On the Eve of Election Day

It is Election Day eve, and a tense, anticipatory quiet has descended on the land. Even as campaign volunteers scramble around the country to hand out their last fliers and pin up their last posters, the candidates themselves have entered a law-dictated silence and the nation waits. At 7am tomorrow, members of the public will begin exercising their last and most important chance to influence the outcome of the elections by casting their ballots.

For many pundits and commentators, tomorrow's result is a foregone conclusion. The polling data, though perennially fickle and unreliable, does appear to reflect the inescapable truth of the rightist-religious bloc walking away with the lion's share of mandates.  Still, surprises are an inseparable element of elections here, and one cannot know for certain what will happen. As we were shown in 2009, the party that wins the most seats will not necessarily be the party to form the next government.

In this quiet moment, the peace before the storm, we should reflect on a few key points that we have learned from the last month or so of campaigning.

Firstly, change is in the air. The social protests of the summer of 2011 gave the Israeli public a sense of self-confidence that was lost 18 years ago. The spontaneous passion that lit up the Israeli middle and working classes from North to South showed people that they were not alone, that things could be better. From the hundreds of thousands of people who left their homes to sleep in tents and hit the streets to join the marches, we learned that solidarity is our greatest strength, and that social justice is not a slogan but a basic right. It is true that many of the new parties that have sprouted up recently did so on the fertile ground of 2011's social justice movement. It is also true that the preponderance of so many new parties does not necessarily help our cause, but still, it is worth reflecting on the mere fact that the Israeli public is hungry for change and they believe that they can achieve it. The latter is not something to be scoffed at.

Secondly the right's stronghold is weakening. This may be counterintuitive after a cursory glimpse of the polling data, but prod a little deeper and the truth becomes apparent. Likud Beitenu running on a joint list are polling at 34 seats (as separate parties in the last elections they held 45). The horde of young voters, secular and religious alike, planning to vote for Naftali Bennett tomorrow, have been tricked by a wily and extremely effective campaign strategy into associating Bennett with change and youth, offering voters fed up and disillusioned with Bibi and the Likud a younger, smiling face to turn to. Bennett’s foothold in the next Knesset will allow him, champion of the settlers, to reveal his true extremist self and his anti-democratic policies will surely send those voters back to the center.

Thirdly, social policies are back on the agenda. For the first time in a long time, social and economic policies are vying as equals with security for the public's attention. The Israeli public no longer believes the lie told to them for decades by politicians that they are not entitled to a high standard living while security threats abound. We now know that all the working people of this country are entitled to a share in its prosperity and that only equality can foster the social fabric of a society strong enough to deal with its external threats.

Most important of all, however, is the following. What we are really seeking – the end to all of this – is true change. Politics is but a tool, and a far from perfect one at that. One need only to read any newspaper in Israel over the past 20 years to know that all too often politics can corrupt. Legislation and policies that have hurt Israeli society by privatizing our social services and disintegrating solidarity have come from both the right and the left. Whoever forms the government over the course of the next week will be forced to do so through coalitions with parties that share few of the same platforms, and have very different goals. All legislation will still need to pass through a Knesset seized by large extremist elements – diametrically ideologically opposed to each other.  Change in this forum, as in every other, will be slow.

With this in mind, we should remember that we have in our hands a greater tool for change. Human effort – through education, local activism and community building – can provide the kind of organic, revolutionary change that politics can't. In the political realm words like 'values' and 'social justice' and 'a strong society’ are campaign slogans. On the human level, they are concepts that define lives and the way that we interpret our society, our world and each other. Israeli youth must be educated to believe that a different, better reality is possible and that they have the power to pursue that reality through the choices they make: through the way they treat others, the paths they take in life, their willingness to reach out to the other – least of all by the way they vote on future Election Days. Only truly personal education that places the human being in the center can show us that we are the masters of our own destiny, and that the choices that we, and we alone, make, determine the future for ourselves, our society, our people and the planet. The mandate to shape this future does not belong only in the hands of elected officials, it is all of ours. Whatever the outcome tomorrow, we will never stop pursuing a future of justice and truth for all.

-Why Vote Labor Editors

Let's do it!

Avodah supporters getting excited for yom bechirot!

We've been hitting the streets really hard for weeks. Haaretz reports that we've made five million phone calls and knocked on ninety thousand doors in our mission to explain to the Israeli public why we're voting Avodah.
Now it's finally time to cast our votes.
See you at the polls!

A Vote for Labor is a Vote for Israeli Democracy

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 1/6^th (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.

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

Shelly Yachimovich: A collective society

The other day I was sitting on a train heading south, half nodding off and staring out the window, when a young girl with a large mess of dreadlocks dropped a flyer in my lap. Slightly startled, I pulled myself up and took a look around the train. Everyone was muttering. Some looked angry, others pleased, and most disinterested. Almost everyone made some kind of comment to those sitting next to them. One man, raising his voice above the chorus of side-comments and murmuring, began to shout.

“What a disgrace! What an idiot! What, she thinks Shelly Yachimovich can be prime minister? And what happens in the next war? Who will lead us in the next war! Shelly Yachimovich will lead us in the next war? What an idiot! Are we not in Israel?! Don’t these people understand they are in Israel! What a nightmare! Shelly in a war…”

The girl, having quickly fled the area, had been handing out flyers produced by activists from the social protests two summers ago. The campaign, mostly known for producing the yellow and black “Bibi is only good for the rich” posters that cover Israel’s bus stops, highways, and urban centers, is a non-partisan attempt to stop the re-election of Benjamin Netenyahu. Having myself handed out a few flyers and put up a few stickers advocating similar things, I didn’t bother even trying to read the flyer. I was, instead, much more interested in what the man across from me had said. They are comments that those of us working for Avodah are used to. They express a common sentiment that no matter what one thinks about Shelly’s policies, she cannot be trusted to lead the country. She is, for so many people, a weak woman who only cares about funding for kindergartens, roads, and hospitals. Her interests are narrow when it comes to what really defines this country: the next war.

I won’t go into why I believe this is wrong here. To understand the party’s stance on security, you can check out the platform here or read various other articles that lay out just how Avodah plans to deal with the issue of defense. What I am more concerned about at the moment, and what I wish I had said to the man on the train, is that Israel’s security and wellbeing cannot be divorced from the internal makeup of its society. Just as a society that cannot promise a worthwhile future to so many of its citizens cannot make a deal for peace, so it will also eventually not be able to go to war. Because the Israeli Army, a citizens’ army made up of ordinary people who give so much of their young lives to the state, cannot function in an unequal society.

While those in the Likud, and throughout the right, try to paint Avodah as a single-issue party that only cares about socio-economic issues, I urge you to watch the video below. Complete with English subtitles, the video is an address to the Academic Centre of Law and Business that Shelly gave last year. In it, she describes why we cannot talk about defence without also asking questions that reach far outside the defense budget. As she explains:

“[The OECD released a report that] says that Israel is high on the list in terms of gaps between the rich and the poor. Not only is it high on the list, the gaps and inequality between us are increasing all the time. Of the 33 OECD countries, there are 4 leading countries: America, Mexico, Israel, and…Turkey. I don't want to be a member of this club. Not when I'm a citizen of a country that is still fighting for its security, in which solidary is not a commodity...but a type of urgency, a supreme value, to ensure we can keep living here and be safe. Because the son of the cleaning woman who makes 22 shekels an hour, who is exploited and abused and has no rights...the son of that cleaning woman goes to the army with the son of the CEO who makes 1.5 million shekels a month, and it won't work!”

So, I ask you: How can we expect the child of the cleaning woman to give the same as the child of the CEO? How can we expect ordinary citizens to give to a country that does not give them anything in return? How do we expect to defend ourselves using an army based on social solidarity and mutual responsibility when those values are not seen in our healthcare or education system? How can a child who must study in a class with 42 other students be expected to serve as a responsible soldier? How can a teenager raised in a family that can barely pay their bills at the end of each month be expected to give three years of their life to the security of the country? How can such a new country, in such a dangerous and difficult situation, buy into Bibi’s claims that there is no connection between a strong internal society and a strong military?

While the right run around the country masquerading as patriots who care for the country, but do nothing to help its people, I will continue to stand with the party that knows that you cannot have a society based on the interest of “I” with an army that demands that we function as “we.”

-Adam

Why is Avital voting Labor? Women's rights

As a woman who expects, and demands, to be seen as any man's equal, I highly value the Labor Party's platform on advancing women's rights in Israel.

Upon perusing the Party's platform on civil society, democracy and the rule of law, I came across an entire section entitled Gender and the Status of Women. I learned that the Party intends to advance gender equality in a few key ways:

·  Increasing representation of women in all areas of government through legislation ensuring representation in various positions, Party institutions, and Knesset lists

·  Considering the influence of law on mainstream gender roles when setting Party policy

·  Closing the wage gap through enforcement of existing labour laws, as well as adjusting working hours to be better suited to raising a family, both for men and women

·  Bolstering female participation in the workforce with **free education from age 3 months**, as well as investing in public services with typically high female employment such as education and geriatric care.

·  Equal investment in the field of health – a vital issue in the fight for women's rights!

For anyone who loves and respects women, and who is frightened and dismayed by recent threats to basic gender equality in Israel, a vote for Labor demonstrates the hope and belief that We can Do Better

In the words of Labor chair Shelly Yachimovitch,

“We can't go on with business as usual. It's time for change.”

-Avital, an olah from Canada

Why is Adam voting Labor? Keeping public services public

              When I made aliyah in the fall of 2011 I knew I was coming to a country that had undergone serious changes in the past forty years. Even for Jews outside of Israel, it has been clear for some time that the country is not what it once was. The conversation has changed. For my mother, growing up at a Zionist summer camp in Canada, Israel was a modest society comprised of pioneering kibbutzniks who worked the fields by day and danced the hora into the night. For myself, raised in the same community forty years later, Israel was sleek, sophisticated, and high-tech savvy. A ‘Start-Up Nation’ that could compete on the international market and lead the world in medical and defense research. A nation whose children, just like me, wore Levis, ate McDonalds and listened to the newest MTV star. Celebrated in synagogues, at community events and on Israel advocacy displays in Hillel Houses throughout North America, this transition has been hailed as a great success and source of pride throughout the Jewish world. The fact that Israel developed ICQ, ‘a marvel display of Israeli ingenuity’ my dad told me, was something to brag about to my friends. And it is.

Nevertheless, the transition in Israeli society that has taken place over the last forty years has not been entirely positive. The changes in Israel have produced a much more negative – and widely unknown in the diaspora – trend of privatization. The current government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, continues to cut social services, health care, and welfare while refusing to interfere with corrupt tycoons who exploit their workers and the public at large. Unlike what those in the Likud would tell you, this trend is not simply economic. It is not just a ‘changing of the times’ or a necessary step that every country in transition must take. The trend towards privatization is a dangerous turn that, if left unchecked, could have disastrous long term effects on the future of the country.

As an oleh, nothing makes the nature of this trend clearer than the continual attempt of the government over the last ten years to privatize ulpanim. As educational institutions dedicated to absorbing immigrants and teaching them the Hebrew language, ulpanim have functioned as essential institutions since the founding of the country. They, perhaps more than any other institution in Israel, are the practical manifestation of the Zionist dream of the “ingathering of the exiles” laid out in the Declaration of Independence. They are essential to the future of the country as a home for olim and as center of the Jewish People. 

However, beginning in 2007 when a study about deficiencies within the ulpanim was released, the ulpanim have been under attack. Successive governments have complained of failures within the ulpan system – mainly poor teaching and results – and have called for the breaking apart of the system into a private service that is not run by, or accountable to, the state.  As Leora S. Fridman explains in her article in Haaretz, this shift in government attitude shows a deeply unsettling trend. 

“Placing the ulpan on the budgetary chopping-block raises serious questions, not only about Israel's relationship with Hebrew, but also about how the state relates to its immigrants and their role here. If even the minimal common denominator of a single language is no longer a top priority, the country's population will become increasingly segmented.”

        For myself, for all the future olim chadashim, and for the country as a whole, it is essential that our government be one that will push back against the all-encompassing trend of privatization. A push which, left unchecked, threatens services as basic, crucial and essential to the Zionist definition of the country as the ulpanim. Netanyahu and the Likud, sitting at the forefront of privatization for the last forty years, have continually chosen to place funding cuts and privatization above all else.

We need a change in priorities. We need Avodah.

·       Adam, an Oleh from Canada

Labor's democratic principles speak for themselves

The Israel Democracy Institute scored each political party on criteria of transparency, accountability, competition, representation, and inclusiveness:

View the larger original and read all the details: http://en.idi.org.il/projects/government-and-constitution/political-reform/the-party-democracy-index/

Labor is the most democratic party running for Knesset in 2013. Want to know how a party will govern? Check out how it conducts its internal affairs.

 
-Adam