The Bieber, Bibi and Sderot
The Bieb on the beach
In any case, even if Bieber did refuse to meet kids from the Kassam-deluged Sderot, they’ve still gotten themselves invited to his concert, thanks to the folks at the ROI Community funded by the always generous Lynn Schusterman and the Morningstar Foundation. The two funds raised $30,000 to cover the cost of discounted tickets and transportation for 700 kids living in Sderot and other nearby communities to go to tonight’s concert.
So even if Bieber didn’t wanna meet them in person, they’re gonna see him on stage, at Biebermania in Tel Aviv. But chances are, Bibi won’t be there.
Israel takes over Toronto
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Politics, Travel
Anti-Israel demonstrators outside the Israeli Consulate in Toronto on Thursday.
Only a couple hours after landing in Toronto this week, I was on my way to meet an Israeli official at the Israeli Consulate in downtown Toronto. Originally, the official was supposed to meet me at a nice hotel restaurant as his guest, and I was looking forward to the country finally paying for my lunch out of the taxes I’ve dutifully contributed every year. But it was not to be.
I received a call from the office saying that the top Israeli officials were not being let out of the building temporarily because there was a demonstration against Israel being held outside the building. Could I come to their office instead?
Goodbye free lunch, and enter a combat zone, I thought, envisioning having to fight through a picket line and angry anti-Zionists spitting on me as I bulldozed my way into the building.
But arriving a few minutes later, I saw a small group of maybe a dozen peaceful demonstrators holding Palestinian flags and handing out leaflets protesting the likelihood that the Israel was going to turn back the aid flotilla heading toward Gaza.
I approached one of the leaders, it seemed, named Basem, and asked him what was going on? Well spoken and passionate, he explained how Israel wasn’t allowing humanitarian aid to reach Gaza and was threatening to attack the flotilla if it approached shore.
“So you’re appealing to Israel, as a humanitarian gesture to allow the aid to enter Gaza,”?
“No, we don’t talk to Israel – we’re trying to make people aware of the awful things Israel is doing,” he answered.
So, rather than a direct appeal to Israel, as a future peace partner and neighbor to a Palestinian state, the protesters were instead seemingly more interested in making Israel look bad than in achieving their goals of getting aid to needy Gazans.
When I made my way -without opposition – into the consulate and met with the official, he said that the protesters consisted of “the usual suspects” and that his ‘imprisonment’ was just a precaution.
I’m not sure if the protesters knew that a day later, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara were going to be staying right around the corner in the swanky Four Seasons Hotel.
My hotel is directly across the street from it, and this morning, when I opened my blinds, I could have sworn I saw Sara out on the balcony looking down at the beautiful sunny Toronto morning. I wanted to shout out “Shabbat Shalom, Sara!” but I couldn’t figure out how to open the window.
And I doubt the security guards, a couple floors up on another balcony, would have been very pleased.
Protesters, prime ministerial delegations, security guards – for a couple days anyway, quiet, placid Toronto has turned into a Middle East hotbed.
Foto Friday – Post-Election Fun
Filed under: Foto Friday, General, Israeliness, Politics, Pop Culture
This just in: President Shimon Peres has tasked Benjamin Netanyahu with forming the government. And so, the coalition-building process begins. Against the background of political posturing, jockeying for positions and a moment before disillusionment sets in, Tomeriko, photographer, photo editor and informal archivist of Israeli press photographers, has posted a new series of images on his Israel Press Flickr photostream. Entitled Elections 2009, it provides a humorous behind-the-scenes peek at the recent elections.
Photo by Koko, courtesy of Israel Press
The series, contributed by any number of Israeli press photographers working for various media outlets, deals with the run-up to election day, including things that people living outside Israel might not have known about.
Photo by Koko, courtesy of Israel Press
For example, Kadima party head Tzipi Livni on the cover of womens magazine La’Isha. When she was a little girl, could she ever have imagined this day would come?
Photo by Idan Kenan, courtesy of Israel Press
Inevitably, there are instances of campaign poster abuse…
Photo by Aviad Herman, courtesy of Israel Press
With some enthusiastic party workers perhaps taking the “green” message a tad to far…
Photo by Tamar Matsafi, courtesy of Israel Press
There are those who use election day to promote their own personal agenda…
Photo by Adi Yisrael, courtesy of Israel Press
And some who just tag along…
Photo by Alex Kolomoisky, courtesy of Israel Press
But the big question remains: do we know which way we’re actually going?
Photo by Adi Yisrael, courtesy of Israel Press
New Knesset elected, coalition talks underway
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Politics
The results are in. The election is finally over. Even though the Bibi Netanyahu-led Likud party was well ahead in the polls a few weeks ago, Tzipi Livni’s Kadima garnered one more seat than Likud in a stunning photo finish, explained by Haaretz thusly:
Livni forced Netanyahu to treat her as an equal, despite his negative ads claiming the job is “too big for her.” From that point, he lost the advantage of experience. Livni proved to be an expert campaigner who saved enough energy for the final and decisive round.
Several fascinating statistical and graphical breakdowns of the results can be seen here, while a breakdown of the number of seats per party, along with plenty of analysis and victory speech soundbytes, can be seen here.
Perhaps because the left has splintered into several newer and smaller parties, many of which did not garner enough votes for even one Knesset seat, the mainstream left-wing Labor, led by Ehud Barak, will only hold 14 seats, leaving its leadership disillusioned and vowing to sit out of coalition talks.
Avigdor Lieberman’s hardcore right-wing Israel Beiteinu managed to crystallize Israel’s right-of-center undecided, which, in essence, ended up detracting from Likud’s support among hard-liners, which, in turn, gave the relatively centrist (but Ariel Sharon-founded) Kadima a proportionate edge (causing the world to wonder where this leaves us in terms of options for diplomacy with the Palestinians).
However, it’s Israel Beiteinu that’s going to make or break any coalition which Livni has already hit the ground running trying to form, so Lieberman’s agenda hasn’t backfired completely. Let’s not forget that this is Livni’s second chance to try and form a coalition, with the first time around, this past fall, not yielding any results at all.
So yes, it does seem that public opinion here has moved towards the right, and it’s parties which sit decidedly on the right which have the power to make or break a government. But at the same time, the Likud’s failure to seal the deal says quite a bit about the strength of the middle ground (whatever that may or may not mean).
Image courtesy tzipilivni2009 from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.
Israel elections a defeat for everyone
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Politics, Pop Culture
The Siamese twins of Israeli politics.
If last night’s voting tally – showing a slight victory for Kadima and Tzipi Livni over the Likud and Bibi Netanyahu, but overall a stronger showing by the Right block – proves anything, it’s that our electoral system is as irreparably fractured as the population of the country.
We’re in a situation where the party that received the most votes is going to likely end up out of the government and in the opposition – sort of like Al Gore and the Democrats in 2000. Netanyahu, instead of graciously accepting defeat and offering Livni the opportunity to form a coalition – a task she failed to do last year which resulted in these elections, and which she’s unlikely to do now – instead claimed a from the back end victory.
While smaller Right wing parties like Habayit Hayehudi and the National Union sapped votes from Likud – not to mention Israel Beiteinu and Avigdor Lieberman maintaining their strong showing of 2006 despite predictions they would do even better – Kadima undoubtedly lost a mandate or two from those well-meaning souls who gallantly but gullibly threw their support to the Green Movement-Meimad or the Green Leaf parties.
The spread of parties in the next Knesset, therefore, is going to continue to be a representation of the total schism in Israel society, where Arab parties, the Sephardic stronghold Shas, the waning Left faction Meretz, and the fringe Right Wing parties all sit together and cause a paralysis.
It’s time to raise the minimum threshold to even run for the Knesset by 1,000 percent or so, and cap the number of parties to 10 maximum, instead of this year’s unmanageable, outrageous 34. It may not be democratic, but neither is the government we’re going to get next.
What in the world made people like Ephraim Sneh or Michael Melchior think they could garner enough votes to even get one Knesset seat? Can anyone name a difference between Habayit Hayehudi and the National Union? the Green Movement and the Greens? And for that matter, Kadima and Likud?
If the politicians really believed their mantra that the good of the country comes first, then next week, we would see a coalition announced consisting of Kadima, Likud, and either Labor, Israel Beiteinu or Shas. But don’t think for a second that’s going to happen.
Ah, the hell with it. I’m going to bury my head in the new Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue with Israel’s own Bar Refaeli on the cover. At least that’s something we can take pride in.
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