Election time has a special
effect on any country; huge pictures of party-leaders looking down on the
people from massive billboards, catchphrases dominating the public
discussion, and media reporting on every sound bite for the news-hungry folk.
In this up-coming elections jungle, it is easy to get lost between the
sometimes nonexistent differences and weirdly similar sounding nicknames of
politicians. But in my
perspective these elections in Israel, more than anything are about the
definition of Zionism. Is it about the land or is it about the state? Is it about democracy and
the people or is it about Jewish religion?
In recent years
the term 'Zionism' had been held hostage by the Israeli right. The Labour Party
(with Yachimovich in the cockpit) will liberate it and bring it back home to the
democratic, pluralistic, liberal and progressive side of Israeli society...and
that is why I am voting Avodah.
-Shai, an oleh
from The Netherlands
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