From Nation's Capital to Nation's Capital: The Azza Street Spy

Post-Election Ponderings
Since I was asked about my vote in the Israeli elections, and enough time has passed, I will share my political reasonings here.

First of all, as I said in the election day post, I was really torn. I decided only the night before. Here were my thoughts about the parties:

KADIMA, the party that won the most votes: I found this party distasteful and pointless. In addition, they were considered a let down, b.c one month before the election they were predicted to win many more seats. Basically, this party started as a personality cult following Ariel Sharon. Once he effectively disappeared from the political scene, the political opportunists who joined b.c they wanted to be in Sharon's shadow of success realized they actually had to build a platform for this non-party party. They never got that far. They are the presumed centrists, given the individuals who are its leaders. The assertion of centrism is, again, based on personality and not a bonafide centrist platform. (Which would probably appeal to me if it existed.) In addition, are these leaders centrists who can work effectively together, or centrists who would paralyze each other with their varying positions? (Think: House Republican Freshmen of 1995.) Without any indications of the accurate answer, I could not vote for them.

And, obviously, as a new citizen I have no loyalty or association to any political figure. I voted based on ideas and not personalities.

LABOR, the party that won second most seats: Here was my chance to cast a left vote while staying in the mainstream. I do not consider the US Democrats to be leftists, and I would never vote for a US party left of the Democrats, b.c they are typically fringe and not my political taste. As an Israeli, now I can live my dream and vote left. However, Peretz felt like too much of a political novice to be the Prime Minister. He started taking English lessons after he won the party's leadership position. Not that English is the beginning and end of the world, but Israel gets enough international and media attention. Our Prime Minister should be well-spoken and be able to handle international pressure with elegance.

DOMESTIC ISSUES: After the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections, I decided against voting based on my position re: Palestinians (i.e., security). Whatever Israel claims, there is a second entity that is autonomous and acts as it will choose. Each party would like to think that they can influence what the Palestinians will do, but I think they are overexaggerating their power. Each party can claim that it refuses to talk to Hamas. While it is best to act wisely and strategically with the Palestinians (whatever that means), and our other Arab neighbors, it is also important to remember that we have less power than we think and at the end of the day they choose for themselves.

Since I decided that each party has equally negligible effect re: security issue, it is best to vote on domestic issues. But then I realized, I can't. I just don't know enough about domestic policy. For example, Netanyahu developed and implemented a controversial economic reform plan last administration. What do I think of it? What was the economic situation prior to his reform that it was trying to address? While I have vague notions, I am not sufficiently clear. Another example, while I might consider myself left of US Democrats on economic issues, where does that put me on the Israeli spectrum? Maybe, since this economy is more socialist, my US, left position makes me a centrist in Israel, or even a rightist who would support Netanyahu's plan? Or, maybe I remain a leftist. Without any way to answer this question, at least not in the remaining time before the election, I resolved to abandon domestic issues and vote based on "security" (i.e., Palestinians), what nearly every Israeli does anyway.

LIKUD, party that bombed: How could I vote for them? They are too right. Besides after so many party members defected for Kadima, it really is a rightist party.

SECURITY ISSUES: I support negotiated agreements with our neighbors regarding land for peace. Note that I do not say what the Israeli position should be in these negotiations or what the agreements should come to. However, I do think there should be discussion. Absent that, I think unilateral withdrawal is an acceptable next alternative. While I support unilateral withdrawal on a principled level, like Bush's war in Iraq, it's all in the pragmatics. There is a smart and not-smart way to withdraw. There is a well-planned and poorly-planned way to withdraw. While Kadima and Labor acknowledge that they support withdrawals, I did not feel sure that they would do it the smart and well-planned way.

SMALL PARTIES: There is something really attractive about these. Who does not support bread for poor people, sustainable pensions for retired people (bad example: they were the surprise of the election, garnering 8-9 parliament seats), better absorption for immigrants, and my favorite: WAR ON BANKS/BANK FEES! And, my small party for the next election: Every Sunday Morning is a Snow Day. (Already previewed and TBD in another blog.) But, who are we kidding? These parties do not achieve the 2% voter threshold and all those votes wasted... Then, ethnic parties gain disproportionate strength (the ultra-Orthodox ones, primarily) b.c their voters are so loyal. All these parties do is pork and barrel. They sit with any coalition, work on perks for their loyal voters, and the bigger parties are diminished b.c they lost seats to the nutty, small ones.

CONCLUSION: I voted Likud, out of process of elimination. I surprised myself, since this was my first chance to vote for a respectable leftist party and I passed it up. I did not vote on domestic issues b.c I feel my knowledge in this area is too superficial. Making a decision based on the security issue, I was worried that the Center and Left parties would disengage from land with ill-suited planning and strategy. Even though in principle I find disengagement palatable, I knew that Likud would not participate in any disengagement that would make me uncomfortable. Hence, I felt comfortable with the possibility of a Likud government if they were to win and with a strong/er Likud opposition if they would not win... Knowing that I could handle them both in government and as a potentially strong opposition, they became the logical, remaining party that received my vote.

My next political mission involves new legislation that should be called, "Benn Sundays." Or, Two Hour Delay Every Sunday/Delayed Opening Every Sunday Morning, which sounds more appropriate for a Mediterranean country than, Ice Storm Every Sunday Morning. To be elaborated upon later.

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