בחירות

That means elections, people. They're coming. Here are a few ads that you might find interesting, and even if you don't understand the words, it's worth watching how crazy this gets.

Likud, "right of center" party led by Binyamin Netenyahu, a Philly native. If I were voting, I so would not vote for them, although they are projected to win... We just have to hope that they form a centrist government as opposed to a right-wing coalition.





Kadima, a centrist party. They seem to be in the middle, especially after the war. We now see that they will both negotiate peace and discuss concessions as well as launch full-scale invasions of Gaza. A part of me wishes they would stay in power but also move more to the left--try harder in making peace, recognizing the rights of the Arab citizens of Israel, and lifting the occupation...

So here Kadima strikes back...


And Tzipi showing off her really famous friends (Obama), and looking as good as she can:


Labor, a left with party with a sweet webpage (that's right, Ehud Barak just walks onto the screen), dominated the scene in the first 30 years after Israel's independence, but since they're not quite as strong a contender as they once were, they seem to be trying to play to a bigger audience, like a bit more right than they used to. They do, however, have an Arab member of Knesset. Anyway.. Here we go...

This is silly:


This one, if you don't follow, is about a lifeguard who can't swim, she won't be "Ready in the moment of truth." However, according to the gentleman who approaches her, Ehud Barak will be.


Let's go back to the right.. jjust briefly. Cause it scares me a little. Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beitenu (Israel, Our Home) party are very hard on Israeli Arabs and claim that they need to prove their allegiance to Israel. This ad, which points out some money scandal with some Arab member of Knesset, ends with the slogan "Rak Lieberman (Only Lieberman)," but this time they add on the "Mevin Aravit (Understands Arabic)" at the end. Only Lieberman understands Arabic? Well, I am pretty sure he is fluent in Russian, but I never knew he understood Arabic!



HaTenuah HaYerukah-Meimad (The Green Movement-Meimad--which comes from the acronym Medinah Yehudit, Medinah Demokratit or Jewish State, Democratic State) is a party I have been supporting to an extent. It's a convergence of Meimad, a left-wing religious party, and a rising green movement. They promote environmentalism, education, and good campaign items that deal with the future of Israel as opposed to temporary security today. One thing they promote is giving equal funds to Jewish and Arab schools as opposed to spending more on Jewish public schools. Not okay to me. This video is where their number 1 guy talks about how focusing on security is important but when it is the only concern, that's not okay. "A state that kills 1400 people every year [...] is not a Jewish state!"



I could keep doing this all night, there are 34 parties participating. But I'm not going to. Everyone enjoy the experience. They used to set a block of time on the major channels during prime time to broadcast all of the ads at once, a certain amount of time for each party based on what percentage of representation they had at the time, but they moved it to late at night now so that it doesn't interrupt regular broadcasting. Also, the parties started to make too much of a fool of themselves so that the campaigning got really nasty. That's what I've heard about the change, so that's what I'm reporting. The elections are on Tuesday. It should get very interesting here, and I will be sure to keep you all posted.

--Avraham