Why is Nora voting Labor? Real choices in this election

A few days ago I was talking to a friend of mine from ulpan about the elections. When I told her how I was voting, her earnest reply was, "But why not Bennett?" Bennett, is of course Naftali Bennett, the (apparently) unthreatening face of the National Religious Right. His Habayit Hayehudi (The Jewish Home) party has taken this election season by surprise by nabbing votes of disillusioned Likud supporters and moderate youth alike.

A cursory look at the party list shows, for the most part, a compilation of settler rabbis and settler leaders who have vehemently opposed classic threats to the Jewish state such as gay soldiers serving in the IDF (and rights for gay people in general), the Knesset committee for the status of women, and human rights groups. All are DTATWB (down to annex the West Bank). So how has the party earned a reputation for being centrist?

Bennett, whose name in the news is often accompanied by the epithet "charismatic," boasts Californian parentage, sports a clean-shaven face and what some have described as "a very small kippah." He made this innocuous ad targeting English-speaking olim:



In short, he seems relatable. But the fact is that Bennett wants to annex the 60% of the West Bank known as Area C (his plan is to build bridges between Palestinian areas so that Jews don't have to encounter checkpoints) and "believes that, ultimately, the world is busy with the economic collapse of Greece, the United States' fiscal cliff and the slaughter in Syria, and thus it is possible to bring the world to come to terms now with facts on the ground and firm Israeli decisions." (http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/the-success-of-naftali-bennett-is-the-failure-of-the-israeli-center-left.premium-1.490536). His wanton disdain for a sustainable relationship between Israel and Palestine, and cavalier dismissal of the international community should terrify anyone who cares about the future of the Jewish state.

In my encounters with Israelis and other olim, I have, to my surprise and dismay, met many who are deliberating between voting Habayit Hayehudi and Labor. But while Bennett's party represents extreme right views on social and diplomatic issues, Labor's list is one of people who are speaking out against the racism, sexism, and homophobia that are the trademarks of the religious right, and in favor of social and economic equality, and a sustainable, secure relationship with the Palestinians.

-Nora, an olah from the United States