Yair Lapid's Yesh
Atid party celebrated its first anniversary the other week. As absurd as it
seems, that is quite an achievement.
It’s a shame that the
Israel public has been so easily fooled into treating voting for the Knesset like
making a choice at an ice cream parlor. There are so many options to choose
from, the nuanced differences between them often negligible or simply
fabricated. They have different faces and are painted up in different colors
(though in the case of Kadima and Tzipi Livni's Hatnua even that
is barely true). The national aspiration for stable, rational government has
dissolved in face of the pomp and glitter of an entirely consumerist approach
to democracy. I'm not sure who are more to blame: the egoists who flash fry new
political parties like they are start-up companies knowing they will eventually
sell out to the bidder with the deepest pockets, or the Israeli public for
letting it happen in front of our noses, encouraging it even by offering up our
precious votes.
Here are a few key
points to consider:
- A full 10 % of seats (12) in the current Knesset are held by parties that did NOT contend in the last elections (what?). One of those parties Atzmaut (Independence), holding 5 seats, will not contend in the coming elections, nor will its founder and leader, Ehud Barak.
- More than 1/6th (23) seats could be won in the coming elections by parties that did not even exist two years ago (Hatnuah, Yesh Atid, Otzma LeYisrael, Eretz Chadasha, Am Shalem). Hatnuah, slated to win about 8-11 seats, did not even exist two months ago.
- Kadima was formed at the end of 2005 and less than 6 months later won 29 seats in the elections. Eight years later, according to some polls at least, the party is set to receive at best two mandates. With no historical or ideological foundation to stand on, we will not be seeing them in the next elections.
- Bayit HaYehudi, founded five years ago, holds three seats in the current Knesset. Their current leader has held that position for two months, and is set to bring them an additional ten seats in the coming election. A year ago he was a member of the Likud.
In the face of this
sweeping whirlwind, it is no wonder that more than a quarter of Israelis, ten
days before election day, still didn't know who they would be voting for—it's
hard enough just to keep up with the names of all the parties and which leader
belongs to which. I've had a number of conversations with Israeli-born
acquaintances who in a matter of two weeks have told me about three different
political parties that they are voting for, from as distant ideological poles
as the left-wing Eretz Chadasha to the right wing religious Bayit Hayehudi (the
same person had considered both of them as options).
Amid the debris of
crumbling democratic rationality, one party stands alone as having the
necessary experience to lead this country, and the true vision to justify it in
doing so. Avoda, the Israeli Labor Party, formed in 1968 from the merger
of three older parties: Ahdut Haavoda, Mapai, and Rafi, the first
two having formed in 1919 and 1930 respectively, and both of them having formed
from mergers of even older Labor Zionist political and youth groups dating back
to the beginning of the 1900s.
The Labor Zionist regime oversaw the establishment of the early pre-state agriculture and industry, absorbed the successive waves of olim, developed the infrastructure of the future state, established all the social, cultural and economic institutions upon which the state was to be founded, developed the Hagana , the earliest incarnation of the IDF. Under Labor Zionist leadership the Jewish community fought and won independence from the British and brought the dream of Jewish statehood to fruition. They went on to win the War of Independence, establish and defend the borders, and win another miracle victory in the Six Day War of 1967. The Labor establishment managed to create and develop a mighty military force feared by our enemies and revered throughout the world, while at the same time developing a system of public services, healthcare and culture that radiated light to the Jews and all people of the world.
The Labor Zionist regime oversaw the establishment of the early pre-state agriculture and industry, absorbed the successive waves of olim, developed the infrastructure of the future state, established all the social, cultural and economic institutions upon which the state was to be founded, developed the Hagana , the earliest incarnation of the IDF. Under Labor Zionist leadership the Jewish community fought and won independence from the British and brought the dream of Jewish statehood to fruition. They went on to win the War of Independence, establish and defend the borders, and win another miracle victory in the Six Day War of 1967. The Labor establishment managed to create and develop a mighty military force feared by our enemies and revered throughout the world, while at the same time developing a system of public services, healthcare and culture that radiated light to the Jews and all people of the world.
Labor and its
predecessors have provided 8 of this country's 12 prime ministers.
Simply no other
party in the center-left bloc has the same historical clout to guide us through
the many social, economic and strategic challenges that we face as a country
now, and will face in the years ahead. Certainly no other party in the entire political
gamut has the gumption to face said challenges while having us strive to be an
exemplary state, a full member of the family of nations, accepted not for
buckling to external influences, but for managing to uphold the principles of
justice, equality, democracy and good governance in the face of grave and
difficult obstacles.
Shelly Yachimovich
has vowed not to join a government with Netanyahu and Likud Beitenu. This is
because she is serious about either running the country, or leading a
conscientious opposition. Labor will not become a flavor in an ice cream
parlor, to be added and subtracted according to the whims of an ever-more
sectorialized public. Every citizen serious about ousting Bibi and returning
sanity to this country must resist the urge to vote for a niche, boutique party
that looks nice today, but will vanish tomorrow like an ice cream cone under
our Levantine sun. Only Labor seeks real responsibility for our country and our
future. Choose whimsically and risk seeing your vote evaporate into nothing with
a party that doesn't cross the threshold or will change its tune (and name)
with the changing weather.
The law and my
conscience allow me just one vote—that vote will be, has to be, for Labor.
--Gabe
