Celebrating Israel’s diversity
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Life, Politics, Pop Culture, Social Justice
Tel Aviv turned into a multi-colored, multi-cultural sea of fun on Friday… wait, isn’t that Tel Aviv every day?
What made this day a little more colorful was the 13th annual Gay Pride parade, as thousands of revelrers celebrated the sexual freedom Israel offers by marching, dancing and waving rainbow flags from Meir Park to Gordon Beach, where a massive outdoor party awaited them.
Since the Madrid Gay Pride Parade has banned Israeli groups (and famed singer Dana International) from attending, due to Israel’s raid on the Gaza flotilla, there was even more reason to step up the celebrations in Tel Aviv this year.
For the first time, two separate parades marched at the same time, with an alternative ‘radical’ march running parallel to the traditional community one, organized by the ‘Marching toward Social Change’ coalition.
According to a report in The Jerusalem Post, the trauma of last year’s fatal attack on a counseling center for gay teens in Tel Aviv was not forgotten during the festivities. A moment of silence was held at Meir Park for the victims of a shooting last August at the Bar Noar that left two dead and 15 wounded. Parade organizers also set up a stand where people could make donations to help the survivors.
Kadima leader Tzipi Livni spoke at the event, urging Israelis not to give in to hatred and xenophobia.
“As a country which is proud of its values, justice and unique society, Israel must denounce hatred,” she said.
Labor MK Shelly Yachimovich also spoke, saying there was still much to be done in the battle against ignorance and discrimination, and for equal rights for the gay community.
“The time has come for the friends of the community to come out of the closet to ensure that this fight, a political one, will succeed,” she said, according to Ha’aretz, adding that there were many public figures and politicians still afraid to come out of the closet.
Friday could have been their opportunity, as they would have blended into the wild crowd without being noticed.
Friday, Friday in Israel
Filed under: Israeliness, Life, Politics, War
Things seem to be going from bad to worse on this Friday, as we head into Shabbat.
Or, at least back to the way things were just a couple months ago, before Operation Cast Lead.
According to news reports this morning, at least 10 mortar shells have fallen on the Western Negev. At the same time, Israel’s chief negotiator in trying to get Gilad Schalit freed, Amos Gilad, has cancelled a planned meeting in Cairo, following the Israeli cabinet decision to tie a cease-fire arrangement with Hamas to the release of Schalit.
And it looks like we’re headed for a narrow Right-wing coalition under Binyamin Netanyahu, following reports in the papers this morning that Kadima leader Tzipi Livni said she wouldn’t let her party be the token centrists to make the coalition more palatable to the world.
Maybe a Right-wing government is what is needed, since we haven’t accomplished much in the last 10 years or so under various moderate leadership. Who knows?
That’s why I’m dealing with the Friday errands that we all surround ourselves with here, to take our minds off the mess. It’s a red-letter day in our household as our 14-year-old son has relented to getting his first haircut in a couple years. So hurray for that!
And then we’re going to bring our puppy to the vet for a third round of shots (hopefully one that will inject him with a going outside to the bathroom ethic).
But the highlight of the day is that our oldest daughter just returned home from her last day of her army service. She’s sleeping it off now, but tonight over Shabbat dinner, we’ll celebrate, and I’m making a Pillsbury chocolate cake with my own secret recipe homemade frosting. And a secondary celebration will take place for daughter # 2 who just received a letter from the army that she’s been accepted for an elite combat track when she’s inducted later this year. Great for her, that’s going to be three years of no sleep for her worried parents.
So, we take our happiness where we can, even as the news around us looks bleak. After all, those everyday treasures are the real reasons we’re living here anyway. Shabbat Shalom.
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.
Deviating from the election norm
Elections are just a couple days away and the nation seems, well, uninspired. It’s quite frustrating actually. It seems like everyone I talk to is annoyed and sick and tired of the same old faces and the same old parties. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone speak enthusiastically this election or about the party they support. The prevalent attitude I’ve been hearing is that nothing is going to change so I’m just going to vote for [name party affiliation here]. Some might argue that the problem is with the system (true) and that it does not allow for any real representation or accountability (double true). So where does this leave us? Depressed? Slightly. Disappointed? Absolutely. I’m still not sure what to do. I fall fairly flat in the center – so naturally Kadima should be an option for me, right? Wrong. I won’t vote for a party with the ilk of Tzachi Hanegbi in a leadership position. He was indicted a couple of years ago for political appointments while serving as minister of the environment between 2001 and 2003 and has pretty much acted like a thug his entire life.
Kadima Shadima I say. Everyone I know is voting for Kadima because “they don’t really have a choice.” Thing is, there is a choice. And for me that choice is integrity. Kadima is in essence a national unity government running on the same ticket. They may have filled their initially filled their ranks with star academics and new faces (where are they now?) but the fact remains that sleazy politicians like Hanegbi and Ronnie Bar-On are still in the top spots. That’s not anything I can believe in.
Bottom line is that Kadima is just more of the same – self-interested politicians who represent nobody but themselves.
Everyone always promises reform but no one delivers. Since 1991, Knesset members have voted to raise their salaries by 90%. And two years ago NIS 10 million was allocated to the expense accounts of Parliamentary aides. An increase of NIS 10,000 a month per aide, that’s almost double their salaries. Reform…right.
This is an election about national security and nothing more. That’s what people are voting for and I guess everything else falls to the wayside.
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