There is no party that properly represents us voters, there is no party we feel we can trust to fulfill our wishes (and their promises or platform). There is no party whose vote is not without serious risk of one backlash or another. There is almost no party with any principles (or positive ones at least).

In short, despite the plethora of choices, we are left with no one to vote for.

Certainly 'Just Not Qadima' should be our rallying cry and model for voting this election, but who says that the party we vote for won't then join Qadima (nearly all of them have openly published their list prices for joining).


I've been pleasantly surprised as to how many people have told me they are voting Marzel/Hazit (which is the party I am voting for). Is it a risk? Yes. But I don't see at a bigger risk than voting for any other party that will join Qadima if Qadima get enough seats and offers them enough money/jobs/seats.


In ‘The Princess Bride’ Westley and Vizzini (“inconceivable”) are in a battle of wits over the cup with the iocane poison. Vizzini calculates and analyzes as to the (unknowable) motivations and thought processes of Westley, and in which cup Westley most likely put the poison. Vizzini (thinks he) figured it out, and he then tricks Westley to look away while he switches the cups, putting the (he assumes) poisoned cup in front of Westley. He and Westley then both drink up.


This election is scary beyond belief. My house is on the line. Your house in on the line. Increased terrorism is on the line. Missiles will be hitting large cities. More capitulations. An ineffective and inappropriate separation wall/fence. The potential loss of Hevron, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, and even the Temple Mount.

And like Vizzini, there are those that are calculating and contemplating, ‘don’t vote for Marzel it a wasted vote’, or ‘your vote will go to Qadima’, and ‘if we have this many and they have that many seats this will happen’, and so on.

Sometimes you can simply outsmart yourself with all these twists and turns.

Vizzini died in the end. He outsmarted himself, because he didn't look at other options besides the ones obviously placed in front of him.

Did he choose wrong? Yes and No.

You see, it turns out that both cups were full of poison. Westley, our hero, built up an immunity to iocane powder so it really didn’t matter which poisoned cup he drank from, he would survive either way.


It's times like these that we have to trust in Hashem, and even if things don't turn out the way we think is best right now, we need to remember that in the long term it will. G/d didn’t bring us this far so we can fail right before the finish line.


We have are own immunity to our local version of the iocane poison. Perhaps we may not feel so well immediately afterwards, but it is our Torah communities that will survive, thrive and win in the end.

The former residents of Gaza may still be homeless, jobless, and facing incredible difficulties, but they are still holding strong, and while it may take years, their communities will come back even stronger from the experience.


We need to do what is right and vote for the party that best represents what we believe in and want, and leave the calculating and scheming to G/d. Ultimately, it’s out of our hands.

I’m proudly voting Marzel because Marzel represents uncompromising Torah values and love for Am and Eretz Yisrael, not to mention serious Democratic Reform (within the Torah’s boundaries).

I’m doing my part, G/d will do G/d’s.