Foto Friday – Post-Election Fun

February 20, 2009 - 5:27 PM by Rachel Neiman · Leave a Comment
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.

elections_09_koko 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.

elections_09_koko_2Photo 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?

elections_09_idan_kenanPhoto by Idan Kenan, courtesy of Israel Press

Inevitably, there are instances of campaign poster abuse…

elections_09_aviad_hermanPhoto by Aviad Herman, courtesy of Israel Press

With some enthusiastic party workers perhaps taking the “green” message a tad to far…

elections_09_tomer_matazfiPhoto by Tamar Matsafi, courtesy of Israel Press

There are those who use election day to promote their own personal agenda…

elections_09_adi_yisrael_2Photo by Adi Yisrael, courtesy of Israel Press

And some who just tag along…

elections_09_alex_kolomoiskyPhoto by Alex Kolomoisky, courtesy of Israel Press

But the big question remains: do we know which way we’re actually going?

elections_09_adi_yisrael_1Photo by Adi Yisrael, courtesy of Israel Press

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Nostalgia Sunday – Elections in Israel, Part 2

February 1, 2009 - 5:29 PM by Rachel Neiman · 3 Comments
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics, Pop Culture 

ballot_boxElections 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.

voting_booth_interior_smOkay, 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.

wzo_election_then

Okay, maybe not so much.

wzo_election_now

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.

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Nostalgia Sunday – Elections in Israel, Part 1

January 25, 2009 - 11:36 PM by Rachel Neiman · 1 Comment
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.

tarshish_smBut 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.

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