There is just too much going on for me to keep up!

You may have noticed that I haven't posted for over a week now. This is not because of a lack of things to post about. In fact it is just the opposite! The problem is that I have been much more busy than usual with my work over the last week and probably will continue to be so until Pesach.

I just couldn't let the whole week go by without addressing some of the issues that have come up this week so here it goes.

The Pope is visiting Jerusalem
...and the new mayor Nir Barkat is crossing his legs to keep from peeing himself from excitement. He is going to have the Kotel plaza scrubbed and polished to a shine. He is repaving all of the broken roads leading to the Kotel and the Mount of Olives where the Pope will hold mass. He is also having all beggars removed from the areas where His Evilness will visit.

This is the way that Israelis do things. They don't keep Jerusalem beautiful all year round for the sake of its residents, for the sake of tourism or just for God's sake. But when this scumbag wants to visit, instead of banning him as they should, they go and clean up the city in his honor.

Oops. Iran has enough Uranium for a nuke.
Jews need to get it through their head. Much, if not most of the world hates us! It is a historical fact. There is not a country on Earth where Jews have been and have not been persecuted at one time or another. What more need I say.

We need to stop relying on America as our great savior. They are standing by for years now watching Iran develop a nuke and doing nothing. If we want to have a country and survive we need to make it clear to the whole world that whoever messes with us will be sorry. Israel, one of the smallest nations on the face of the Earth also happens to have one of the strongest militaries on Earth. We need to let people like Ahmedinejad know that we have nuclear weapons and have no problem using them against any nation who's leaders even hint at attacking Israel.

We neeed to project an image of being hyper-sensitive to talk of killing Jews. I propose war against Iran immediately. And not one of these 'we are at war against the government of Iran not the people' kind of wars. There is no place for that. If the people of Iran don't like what their government is doing, let them rise up and stop it as they did only a few decades ago.

All of those Jew haters out there need to know that we don't care if you love us, but if you even look at us the wrong way it is you who will be wiped off the map.

Bibi just wants to be loved

Right after the elections, I wrote about the coalition that I expect Bibi to form. Shortly after that, I wrote that I was very afraid that he was going to go with a 'unity government'.

It is yet to be seen if my prediction was correct (let's all pray that it wasn't). But the events of the last week have proved beyond a doubt that my assessment of the situation was right on. Bibi is scared to death of a right wing government. There is nothing that he fears more, than being held accountable to carry out the right wing rhetoric that he preached during the campaign. He just won't stop kissing up to Tzippy Livni, trying to get her to join a 'unity government'.

The question that nobody asks is, "why?" What on Earth is good about a unity government? The whole point of democracy is that the people determine the path that their nation should take. Sometimes it leans to the left and sometimes to right. In this case the people of Israel elected 65 right wing Knesset members 28 centrists (Kadima) and only 27 leftists (of which 8 are Arab). The clear will of the people is a move to the Right! Yet Bibi, do to his own personal emotional issues, wants a unity government and that seems normal to people.

This essentially means that the people don't have the right to elect a Right-wing government. When companies do this we call it a cartel. When politicians do it we call it "Unity"!

There is so much more that I would like to write about, but I will have to leave it here and get back to work. Please stick with me for the next few weeks while I take care of business here. In the mean time, please remember to interact with the ads on the site if you see one that interests you. That will help my justify the time I am stealing from work.

Bibi was right to be afraid.

(First and foremost,  I know all of you are wondering who I voted for in the end.  When it came down to the moment of truth, I couldn't bring myself to vote Likud.  Both my wife and I voted Ichud Leumi.)

The results are pretty much in.  For those of you who don't read Hebrew:

Likud 27

Kadima 28

Labor 13

Israel Beiteinu 15

Shas 15

Meretz 3

United Torah Judaism 5 

Ichud Leumi 4

Jewish Home 3

Ram Tal (Arab) 4

Chadash (Arab) 4

Of course these results are still not entirely final.  There is still about 0.3% of the vote that has not been counted.  This is mostly from Army bases and hospitals.  Those votes have to be counted very carefully to make sure that those people didn't vote once at their regular polling place and then again at the mobile polling place.  Once these results come in, they could be enough to shift any one of the parties at most 1 seat in either direction.

What does all of this mean?  Here's my take.

What it really boils down to is this.  Who is the real Bibi Netanyahu?  

If he is only interested in power, keeping his seat as long as possible, and looking good in the eyes of the world (especially the USA), he will work out some kind of power sharing situation with Kadima, Labor etc.

If he is truly a nationalist who wants to retain all of the Land of Israel without compromise, he will form a right wing/religious coalition.  If he does this, he will have a very stable 65 seats.  

Bibi holds the keys here.  It is next to impossible for Tzippy Livni to form a coalition if Likud refuses to join.  

This makes me very happy that I voted Ichud Leumi in the end and not Likud.  You see, we now have the perfect test scenario to know who is the real Bibi.  If Likud had a clear majority, Bibi would have been able to give in to his bad habit of turning left after he gets elected.  Now he will have to make his intentions clear from the outset.  If he chooses a Right/Religious coalition, then we will know that he meant everything that he said during the campaign.  More importantly, he will have the smaller, more right wing parties like Ichud Leumi, there to hold him to his word.

 

If Bibi chooses to make some kind of deal with the left, it will mean that he never intended to be strong and hold on to our land.  In that case, I will be even more happy that I didn't vote Likud!

When all is said and done. I think that this is the very best result that us right-wing-extremists could have hoped for.  At least there is a descent chance that we are going to get a government made up of parties who's sole thing in common is a desire (albeit to varying degrees) to not give away land to the Arabs.

When all is said and done, Bibi was right to be afraid.  His worst nightmare has come true.  He is not going to be left to do what he feels like.  Whichever path he chooses, he will have a strong babysitter sitting over his head making sure that he sticks to it.   

Let's hope he makes the right choice.

Likud or Ichud Leumi?

Elections here in Israel are coming up on Tuesday. I thought that I was sure who I was going to vote for but the latest polls are making me think again...

There is no doubt that Ichud Leumi is the party that is closest to my political views. But, I was planning to vote Likud for very specific strategic reasons. In general, I am a supporter of Moshe Feiglin. Feiglin published a recommendation list before the primaries. It contained candidates who have a record of apposing the disengagement from Gaza or who are known to be very right wing. A lot of his people got on the list. The interesting thing is that most of them are either in the top 20 of the list or they are between numbers 30-40. The important point to note is that none of them are between numbers 25-30 on the list. (See the Likud list here)

As of a few days ago, all of the poles were showing the Likud hovering around 30 seats in the elections. This would have meant that every extra vote for the Likud would be a vote for the 'Feiglin people' in numbers 30-40. The polls were also showing Ichud Leumi with only 3 seats, which put my vote in danger of being wasted. This is due to the rule that a party who falls short of the 3 seat minimum doesn't get into Knesset and their votes are discarded.

Based on that, I was planning to vote Likud. My reasoning was that I would rather put my people inside the ruling party, where they would have more leverage. This would also be giving more clout to Moshe Feiglin in future elections. Whereas by voting Ichud Leumi, I could be throwing my vote in the trash! And even if they did make it in my the skin of their teeth, they would be sitting in the opposition, not doing much good.

But today's numbers show a very different picture. It seems that in the latest poll, Likud gets 26 seats. That would mean that if right wing voters vote for the Likud, we would just be putting in numbers 27, 28, 29 who are not people from Moshe Feiglin's list and not people that I want in the Knesset.

Ichud Leumi gets 6 seats in today's poll. That means that if I vote Ichud Leumi I don't have to worry about throwing my vote in the garbage. It also means that they have a significant bloc of seats that Bibi may need to form a coalition with his now smaller party of 26. It also means that I wouldn't have to plug my nose during the voting process.

As of this moment, I am leaning toward Ichud Leumi. What do you think?

Don't get your hopes up.

The rumor is:

The Tel Aviv District Court has ordered the Likud to restore MK Michael Ratzon to the position he earned on the Likud's election slate. Ratzon had been ranked 24th, a realistic position in this election. He had been pushed down to the 37th position along with Moshe Feiglin (pushed from 20th to 36th) and Ehud Yatom (pushed from 29th to 38th) by party leader Binyamin Netanyahu. The Likud is meeting now to decide whether to appeal. If the decision stands, Feiglin and Yatom - who had not appealed to the courts - ought to be able to demand that the Likud's internal court order their positions restored. Israel Radio reports that if they demand that their positions be restored, there is a "good chance" that they will be.

I hate to be the pessimist, but in my opinion, those of us who support Feiglin, should not get our hopes up.  The establishment in Israel has too long of a record of supressing straight talking, practical people like Moshe Feiglin.  Bibi will pull a new trick out of his sleeve to keep Feiglin out.

I really hope that I am wrong...

Sunday morning 9:24 am.  It seems that it is no longer a rumor.  Read more at Arutz Sheva.