Voting for its own sake

Today is Election Day in Israel. After 100 days of campaigning, I'm still not excited about the elections or the choices offered. I will enter the voting booth, plug my nose and put in a voting slip for the least worst of the available options.

The first difficulty is that there's no real leader in the bunch. No one worthy of being the Prime Minister. If the polls are accurate, Benjamin Netanyahu will continue his reign. While he has managed to keep the coalition in order for the last four years, he has shown little leadership skills other than doing whatever was necessary to remain in power. He seems more an empty vessel--vacillating between different voices/demands--rather than setting out and then fulfilling his vision. Instead of taking clear stands, like between the Ehud Barak and Gadi Ashkenazi (Army Chief of Staff), he let the issue of their disagreement(s) fester until it spilled over into the subject of numerous news reports (when Ashkenazi was being replaced after his term) and the Controller report on the "Harpaz Affair." If he had steped in toward the beginning, maybe it won't have blown up into a significant affair.

The other party leaders are even worse. Tzipi Livni had her shot at the can as PM and Opposition Leader, during which she was underwhelming. Shelly Yachamovitch is also seen an inappropriate. Yair Lapid has no parliamnetary experience and may be more smoke and mirrors than real substance.

Then there are the multiple parties competing for seats. Likud Beitanu (a merger of convenience for this election) will certainly garner the most seats, somewhere around 35, but is expected to unravel immediately following the elections if Avigidor Leiberman (head of Israel Beitanu) is to be believed. This is less than the combined 42 seats they had in the previous Knesset. Where has their support gone?

Most pundits are saying that Bayit HaYehudi (the former NRP) which in the last election had 3 seats is projected to win 14 seats due to the charisma of its new leader Naftali Bennett will be the main benefiary of the decline in the Likud-Israel Beitanu support. Bennett while portrayed as a successful high tech businessperson (who sold his company for $145 million), elite soldier and right-wing functionary as the chief of staff for Netanyahu (as Opposition Leader) and executive of the settlers organization, both of which he left under a cloud has moved the religious-Zionist party/community to the extreme right on security issues. The other Jewish parties to his right may not pass the vote threshold to win seats.

Shas, which "welcomed back" Aryeh Deri to its leadership (after an enforced absence from formal politics becuase of a crimonal sentence) is no better. They along with the other haredi parties will receive about 20 seats between them--Shas 14 and Agudat Israel/Degel Torah 5--have been part of the problem of governong Israel. In exchange for their entry into the government, monies have been siphoned off to fund their "projects" (subsidies for their yeshiva students and educational systems) and their demands have prevented creating a more equitable Israel especially regarding national service/army but also, by extension, providing more affordable housing for the non-haredi populations. Then there's the issue surrounding the "Jewish character" of the state. Who's a Jew, conversion of (especially) Israelis from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia, and event the issue of African refugees have been poisoned by their presence in the government.

The two groups above are seen as the natural partners for Netanyahu. There's a question about whether Bibi wants to go in that direction, ensuring the status quo , which people aren't excited about and supposedly the reason why the election was called in the first place because they weren't willing to pass the necessary austerity budget that will be passed by the new Knesset. Go figure.

Other potential partners consist of two new center-left parties--Tzipi Livni's hastly constructed "Teneua" and Yair Lapid's "Yesh Atid"--whose lists are cobbled together with generally excellent people but share little of a common denominator other than deciding to join and run on a specific list. I view this two parties as ego driven to implode shortly--a couple of years from today. Neither has specifically announced that won't join the coalition. In the case of Lapid, he has made it conditional upon not sitting with the haredi parties. While that's certainly commendable and i also agree haredim shouldn't be in the next government, he and his "gang" are complete neophytes in the Knesset. In the case of Livni, she has a number of "castoffs" from Kadima and even Amir Peretz (who was #3 for Labor before bolting) and other fine people. But why she won't agree to join another party is beyond me. I see it as an ego thing.

That leaves two other (Jewish) parties definitely being in the Knesset--Labor and Meretz. Since I don't define myself as left-wing, I need to discount Meretz. With a clothespin on my nose, I support Labor.

There are a few other parties who are expected also be in the Knesset, mostly Arab.

Then there are a few parties on the bubble, Kadima (down from 28 the last time around), Am Shalem, Otzma LeYisrael. While I could consider Am Shalem, I'm not willing to take a chance they'll pass the 2% threshold and have my vote count.

Not a great day for Israeli democracy and sovereignty.

The exciting part will start tonight when the results start getting announced and the process of putting together a government begins.

I expect it to be a messy and satisfying ONLY to Bibi who'll stay as PM.

LeHayyim ...