Wednesday, March 29, 2006
3/29/2006 05:58:00 AM | 
Posted by
JoeSettler
Anyway you slice it there is not even close to a Right-wing or Center-Right constellation of parties. On the other hand, it looks like the Left can form a viable coalition without Kadima if they wanted. It would be tight, but it would be doable.
The numbers may still change slightly, but that is all.
I’m waiting for the final numbers, but Baruch Marzel may have come very close (or even in) despite the various campaigns against him. We’ll know later in the morning.
I think there are lessons here for the Right. Stop attacking your fellow right-wing parties. Your opponents are the Left-wing parties. How much money and campaign time was wasted attacking each other (and I don’t just mean against Marzel)?
Every Right-wing party looked at the pie and kept trying to slice it at the expense of the other Right-wing parties as opposed to exclusively trying to expand the pie by attracting unaffiliated and undecided voters.
Also learn that Israelis now care about social/economic issues, and you can’t continue to be a one-trick pony anymore, or at least only harp on one issue.
Wake up! Stop counting on Shas and UTJ to stand by your side! They aren’t Right-wing parties and never were. Their constituents may very well be, but they aren’t getting voted in for that. They are getting voted in for the money.
And on that note, I wanted to discuss how the religious parties will be playing a role in the upcoming disengagements, but perhaps I'll save it for another post.
The numbers may still change slightly, but that is all.
I’m waiting for the final numbers, but Baruch Marzel may have come very close (or even in) despite the various campaigns against him. We’ll know later in the morning.
I think there are lessons here for the Right. Stop attacking your fellow right-wing parties. Your opponents are the Left-wing parties. How much money and campaign time was wasted attacking each other (and I don’t just mean against Marzel)?
Every Right-wing party looked at the pie and kept trying to slice it at the expense of the other Right-wing parties as opposed to exclusively trying to expand the pie by attracting unaffiliated and undecided voters.
Also learn that Israelis now care about social/economic issues, and you can’t continue to be a one-trick pony anymore, or at least only harp on one issue.
Wake up! Stop counting on Shas and UTJ to stand by your side! They aren’t Right-wing parties and never were. Their constituents may very well be, but they aren’t getting voted in for that. They are getting voted in for the money.
And on that note, I wanted to discuss how the religious parties will be playing a role in the upcoming disengagements, but perhaps I'll save it for another post.
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9 comments:
I think you are too pessimistic, any coalition will have to include elements that are diametrically opposed to one another. Labor wants socialism again Kadima is supposed to be capitalistic. Meretz hates teh Torah the religious parties(at least on paper) love the Torah. Any coalition will probably be short lived.
Keep in mind Olmert is no Sharon. Sharon would have plowed through ten Amonas Olmert probably wont be able to pull off any disengagenments because there will be more Amonas at all future disengagements. That would almost definetly bring any government down.
But yeah, the right wing screwed up big time. I think it was a mix of infighting to refusing to have any actual principles, with the exception of Marzel, to a terribley run campaign.
Oh please. Blame NU for Marzel getting no votes. Talk about head in the sand.
The Zionisted parties lost this election b/c of too many splits and a society just too tired to go on.
Bring on the katushas and start packing your bags.
Marzel and Kliener votes went to Olmert.
Gotta agree with anonymous. People are tired and have been spoon-fed a version of Gaza and Amona that is untrue.
Plus Bibi enacted much needed but wildly unpopular reforms.
Plus there were too many parties on the right.
But the main thing is that greater Israel is just tired and apathetic. Their response to a corrupt system is to look out for themselves - and who can blame them?
They won't wake up until they get bitten on the behind - economically and geopolitically.
The only question is how much damage Olmert can inflict.
Actually lets give a round of applause to Kleiner gang. They did receive .6% in Um Fahim.
They received 0% in Yaffo. I guess their message got lost in the money blowing in the wind.
Son of Deer
anybody know how many votes marzel actualy got?
I'm curious to know how close he came.
INN says Marzel got ~24,000
I personally know of people that either signed the statement or texted in that they would vote Chazit "to give him Chizuk" but ultimately voted elsewhere. Up until that point, I know from a friend close to the source that they had ~65,000 people that had said they would vote Chazit.
So about 41,000 people either willfully or unintentionally deceived the Chazit camp into "wasting" 24,000 votes. I can't say they are to blame, but just once, I would like to see that people make a decision and stick by it
Talking about peace among the right-tell it to Marzel with his ridiculous 'battered woman'against NU IN ARUTZ 7.
COMMENTARY ON ISRAELI ELECTION RESULTS
BY: FERN SIDMAN
The election results are in and the immediate future of Israel is in deep peril. Despite the low voter turnout, it appears that the Kadima, Labor and Meretz coalition has taken power with the lowest coalition majority in the history of the state.
At Mr. Olmert’s victory speech, his ominous policies were clearly vocalized. “The people have spoken clearly, they want Kadima,” Olmert boomed, adding that the dream of the Greater Land of Israel must be repudiated “and Jews, with much pain, must be evacuated.”
Olmert’s words were echoed by Shimon Peres of Kadima, who announced Tuesday night that the future coalition will be one that will promote the “turning inward” plan – a new euphemism for unilateral withdrawals that frames the forced evictions as moving outlying towns to the delineated settlement blocs.
And who is really celebrating tonight?? You guessed it. The Arabs. While they spew forth their vituperative towards the State of Israel and plan it’s destruction, our Jewish leaders fall all over themselves attempting to make “peace” with those who seek our destruction. The Arabs are also elated because the Arab parties received 10 seats in the next Knesset.
When did we ever believe that this would occur? Let us remember the words of Rabbi Meir Kahane, ZT”L who said that Arabs would eventually become a majority and quietly, democratically vote Israel out of existence. We have now witnessed the beginning of this phenomenon.
“The ultimate hope of the Arabs who dream of destroying the Jewish State, of realizing that vision, is the left-liberal camp inside Israel” Rabbi Meir Kahane - (Israel: Revolution or Referendum?, 1990, page 62)
It is also apparent that the government of Israel seeks to quell the right of free speech, a basic component of a democratic government. This was evidenced when MK Michael Kleiner of Herut came to Jaffa, in a last-minute effort to solicit Arab votes. Kleiner's supporters posted signs in Arabic in Jaffa, and in other Arab towns throughout Israel, urging Arabs to vote for him, in the upcoming Israeli national elections. Kleiner is promising to push for legislation of a law that would pay Arabs to leave Israel.
According to recent surveys, as many as 50 percent of the "Palestinians" would gladly leave Israel if they were given start-up funds to begin a new life elsewhere.
Local Arab leaders incited a riot, and police refused to allow Kleiner to come back to Jaffa. Kleiner also filed complaints against Tel Aviv Councilman Rifat Torik for incitement and his statements in support of the attacks against party activists, who Kleiner maintains were in life-threatening danger.
It is clear that anyone who proposes the idea of transfer of the Arab population is subject to harassment and arrest and severe prosecution. Anyone who attempts to promulgate the idea of self preservation of the Jewish people and the Jewish State is viewed as a villain, a criminal, a fomenter of unrest. Anyone who speaks the Torah truth, who speaks of the uniqueness of the Jewish people, who declares the Oneness and Omnipotence of the G-d of Israel is subject to ridicule, and worse, arrest and imprisonment.
The powers that be in the Israeli government cannot quash the truth. They cannot silence those whose belief in and adherence to the laws of Hashem and His Torah, are their first priority. We can no longer remain blind to the truth. And the truth is the Arabs are indeed on their way to becoming a majority in the State of Israel. Rather than being voted out of existence by the Arab in this ostensible democracy, we must raise our collective voices in protest of the impending destruction of Israel. We must summon up the strength and courage to do the will of Hashem. We must purge the malignant Arab population before it is too late. May Hashem be at our side.
I was sent this article written by some guy named Dale from Efrat. I thought it was interesting an appropriate:
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Only when I slipped the ballot into the box did I realize something that I could not put into words until that moment. Ya know, occasionally one gets a rare flash of insight and at such moments loose ends suddenly come together and one realizes a deeper understanding of things. Well, that moment came -- I get one of these about once every 20 years or so -- but unfortunately this one came too late to broadcast over the Efrat list before the election Even so maybe this is something to ruminate over for the time left until the next election.
First, most of us erroneously think that we qualify as low-level political scientists. We not only decide what party ideology suits us but we spend a lot of time thinking of casting our vote for the particular party that will, it's believed, will push the right buttons in the political machinery which will have a desired effect. We believe that we are sophisticated enough about the political system, the personalities of the politicians, and that we're savvy enough to be able to manipulate the system to our advantage, in a way that will advance our own ideology.
Second, most of us went out armed with the fallacy that we are voters who are knowledgeable and sophisticated regarding the political processes and that we will make seemingly intelligent choices that have our intended effect.
Ironically this was the very thing that made us subject to manipulation by other parties and we were not the least aware of this happening. Because of our pretense of being wise in the ways of politics all someone had to say was: "Marzel's party doesn't have enough supporters and won't pass the threshold", most people thought, "Hey, they're right! It WOULD be a waste of my vote to give it to him!" and so they succumbed to this incredibly simple manipulation that played on the delusion that they are politically wise and have an accurate picture of the attitudes of the Israeli populace. How did anyone KNOW that there weren't enough supporters to get Marzel in? Did they trust the pollsters, whose leftward bias is well known? (Many did!) Did they trust the other right-wing parties that had an obvious vested interest in dissuading voters from favoring Marzel? (Many did!) Or did they trust the open information that Marzel was the only one to unequivocally take an uncompromising stand against terrorist orgs, absolutely and unequivocally against Jewish ethic-cleansing, and in favor of changing the political system to one that makes the politicians personally accountable to the citizens within a home district? (Most didn't.) So those who preferred to believe the enticements of the pollsters and competing parties beguiled them away from Marzel.
Third, lots of people who had essential sympathies toward Baruch Marzel and agreed in principle with his party's platform simply declined to vote for him believing that their vote would be 'wasted' and that their vote was better spent given to other parties -- even though those other parties had been tainted by corruption, betrayal of their supporters, and tended to hide what they truly stood for. Clearly this kind of avoidance-voting amounted to a self-fulfilling prophesy that practically guaranteed that his party wouldn't have gotten in. If we would have the votes from those people who were truly sympathetic toward Marzel's ideology he would have surely passed the threshold and gotten at least 2 seats in the Keneset.
Fourth, as sophisticated and wise as we like to think we are, there are factors that we can not possibly know before the election and other influencing factors that will take place after the election that no one can forsee. An overwhelming percentage of politicians are champions of image-making and their performances while electioneering often go into lying and deliberate deception of the people. They avoid being candid about what they stand for. Politicians, like Christian clergy, have a tactic when they address a crowd, its a technique known as double-speak. Double-speak is when a politician/clergyman addresses a group two opposing viewpoint, but can choose language that has code-words that mean different things to the two groups and buy speaking those code-word both groups can be deluded into believing that he politican/clergyman stands for mutually exclusive ideas. F'rinstance: when a Christian clergyman quotes the Psalm and says to a crowd of Jews and Christians: "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem" Jews will take it to mean one thing, but the words "peace" and "Jerusalem" are code-words that have special meanings to the Christian that Jews are unaware of. "Peace" in their way of thinking also means "conversion to Christianity" because they claim that a conversion to their god brings a powerful emotional warmth and a lack of tension to a degree that is found nowhere else. The average Christian can not even imagine anyone being emotionally satisfied and relaxed without believing in their god. So "peace" to them equals 'conversion to Jaysus'.
'Jerusalem' in Christian circles has a bunch of meanings, but in this context it means 'the entire Jewish people both in the Diaspora as well as in Eretz-Yisrael.' So when Christians say "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem' in the presence of Jews they're really deliberately hiding the fact that they're praying for the conversion of all Jews everywhere to their god and their religion! Politicians use the same tactic in public speaking venues to make diverse groups of people think that they agree with and will satisfy everyone in earshot -- despite the truth that there may be severe and utterly irreconcilable differences that exist.
Fifth, as religious Jews we have all heard that we should be aspiring to the virtue of 'bitachon' meaning the knowledge that HaShem is truly in control of the world and that with this realization we can be courageous and, first and foremost, we can take the risk to do what is morally right and that HaShem will do His part to care-for and protect us from all evil. I frankly can not understand religious Jews who would vote for parties that will even consider compromising on issues of terror, parties that will even suggest that they might make a deal with those who are out to destroy the lives of my people. Doing this is, in effect, is making a pact with the devil and such compromises with evil very often mean that one legitimizes and ends up supporting the evil. Those who compromise with evil, even when they have the best of intentions to reduce its quantity or quality, inevitably become part of the problem.
Sixth, our whole family voted for Marzel, with the hope that his party would pass the threshold. Realizing that there is this law that says that when a party does not pass the threshold the votes for that party are distributed among all the other parties, so in this case our votes for Marzel went to support Labor, Kadima & the left-wing parties. So is that a thing that would have inhibited us from voting for what's morally right rather than what appeared to be more expedient? No, but consider the following: A poor man comes to me and is honestly hungry and asks for a food, and I provide him with a meal. Let's say that he goes on his way and I later find out that he was a shyster, a sleaze, a victimizer and a con-man. I would obviously regret having provided him the means to carry out more evil, but then maybe the food I provided him would have turned out for good. Maybe what I served him was tainted with bacteria and he would have come down with gastroenteritis, and that may have inhibited his actions and saved a few others who might have fallen under his spell. Maybe the food was wholesome and the boost from my meal might have been just what was needed to deliver him into the hands of the authorities. My point here is that one has to do what is morally correct and even if our votes from Marzel's party went to support the leftists, HaShem is in control and He may let our votes be somehow be used to promote their ultimate downfall. Obviously we have to use our brains so that we don't fall into clear traps, but HaShem can turn these even honest mistakes into good.
OK, call me naive, but I think it all boils down to this: as wise as we actually are, as wise as we believe we are, there are so many other factors that contribute to any political outcome that our attempts to manipulate the system with our votes has such are really quite puny and have but a minor effect. The fact is that politicians do what they darn well feel like, that the pliticians are rife with foreign influences, corruption, deception and betrayal. Try as we will, our votes really mean very little because the politicians are entrenched in a system that is much more sensitive to the whims of the US President and the
US Snake Department and so are fairly insensitive to the Israeli public's needs.
They'll probably ignore us anyway. So the ONLY thing we have real control over is our moral integrity. All we can do for certain is vote for what is morally right, to vote for integrity and then have the bitachon that HaShem will take over and make the outcome be a sweet one for good.
Dale
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