Mike Ghouse
# # #
Editor's note: Uri Avnery is the leader of the
Israeli peace movement Gush Shalom. He was one of the combatants fighting for
the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, and served in the Knesset. Hhis
humor is not always as wry as in this piece. Enjoy.
--Rabbi Michael Lerner
For whom
to Vote (in this coming week's Israeli elections)? by Uri Avnery, Tel
Aviv, March 14, 2015
ONCE A Soviet
citizen went to vote. He was given a sealed envelope and told to put it in the
ballot box.
"Could I possibly
see for whom I am voting?" he asked timidly.
"Of course not!"
the official answered indignantly, “in the Soviet Union, we respect the secrecy
of the ballot!”
In Israel,
elections are also secret. Therefore I shall not tell you for whom I shall vote.
Certainly I shall not be so impertinent as to tell my readers how to vote. But I
shall set out the reasoning that will guide me.
WE ARE voting for
a new government, that will lead Israel for the next four
years.
If this were a
beauty contest, I would vote for Yair Lapid. He is so very handsome.
If we had to
decide who is the most likeable candidate, it would probably be Moshe Kahlon. He
seems a very nice guy, the son of a poor, Oriental Jewish family, who as
Minister of Communications has broken the monopoly of the cellphone tycoons. But
sympathy has nothing to do with it.
If we were seeking
a nice, well-mannered guy, Yitzhak Herzog would be the obvious candidate. He is
honest, of good family.
And so on. If I
were looking for a bar bouncer, Avigdor Lieberman would be my man. If I were
looking for a smooth TV performer, both Lapid and Binyamin Netanyahu would be
more than adequate.
But I am looking
for a person who will at least prevent war (and perhaps bring peace closer),
bring back some form of social justice, put an end to the discrimination against
Arab and Jewish Oriental citizens, restore our health, education and other
social services, and more.
LET ME start with
the easy part: for whom I shall not vote under any
circumstances.
On the extreme
right there is Eli Yishai's "Beyahad" (Together) party. I never liked Yishai.
Before he split from "Shas", he was Interior Minister and persecuted refugees
from Sudan and Eritrea without even a modicum of
compassion.
With his new party
desperate to overcome the threshold clause, which is now 3.25%, Yishai made a
deal with the disciples of the late and unlamented Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was
branded as a fascist by the Supreme Court. No. 4 on the list is now Baruch
Marzel, who once publicly called for my murder. Even a bottle of the noblest
wine is spoiled by a few drops of cyanide. No sell.
Next on the list
is Avigdor Lieberman, the center of whose election platform is the proposal to
behead with an axe all Arab citizens who are not loyal to the state. (I am not
making this up.)
Not far from there
is Naftali Bennett, the smooth, baby-faced former high-tech entrepreneur with
the smallest kippa on earth. After conquering the Religious-National Party in a
hostile takeover, he turned it into an efficient
outfit.
The
Religious-National Party was once a very moderate political force, which put a
brake on David Ben-Gurion's adventurism. But its semi-autonomous education
system has turned out generations of extremists. Now they are the party of the
settlers, and Bennett is wooing young Arab-hating, war-loving secular Jews, who
otherwise would vote for Likud.
THUS WE come to
Likud, the party of "King Bibi", as Time Magazine admiringly called
him.
Binyamin Netanyahu
is fighting for his political life. A few months ago, when he decided to dismiss
the Knesset and call early elections, he certainly did not dream of such a
predicament.
It seemed that
Israel's march to the right was inevitable and unstoppable. That Netanyahu's
eternal reign was preordained. That the Left was facing a sordid end. That the
Center was evaporating. It was just a matter of Netanyahu changing his horses
(or asses, some would say).
And here we are, a
few days before election day, with Likud almost desperate.
Why? How?
It seems that
people are just fed up with Netanyahu. They seem to be saying: Enough is
enough.
When Franklin
Delano Roosevelt, a great leader in peace and war, was elected for the fourth
time, the American people decided to limit the terms of presidents henceforth to
two. Perhaps the Israeli people have decided the same: three terms of Netanyahu
are quite sufficient, thank you.
On the internet, a
very funny clip is now circulating. Netanyahu is standing on the podium of the
Congress, like a gym teacher (or like the trainer of very tame lions in a
circus), commanding his pupils "Up! Down! Up! Down!" with congressmen and
senators jumping at his command.
The Likud spin
doctors had hoped that this sight would improve his fortunes in the election.
And indeed, for a few days his numbers in the polls rose from a dismal 21 seats
(of 120) to 23. But then they went down again and settled at 21, with Herzog at
24. Perhaps the senators did not jump high enough.
Where do the Likud
votes go? First of all, to Bennett's party. That would not be an unmitigated
disaster for Netanyahu, since Bennett, with all the hatred between them, will
have to support Netanyahu in the Knesset.
BUT SOME of the
votes will go to the two "center" parties of Kahlon and Lapid, whose eventual
allegiance is uncertain.
Kahlon comes from
the Likud. He was a typical party member, son of immigrants from Tripoli
(Libya), the darling of the party's powerful central committee. A Likud member
can vote for him now with a clear conscience, especially if he wants to change
the social situation and ameliorate the lot of the
poor.
Lapid is much the
same, with one great difference: he has already been Finance Minister, while
Kahlon only aspires to become one. Though Lapid has an unlimited enthusiasm for
explaining his huge success in this job, the general opinion is that he was just
so-so, if not a complete failure.
Nobody – not even
they themselves – knows the answer to the decisive question: will they join a
Netanyahu or a Herzog government? They can do either. No problem. It may be a
matter for a public auction: who will pay more. More ministries, more budgets,
more jobs. It will probably depend on the results of the
elections.
The same is true
for the two Orthodox parties – the Oriental Shas and the Ashkenazi "Torah
Jewry". They believe in God and Money, and God may instruct them to join the
coalition which offers the most Money for their institutions.
So there are at
least four "center" parties which can decide whether Netanyahu or Herzog will be
our next Prime Minister. Lieberman's shrinking party may be the
fifth.
Of course I would
not dream of voting for any of them.
WHAT IS LEFT? A
choice between three: Labor, now called "the Zionist Camp", Meretz and the Joint
(Arab) list.
The Arab list is
composed of four vastly different parties: communist, Islamist and nationalist.
It is a shotgun marriage, with Lieberman holding the gun: it was he who induced
the Knesset to raise the minimum election threshold, in order to evict the small
Arab parties from the Knesset. In response, the four small parties formed the
big united list, which now holds third place in the polls after the two large
parties.
The Arabs in
Israel are second-class citizens, discriminated against and sometimes
persecuted. What would be more humane for a progressive Jewish citizen than to
vote for such a list?
For me that would
be natural, since I was instrumental in creating in 1984 the first completely
integrated Arab-Jewish election list ("the Progressive List for Peace"), which
won two terms. (The communist party is almost completely Arab, with some Jewish
members).
But the Joint List
is problematic for me. A few days ago, they upset me with a fateful decision.
It concerns the
"leftover" votes. Under our election law, two lists may make an agreement, under
which the "leftover" votes of both will be pooled and turned over to one of
them. ("Leftover" are votes remaining after the party has been allotted the
seats for which it has the full number of votes.)
The Leftist
parties devised a plan under which the Joint List was to pool its leftovers with
those of Meretz. This might have given to one of them – and thus to the entire
leftist bloc – one more seat, which may turn out to be
crucial.
The Joint List
refused, because Meretz is a Zionist party. The decision may have been logical,
since many Arab voters could possibly abstain from voting if they feared that
their vote might go to a Jewish "Zionist" list. But it showed that faced with
any important decision, the Islamists of the Joint List might bloc a united
decision for peace. I have a problem with that.
So I am left with
Meretz and the "Zionist Camp". Meretz is far closer to my views than the larger
list. But only the larger list can unseat Netanyahu. The problem would not have
existed if my proposal for a joint list including "the Zionist Camp", Meretz,
Lapid and more had been set up in time. All the prospective parts
refused.
So now I am faced
with a choice: either vote ideologically for Meretz or vote pragmatically for
the party whose chances of putting an end to Netanyahu's reign will be enhanced
if it emerges as the largest party in the next Knesset. But this party has many
defects, of which I am painfully aware.
Otto von Bismarck,
one of the greatest statesmen of all times, famously described politics as "the
art of the possible”.
It is now possible
to stop the march of the Right and restore some sanity to our
country.
So how should I
vote?
Uri Avnery
March 14, 2015
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