strong magnet, it should pull the Likud Rightwards.

Matan Kahana, who may be #7 on the "joint Right list"

Elections? Do I Really Have To Choose Political Pary?

We'll be celebrating forty-nine 49 years since making aliyah a bit after the upcoming Israeli elections. Choosing which political party to vote for has been getting harder and harder. These upcoming elections will be the second this year. The first were a bust, a failure.

I haven't had a favorite reliable political party for decades. I never know which party would be best to vote for. Usually, I eliminate them all for various reasons, and then I have to start from scratch. More than once, the party I voted for never even made it to the Knesset, and my vote was "lost."

The other day I met with a couple of friends who know a lot more insider stuff about politics, so I asked their opinions after hashing over the previous results. They confirmed what I had suspected about the party I voted for a couple of months ago, The New Right. Now I'm mulling over their suggestions for the next "try." Sigh...

For all the Israelis reading this:

Which political party are you going to vote for in the next elections? Why?

If Gantz Had Been Able to Form Coalition, He Would Have

I know I said that as was taking a break from politics, but...

Many Israelis, media etcetera are saying that Prime Minister Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu should have officially gone to the President to declare that he couldn't form a coalition, so that Blue & White's Gantz-Lapid party could try. But the truth is that Gantz and his crew could have been negotiating all along with other political parties. They didn't need an official "green light."

The scenario could have been that Gantz had enough MKs lined up to give him a coalition, and then during the vote to disband the Knesset, Bibi and the Likud would have lost the. There wouldn't be new elections, because a majority of MKs would have announced that they wanted to join a coalition with Gantz-Lapid/Bogie/Ashkenazi.

That didn't happen.

One big reason is that forming government coalition is much harder than even electing over thirty MKs. You have to be a strong, wily politician. Lapid is the most experienced politician in the Blue & White Party, but he can't hold a candle to Bibi, Tzachi and the other Likud leaders.

I hope that Avigdor Lieberman fails to reach the minimum to be in the next Knesset. He's not a team player. I don't trust him. The new patchwork quilt NRP is a mess, too.

I'd really like to know what you think, thanks.

Maybe I should go back to hybernating. 

Gantz & Co Folded Without a Fight

The Blue & White Party led by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid officially conceded the 2019 Knesset Elections to Likud- Binyamin Netanyahu. I kept hoping that he'd say something about waiting to hear the final tallies after the double-envelope votes are counted, plus surplus distributed. I guess Gantz and crew are awful Poker players. They'd lose to Bibi in Chess, too.

Am I crazy to feel this way? I voted New Right, and we won't know for sure if they're really out in the cold until all the double-envelope votes are counted. Gantz & Co had been played up, promoted like they could beat Cassius Clay, but they ended up like a Woody Allen character, but in real life.

I had been hoping for more drama and excitement. The hype was so stupendous. Think about it. On paper, this shouldn't have ended so blahh.

Three top generals, who had been IDF Chief of Staff and a media star versus the professor's middle son. You'd think it would be a piece of cake for them. Now, granted that the professor's kid had been in a top commando unit, but against three GENERALS?!

It seems that being the middle of three sons can make one pretty tough, too.

Now Bibi, Trump has already moved the United States Embassy to Jerusalem and recognized the Golan as Israel, so we expect you to immediately annex, declare Israeli Sovereignty on Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley, at least all of Area C. Don't forget to destroy all the illegal Arab buildings up there, including those funded by the EU and any other foreign bodies. 

Israeli Elections 2019, Shiloh

We voted. That is my husband and I voted mid-morning. Elections are in the Boys Elementary School. Outside the school was a very hectic, carnival like atmosphere. Mostly young kids were manning the tables trying to give out last minute flyers urging us to vote for the party that had sent them. I don't think there are too many people who can be convinced by last minute flyers, but...

In the hallway outside the three (Shiloh Bloc has grown from two to three) classrooms where the actual polling stations were located, a local artist/jewelry designer was selling.

Lady Feyga. Charismatic jewelry & gifts boutique / ליידי פייגא

Proper identification of a voter is the most important step. In Israel we all have Identity Cards with photographs. You are assigned to a polling station near the address you have registered with as part of your ID. This prevents, or makes much more difficult, voter fraud. And of course, only citizens vote in National Knesset Elections.

We first voted in the 1973 Israeli Elections, after the Yom Kippur War. The system hasn't changed. It works as well as any can, and it suits the multiple parties who compete in Israeli elections. The Likud party had tried a few computerized methods in their primaries, but this year they went back to the simple pieces of paper.

This time the ballots were arranged in three rows on a long table. I remember the shape being more of a square in the past.

Instructions

Pick out ONLY ONE ballot/paper and place it in the envelope.

Yes, I voted! The pictures of me were taken by my husband.