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
Nostalgia Sunday – Elections in Israel, Part 2
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics, Pop Culture
Elections are coming up on February 10th and now seems the appropriate moment to take a look at how we do it here. The Ministry of the Interior has very efficiently issued a guide in four languages (including English), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has put out a comprehensive backgrounder, and the Knesset has posted an explanation of the Israeli electoral system. But these dry documents can’t possibly convey how much fun voting is here – the bright colors, the block letters, little pieces of paper and funny TV ads.
Okay, that sounds a bit infantile, but look how cute the inside of an Israeli voting booth is! Every one of those letters represents a different political party. So you go in, put a little “petek” in the envelope, seal it, go outside and slide it into the ballot box. And no matter how bad you want to, you mustn’t put in more than one! However, if you are sorely tempted, you can stuff your pockets full of ballots from funny parties you would never vote for, and give them to your friends later in the day, just for laffs.
This past summer, the Ministry of the Interior issued a tender for computerized voting in November’s municipal elections. That’s as far as we’ve gotten with introducing IT into the electoral system and, given the computer crashes that plagued both Likud and Labor’s primary races – which left Silicon Wadi with egg all over its face – that’s as far as we’re going to get right now. But, even without computers, look how far the system has advanced in 60 years.
Okay, maybe not so much.
These two photos are part of a wonderful WZO slide show entitled Celebrate 60 Years with Israel – “Fulfilling the Dream”. Click here for Nostalgia Sunday – Elections in Israel, Part 1.
Nostalgia Sunday – Elections in Israel, Part 1
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics, Pop Culture
Let’s go back in time, shall we? The year was 1988. Israel still had only one television station but, then as now, was blessed with a multitude of political parties that, for the first time, were allowed to present their platforms on the air, thus providing the entire country with an evening’s entertainment. So there we sat, transfixed. Remember: there was only one TV station. Also, some of the ads were nothing if not amusing, especially if you go for Theater Of the Absurd.
This man, for example, from the “Quiet Party”, advocated getting rid of government stagnation and corrupt politicians by either voting for his party – symbolized by the ever-popular letter “zayin” – or putting in a blank ballot, or just not showing up at all.
The logic still escapes me but they look like a fun bunch, floating on the Dead Sea in their inner tubes.
But the most memorable catchphrase of 1988 was, without a doubt, “Noar, Noar, Noar” (”young folks” repeated three times), from the ad presented by Tarshish, a Netanya-based party headed by Nissim Douek. Although his party’s symbol was “zayin ayin mem” (there’s that zayin again!) — meaning “rage” — Douek seems more doleful than angry as he tells the country’s Sephardic youth they has been lied to by the government, then promises to found a university in Netanya.
To see all the election commercials from 1988, visit the Nana-Channel 10 portal.
Compare these clumsy awkward efforts of yesteryear with media-saturated today. Every political party, TV and radio station, has a YouTube presence. A good one is Channel 2’s Election 2009 channel, where Israelis (celebs, demi-celebs and non) sound off about… well, whatever.
It’s also important to keep up with weekly satire show Eretz Nehederet (Wonderful Country) which, having finished up with the war, now turns its attention to the elections.
Another fun online tool for keeping up with things is the Israel Democracy Institute’s 2009 Israel Election Compass. A joint project of IDI and Ynet , the Election Compass guides users through a series of questions that help them identify which political parties and Prime Ministerial candidates most closely reflect their views on Israel’s most pressing social, political, economic, and security-related questions. It’s amazing what you can learn about yourself in filling out these questionnaires. Apparently, I should vote Labor, although in fact, that wasn’t my plan.
The next prime minister of Israel – Dennis Ross?
Ross - Ammunition both for and against Bibi
With the major parties – Kadima and Likud – frothing at the bit after being held up due to the the ‘national unity’ displayed during the war in Gaza, they’re now finally unleashing the campaigns that their spin doctors and media specialists have been cooking up these last few weeks.
And, strangely enough, they’re using some of the same strategy, courtesy of a one-time aide to Bill Clinton who is set to make a comeback under President Barack Obama – Dennis Ross. The former Middle East negotiator, who’s expected to be appointed as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s point man on Iran, was up to his elbows in the Israel-Palestinian issue during the 1990s and he knew all the players involved.
That’s why both Kadima and Likud are planning to use quotes from Ross’s published memoirs to both praise and bury Likud leader Bibi Netanyahu, according to Gil Hoffman writing in The Jerusalem Post.
“Bibi rarely seemed to know how to act on his ideas – how to present them, to whom, and even when to do so,” Ross wrote about Netanyahu in a quote from his book, The Missing Peace, that was distributed by Kadima. “Translating an idea into action seemed beyond his grasp. It was not lack of intelligence… it was the lack of judgment… but there was something more: Often he would come up with ideas simply to get himself out of a jam.”
The Likud, by contrast, focused on Ross quotes that were policy-oriented and not personal. They distributed interviews with Ross and articles he wrote in which he regretted not insisting upon reciprocity with the Palestinians as Netanyahu had advised him.
“Rather than trying to resolve issues like Jerusalem and refugees, we would have focused on expanding the scope of Palestinian independence from Israeli control, developing and investing in the Palestinian economy, and expanding the connections between the Israeli and Palestinian societies,” Ross wrote in The Wall Street Journal in June 2007, sounding very much like Netanyahu’s current “economic peace” diplomatic plan.
How the new prime minister of Israel will work with the Obama administration is playing a big role in the election propoganda.
Likud officials said they hoped Kadima would continue to portray Netanyahu as someone who would have a difficult relationship with the Obama administration, because they believe this would help Netanyahu win more support among the public. Both Kadima and Labor have already started warning that Netanyahu would have an adversarial relationship with Obama, according to Hoffman.
“Whoever thinks that it will be easy for Israel with Netanyahu as prime minister is wrong,” Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog told Army Radio on Friday. “It will be hard because it seems that Netanyahu’s policies will be in direct contrast with those of Obama.”
So while Americans can now relax in the knowledge that the election is over and Obama is firmly ensconced in the White House, here in Israel, the charismatic leader is still smack in the middle of the election campaign.
Barkat where he belongs
Filed under: A New Reality, Israeliness, Life, Politics
Municipal elections were held across Israel yesterday, with leadership positions up for grabs in 159 regional councils and cities. In Tel Aviv the race was extremely close, making for high drama into the night, as ballots were counted. However, the mayoral race in Jerusalem was arguably the most dramatic of all, with the very soul of the city up for grabs.
Outgoing Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski was elected five years ago by the city’s ultra-Orthodox sector, who knew that as mayor, he would fight hard for their agendas. Disillusioned by the then-outgoing Olmert administration, Jerusalem’s non-Orthodox populace largely sat out the election, paving the way for the city’s first ultra-Orthodox mayor. The biggest loser in that election – aside from all hopes for a pluralist, commerce-friendly, tourist-welcoming and culturally vibrant Jerusalem – was candidate Nir Barkat.
A high-tech entrepreneur and a champion of culture, Barkat went on to serve as an effective opposition leader in the city council, but when the ultra-Orthodox parties banded together and named Knesset member Meir Porush their 2008 candidate for mayor of Jerusalem, many feared a repeat of 2003’s results. And even if one believed that Barkat’s popularity exceeded Porush’s, one had to wonder about wildcards like the candidacy of oligarch-playboy Arcadi Gaydamak and Green Leaf leader Dan Birron, who had the potential to at least split the secular vote.
As a result of this situation, Barkat’s 2008 campaign featured some right-wing posturing moves that made some wonder if perhaps they’d be better off with Porush after all. But in the end, these efforts paid off, with many of the city’s National Religious elements supporting Barkat as someone who had their back. Ultimately, Barkat received over half of the votes, no small feat on a crowded ballot.
Democracy and change have been so thick in the air lately that perhaps a global reconnecting with the voting process also helped turn the tides. If apathy is what put Lupolianski in City Hall, a hearty can-do spirit is what has given us Barkat. And like that other high-profile candidate billed as the agent of progress, he certainly has his work cut out for him.
All politics are local…
Today, there are municipality elections throughout the country, including in my town of Modi’in. The news is certainly focusing on all the sexy elections such as the former head of the air force vs. the communist in Tel Aviv and the high tech mogul vs the Rabbi in Jerusalem but hey, there are important issues we are dealing with here in the suburbs as well.
My wife and I have been following our local election very closely. It’s only the second time I’ll be voting where the “situation” isn’t an issue. It’s quite refreshing actually weighing candidates on issues such schools, city expansion, economic growth, dog poop etc.
Now there are two parties we support, Shachar – a party of secular and religious residents whose main emphasis is on improving education – and the Greens – who are all about the environment, improving the quality of life and care deeply about the preservation of Modiin’s local archeological sites.
Mayor is a different story. The candidate I support has been polling fairly low. Even though the two leading candidates will probably have a run off and force another election I am still voting for the lower polling candidate who I believe not only would do a superior job, but has always been responsive to my concerns as a resident of Modiin. Someone mentioned today that one should never vote on strategy but rather who you believe will do the best job. I subcribe to that philosophy as evidence in my disastrous vote for Tafnit in the last national elections. Honestly, I’ll vote for whoever promises to establish quality dog runs in Modiin. I’ve been living here almost six years and my dog has gotten pretty anti-social due to the strict leash laws and the lack of open space for our pooches to run around. That’s my issue. Bring on the dog runs!
This Year I’m a Voter…The Next Mayor Election Vote for Me, Your Deputy Mayor
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Politics
Did you know that Jerusalem has six deputy mayors? And each one gets paid NIS 35,000 a month. So now you are thinking, how do I become a deputy mayor? Me too. But it’s too late for us because the election for mayor and city council are just two days away and we’re not on any of the party lists so chances are that we’re not making a career change any time soon. But for those of us voting it is important to understand that we actually get two votes, one for mayor and the other for city council. It is on the city council that these deputy mayors will sit as part of the 30-something coalition and make the crucial decisions affecting me and you.
It is also important to know that while the deputy mayors are making the big bucks, the rest of the city council is doing volunteer work–that is, they are not making a penny, or shekel, if you will. As Shira at The Big Felafel informs us:
“While the two highest elected municipality positions, mayor and deputy mayor, are paid positions, the other 29 seats on the council are volunteer positions. The mayor’s salary comes from your taxes, has his/her hand most tightly around the budget and has the best chance of passing his/her policy decisions. But the council members are either a part of the mayor’s coalition, thus helping the mayor pass policy and allocate money, or they are a part of the opposition, with a unique opportunity of exposing the improprieties of the coalition to the public and leading a strong opposing stance to the ruling force. So both votes are extremely important.”
Like Shira points out, both of your votes are crucial and with just a few days before the elections these “volunteers” are campaigning down to the wire trying to get you to vote for them. This past Thursday Hitorerut-Yerushalmim (Wake up Jerusalem) and Jerusalem Will Succeed made one of their last hits on the campaign trail in an English forum hoping to inform Anglo voters and make them vote for their team.
The head of Wake up Jerusalem’s list, Rachel Azaria, stressed the fact that their party does not answer to anyone. They are the people and they answer to the people and no one else. This list is dedicated only to the residents of Jerusalem and therefore does not have an adjacent party in the Knesset that they must take their cues from. They are young and most of them come from careers in social change.
And while youth can mean a fresh start for the city, Naomi Tsur of Jerusalem Will Succeed holds that against them, for the usual reason of inexperience. Tsur, former head of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Jerusalem decided to make the switch to government after her long battle with creating a sustainable Jerusalem. She explained that their party comes with mayoral candidate Nir Barkat. And if he is elected he will need the support of his coalition to help him implement his policies, thus he will need people from his own party to be a part of the coalition since they already agree with everything he stands for. As far as the young and fresh thing goes, Tsur said they have a young person on their list, as well as other representatives, like a native Russian speaker, French speaker, two pensioners and an Ethiopian.
So as you head to the startup capital of the world’s technologically advanced polling system – placing a paper in an envelope inside a cardboard box – remember to vote for mayor and city council. You can find a list of all the city council choices on The Big Felafel.
Jerusalem Election Diary: Haaretz gets it so wrong
I don’t usually write about the same topic two weeks in a row, but, with less than a week to go, the upcoming Jerusalem mayoral elections is so important that I feel compelled to post again.
Last Friday, Haaretz published an editorial slamming mayoral candidate Nir Barkat and endorsing “a responsible haredi” (a code word for Meir Porush, the only ultra Orthodox candidate running for the position). Many Jerusalemites like me were outraged.
The reason for Haaretz’s position is that Barkat has come out in support of building a Jewish neighborhood near the Arab village of Anata, at the foot of the Jerusalem neighborhood of French Hill. The area has long been a thorn in the Palestinian’s side: building there would help connect Jerusalem to the satellite city of Ma’aleh Adumim in the West Bank, but it would also have the effect of preventing territorial contiguity for a new Palestinian state.
Barkat says that building this new Jewish neighborhood will help solve the city’s “shortage of housing for students and young people.” But it’s also a clear ploy to help win over Jerusalem’s “swing vote” – the Modern Orthodox residents who, according to recent polls, are split between Barkat and rival Porush. Given that most of the city’s voters, whether religious or secular, tend to be right wing, it’s not a bad campaign tactic.
Whether you agree or disagree with Barkat’s position, Haaretz – by coming out against the current front-runner in the race – is saying something far more disturbing about Israel’s attitude towards Jerusalem.
Haaretz is, in effect, giving up on Jerusalem. Or perhaps they already have. In the eyes of the Tel Aviv-based newspaper, Jerusalem is already all religious; there’s nothing to do here; no nightlife; it’s too far away; too dangerous; too tense; and ultimately not even worth a visit. The Western Wall, the Old City, the quaint alleyways and gourmet restaurants, the cool summer air, the unique architecture, the spirituality, the Knesset and center of government – all of these are unimportant to the enlightened readers of Haaretz where the heaviness and tension that are part and parcel of Israel’s capital might, God forbid, impede the never ending pursuit of next party.
Indeed, to Haaretz, Jerusalem is not a city at all. It’s a metaphor, a bargaining chip on the geo-political stage to be divided in an eventual peace. Anything getting in the way of that end must be resisted, fought, denigrated. Haaretz couldn’t care less about the problems the city faces, from transportation gridlock to cleanliness and jobs, reverse emigration, religiously-mandated unemployment, and a rapidly deteriorating education system, all areas for which Barkat – in contrast to the other mayoral hopefuls – has clear, step-by-step plans for rapid execution. The quality of life in Jerusalem can go to hell, Haaretz is saying, as long as the next mayor doesn’t stoop to interfere with the inevitable outcome of Oslo and Annapolis.
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