MR Searches for Silver Lining Behind Israel's Social Block
The Gil party? Are you kidding?
Few predicted that Gil, the pensioners' party, would make as strong a showing as they did. Exit polls gave the party between six and eight mandates, putting them on par with the NU-NRP joint list... One Gil supporter, Sonya Blikin, saying she was "voting for the pensioners because they're the only party with a platform I can support. Actually, I'm not sure what the platform is," she admitted, "but I know that old people and poor people are sitting in the streets, and I feel bad and I want to do something to help them." Supporter Beni Shaliv declared that "voting for the Gil party means freeing Jonathan Pollard."
Say what you will about the deplorable conditions that Israel's elderly live in - and those conditions are indeed deplorable - you have to admit that "voting for the Gil party means freeing Jonathan Pollard" is pretty stupid. But we're glad to see that all the kids who were going to waste their votes on the Green Leaf party found a different way to waste their votes.
The problem with single-issue voting in a parliamentary democracy is that it ignores all those "coalition" consequences of voting. In this case, those consequences mostly involve crashing the Israeli econ... involve empowering Labor:
Sources in Labor said earlier Wednesday that the party had initiated contacts with both the Pensioners and the ultra-Orthodox Shas in an attempt to put together a 40-seat bloc whose key concerns were social issues... Speaking a day after Labor won 20 Knesset seats, coming second to Kadima's 28, sources close to Labor Chairman Amir Peretz noted that five out of the seven prospective Pensioners' Party MKs are union professionals, and say that Peretz should have an easy time finding common ground with them on social issues..
By "easy time finding common ground" we think he means "making them understand that he'll have them beaten" (since they're union professionals, presumably they're hip to the euphemisms). Seriously, we like the Gil party - it's like the Labor party without all of that "undermining Israeli security" baggage. What we don't like about the Gil party is that the votes they're allowing the Labor party to leverage their relative strength to Kadima:
In the coalition talks between Kadima and Labor, which began in an unofficial capacity Tuesday night, Peretz is expected to demand one senior portfolio, most likely the Finance Ministry. Even so, the Labor leader could be willing to take the defense portfolio if he receives Kadima's promise to push through socio-economic legislation, including a hike in the minimum wage and universal pensions. A veto on the next state budget is also likely to be one of his conditions.
The only thing that makes us less giddy than the thought of Peretz controlling the Israeli economy is the thought of Peretz controlling Israeli defenses. At least with Peretz in control of the Israeli economy, we'll get a fantastic exchange rate the next time we visit the Herzelia mall. With Peretz in control of Israeli security, there might not be a Herzelia mall.
Question for Israeli university students: seriously, what was wrong with voting for Kadima? Just not hip enough? Too conventional?
Few predicted that Gil, the pensioners' party, would make as strong a showing as they did. Exit polls gave the party between six and eight mandates, putting them on par with the NU-NRP joint list... One Gil supporter, Sonya Blikin, saying she was "voting for the pensioners because they're the only party with a platform I can support. Actually, I'm not sure what the platform is," she admitted, "but I know that old people and poor people are sitting in the streets, and I feel bad and I want to do something to help them." Supporter Beni Shaliv declared that "voting for the Gil party means freeing Jonathan Pollard."
Say what you will about the deplorable conditions that Israel's elderly live in - and those conditions are indeed deplorable - you have to admit that "voting for the Gil party means freeing Jonathan Pollard" is pretty stupid. But we're glad to see that all the kids who were going to waste their votes on the Green Leaf party found a different way to waste their votes.
The problem with single-issue voting in a parliamentary democracy is that it ignores all those "coalition" consequences of voting. In this case, those consequences mostly involve crashing the Israeli econ... involve empowering Labor:
Sources in Labor said earlier Wednesday that the party had initiated contacts with both the Pensioners and the ultra-Orthodox Shas in an attempt to put together a 40-seat bloc whose key concerns were social issues... Speaking a day after Labor won 20 Knesset seats, coming second to Kadima's 28, sources close to Labor Chairman Amir Peretz noted that five out of the seven prospective Pensioners' Party MKs are union professionals, and say that Peretz should have an easy time finding common ground with them on social issues..
By "easy time finding common ground" we think he means "making them understand that he'll have them beaten" (since they're union professionals, presumably they're hip to the euphemisms). Seriously, we like the Gil party - it's like the Labor party without all of that "undermining Israeli security" baggage. What we don't like about the Gil party is that the votes they're allowing the Labor party to leverage their relative strength to Kadima:
In the coalition talks between Kadima and Labor, which began in an unofficial capacity Tuesday night, Peretz is expected to demand one senior portfolio, most likely the Finance Ministry. Even so, the Labor leader could be willing to take the defense portfolio if he receives Kadima's promise to push through socio-economic legislation, including a hike in the minimum wage and universal pensions. A veto on the next state budget is also likely to be one of his conditions.
The only thing that makes us less giddy than the thought of Peretz controlling the Israeli economy is the thought of Peretz controlling Israeli defenses. At least with Peretz in control of the Israeli economy, we'll get a fantastic exchange rate the next time we visit the Herzelia mall. With Peretz in control of Israeli security, there might not be a Herzelia mall.
Question for Israeli university students: seriously, what was wrong with voting for Kadima? Just not hip enough? Too conventional?
