Israel Hits the Polls

Tomorrow, Israelis head to the polls to elect their new Prime Minister and Knesset (Israeli parliament representatives). There's been quite a bit of political engagement here, and the currently very quiet Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (where I am working this week) along with most institutions in Israel, will be closed for national voting day (a lesson that the U.S. would do well to learn, in my opinion). In Israel, voters cast their ballots (that is, they lick and seal and envelop with the party emblem of their choice inside) for a party rather than a candidate, electing the PM and Knesset ministers at the same time. Israel tried direct elections for about five years under Rabin but did away with them after it seemed that they were accentuating rather than alleviating the divisiveness within Israeli politcs.

Political engagement in Jerusalem has been quite interesting. It often takes the form of a car or two parading through the streets, covered in posters and streaming signs behind, blaring political slogans as loudly as its loudspeakers will permit. Othertimes, a group of generally young Israelis claim a street corner or roadside and make as much noise and as much of a scene with their political posters as possible. One of the more interesting party demonstrations I have seen was by a group from representing the Green Movement, possibly Israel's newest party and, confusingly, one of several "green" parties (including the "Green Party" and the "Green Leaf Party" -- whose platform includes almost exclusively the legalization of marijuana). I am attaching a few pictures from this bicycle demonstration below -- a group of young Green Movement affiliates, along with one of their founders, Gershon Basin (with the red backpack), took over a Critical Mass bike protest, a monthly gathering to promote bicycling in Jerusalem. The event turned into a raucous Green Movement display, with stump speaches, loud streetside arguments with passersby, and traffick-stopping party affiliaties.







The most interesting political demonstrations in Jerusalem tend to take place at night, however. For the last week and a half or so, walking around Jerusalem after midnight on almost any given night, one can hardly enter a bar or walk through the streets without getting accosted by one to a hord of campaigners foistering their little leaflets and reasons on you. One night, my friends and I were stopped by several groups of Green Movement campaigners who, when we remained skeptical of their platform, routed us to a local bar outside of which the heads of the party were gathered. The party's PM candidate put his hand around my friend's shoulder and took him on a 20 minute stroll to explain his candidacy. I'm not sure that my friend was convinced, but I was rather bemused by the spectical. The thought of Obama or Clinton or McCain buddying up to students unannounced and unphotographed in a NYC bar is hard to conjure, but in Israel, particularly among leaders of the smaller parties, it's an every-night occurance during election season. The night before the local Jerusalem mayoral elections, I found myself drinking beer with the wild-haired Green Leaf party candidate, who was stumping his way around the local bars that night. In this small, word-of-mouth based society, being able to present yourself as that "chill guy I had a beer with at the Sira the other night" can be a pretty effective way to gain a network of votes.

Bibi (Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the right of center Likud party) looks poised to win PM tomorrow, though Tzipi Livni (head of centrist Kadima) may yet put up a tough fight. Ehud Barak (Labor) has been making noises about turning down another term as Defense Minister if Labor is not adequately represented in the new Knesset. Meanwhile, Lieberman's far-right and controversial Israel Beiteinu party has been polling disturbingly strong, given that they are currently most likely to be associated with recent overturned efforts to block Israeli Arab parties from participating in the general elections. On the left, the joint Jewish-Arab Hadash party (formerly Communist Party) will likely gain several seats (helped out by a number of my friends). The new and innovative Green Movement (seems to be strong among young voters) may turn out to be stronger than expected. While opinion seems to be that the generally popular young Left-Wing party Meretz has been declining in strength and popularity, due perhaps to lack of leadership, it may gain several seats as well. Word on the street has it that Green Leaf voters, for some hard to fathom reason, often forget to show up at the polls.

In general, most voters seem to feel that despite the array of options, there is a lack of real, strong leadership in Israel these days. None of the leading candidates seem to represent particularly compelling options, and while many of the smaller parties have innovative ideas and platforms, they don't have popularity and they, along with the bigger parties, don't seem to be putting forward the kind of compelling, rising star, Rabin-esque figure that this area needs.

So tomorrow, Israelis will drop their envelopes (no hanging chads here), even if for "the better of the bad." We'll see what happens...