Mike L.
{Editor's note - I've basically decided to keep my opinions, per the candidates, on election day in Israel mainly to myself. I am not an Israeli and I cannot have the kind of insights that a citizen of that country can have and if I am wrong in my opinions I will not have to suffer the consequences. That being the case I am pleased that ZionTruth, an Israeli, has put forth a comment that can serve as a little Israel Thrives front page analysis of the current elections.}
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ziontruth January 22, 2013 at 11:08 AM
I put my vote in (for Bennett) a few hours back.
I just want to reiterate a point I've made before, a point that's essential for understanding Israeli politics but American onlookers on both sides of the political map are unaware of, resulting in bafflement:
Israeli Jews today are, generally speaking, right-wing on geopolitics and left-wing on social issues.
This is important because if Yechimovitch (Labor Party) becomes Prime Minister, it won't mean Israeli Jews will have cast their votes for land concessions; Yechimovitch, being astute enough to run her platform on social issues alone, avoiding geopolitics entirely, will have won because Netanyahu's policies of unbridled capitalism are unpopular among both doves and hawks alike.
Similarly, if Netanyahu loses a boatload of mandates (electoral points) to Bennett, it will have been because he has failed to address right-wing Israeli Jews' concerns about keeping the Jewish population centers in the post-1967 territories intact. Socially speaking, a lot of Bennett voters could agree with Yechimovitch if she confined her platform to those issues, social issues. Which she does, to her credit.
We might say the choice between Yechimovitch and Bennett depends whether the voter considers social issues or geopolitics more important. The voter can hold both at the same time—as I once said, in Israeli politics there's no package deal where being a hawk means you have to be fiscally conservative, and the converse.
The only thing I'm pretty sure about is Netanyahu's party is going to get clobbered. This is inevitable because of his policies antagonizing both socialists and hawks. Personally I'm not that afraid of a left-wing led coalition; it's often the case that left-wing governments in Israel have been far better to the Jewish post-1967 habitats than right-wing ones, as demonstrated by right-wing Prime Ministers from Begin through Sharon to Netanyahu. What both balance-scales of the political map are agreed on is that Netanyahu has failed to deliver and needs to go, or at least to have his power downsized.
The preliminary poll will be up within an hour as of this writing.
Update (Preliminary Results):
The preliminary results were as follows:
Likud -Yisrael Beiteinu: 31
Yesh Atid: 18-19
Labor: 17
Habayit Hayehudi: 12
Shas: 11-13
Hatnua: 6-7
Meretz: 6-7
United Torah Judaism: 6
Hadash: 3-5
United Arab List-Taal: 3-4
Balad: 2
Otzma Leyisrael: 0-2
Kadima: 0
The Day of the Dhimmi is Done - Michael Lumish, PhD, proprietor. (mike.lumish@gmail.com)
Arutz Sheva discussing election results live and in English.
ReplyDeleteHere's the prelim poll results:
ReplyDeleteLikkud dives down to 31 mandates or less; Yesh Atid, a new centrist middle-class party, is the big surprise with 18–20 mandates; Labor gets 16–18 mandates; 12–14 for Jewish Home (Bennett's party); 12 or less for Shas, the Sephardi Ultra-Orthodox party.
This is a social issues win. Israeli Jews have overwhelmingly voted for welfare state policies. The hawkish stance on geopolitics has not diminished, however, as Bennett's gains show. Just as I said, it's not an either-or but a question of which is considered more important.
I have to say, I am a little surpised that, considering that Israel rode out the international economic crisis in relatively good fashion, that the electorate would choose policies more closely aligned to the failed socialistic policies of Europe.
DeleteMy economic inclinations have always been left, but I would have thought that security issues would take precedence this time around.
The feeling is that, while there's plenty of wealth, the people most responsible for generating it aren't reaping its fruits. I'm talking about the middle class, hence the wide gains by Yesh Atid. Maybe it's not exactly about socialism but more like social justice in general. But the gains by Labor can't be ignored either.
DeleteAs for security issues, there's a pervasive line of thinking that not one of the parties available has the correct solution, so best let the geopolitical situation continue in stalemate (at least regarding the nearest neighbors—Iran may be a different issue) and have the vote where it looks like it's going to matter. Bennett has gained enough votes to indicate that security is an important matter, but the majority have seen more hope in altering the sociopolitical situation.
All in all, this has been a vote against Netanyahu and for new faces. The three main coalition-makers, Yechimovitch (Labor), Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Bennett (Jewish Home), are all newcomers to the scene. From the public's recent point of view, their freshness is a feature.
As for Tzipi Livni, her only chance now is if she's invited to join Yechimovitch and Lapid in the coalition. Otzmah Leyisrael and Kadima are toast; the former because all its votes went to Jewish Home (Bennett), the latter because it was captained by an aging general, an old face, now no longer a desired profile for leadership in Israeli Jewish politics.
By the way, Yesh Atid's leader, Ya'ir Lapid, is hawkish about the Arabs. He's always been, even back when he was a TV commentator and newspaper columnist, and recently he got flak for saying he wanted to maintain a Jewish majority by booting them out. This is the kind of remark that's usually been associated with right-of-center religious Zionists. What's notable is it didn't prevent him from attaining second place these elections. Notable, but not surprising unless you're unaware of the social-left-geopolitical-right inclination of the average Israeli Jewish voter.
DeleteIndeed, the social left is a good place to be, so long as it does not run amok. Too bad the right has such a hard time understanding, from their safe perches, the way that society can be stacked against some members.
DeleteThe same may be said of the geopolitcal right. Too bad the left has such a hard time understanding, from their safe perches, that they are no less the targets and that enabling abusers causes untold suffering.
About what is a contemporary "Conservative" world-view (the Classical Liberal world-view) (which, by the way, is not the "Paleo-Conservative" world-view, and which, by the way, is not the establishment Republican ("Progressive") world-view), and about the distinction between that contemporary "Conservative" (Classical Liberal) world-view and the so-called "Leftist", or contemporary so-called "Liberal", world-view, listen to contemporary "Conservative" Thomas Sowell:
DeleteInterviews with Thomas Sowell:
Thomas Sowell on Intellectuals and Society
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERj3QeGw9Ok
Thomas Sowell -- Dismantling America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SDLBqIubCs
Thomas Sowell and a Conflict of Visions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGvYqaxSPp4
More interviews with Thomas Sowell:
http://www.youtube.com/user/HooverInstitution/videos?query=thomas+sowell
In these interviews Thomas Sowell also talks about the threat and danger of the Iranian regime.
By the way, Thomas Sowell was a Socialist when he was a young man, and grew up in Harlem, New York City, and, as a youngster, attended only public school (and, by the way, stopped being a Socialist after he started working for the government and saw how "Social Liberal" (modern "Liberal"; contemporary so-called "Liberal") so-called "social programs" of the U.S. government actually operated and functioned).
----
About the contemporary "Left" and the Islamic Jihad, listen to contemporary "Conservative" Douglas Murray:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wlSS61X9eg
----
I think that the political views that I now hold are a balance between the political views of Classical Liberalism and Social Liberalism. However, at this time, because of the current situation in the world, I am leaning more toward Classical Liberalism. I think that Classical Liberalism is part of the remedy to what is happening in the world.
My view about Classical Liberalism:
It's not about being in a position of privilege and being oblivious to, or callous to, the suffering of others.
It's about seeing the world for what it is and as it is. It's about seeing how things function. It's about seeing what doesn't function beneficially and what functions beneficially. It's about discerning what, as a form of government, is beneficial. It's about discerning that what, as a form of government, is beneficial (at least in the U.S. and in other culturally diverse societies such as the U.S.) is "checks" and "balances". It's about discerning that what, as a form of government, is beneficial is the form of government that is defined by the U.S. Constitution.
And, by the way, the public education that Thomas Sowell received was the public education of the 1930's and 1940's in the U.S., which, Thomas Sowell has explained, was much superior to current public education in U.S. The public education of the 1930's and 1940's in the U.S. that Thomas Sowell received, Thomas Sowell has explained, was rigorous teaching of essential academic subjects and included the maintaining of proper discipline for students -- treating all students with proper respect as their being students. What started to become public education in the U.S. in the 1960's and 1970's, Thomas Sowell has explained, was a campaign of pseudo-science "Social Science" intendedly supposedly "self-esteem"-promoting nonsense that taught, and teaches, students nothing of essence. That, Thomas Sowell has explained, is a large part of problem of the situation in the world.
DeleteAgain, Must Watch:
DeleteDouglas Murray on the contemporary "Left" and the Islamic Jihad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wlSS61X9eg
By the way, Douglas Murray, who is "Conservative" (Classical Liberal), is Gay and is atheist.
Dan, thanks for the link.
DeleteI was unfamiliar with Douglas Murray.
An interesting and impassioned fellow, for sure.
Mike,
DeleteJust to let you and others know:
The Leftists who were on the panel that he was on at that anti-Sharia meeting to whom he referred are Leftist* ex-Muslims. Leftist ex-Muslims, in general, who live in the West, and in particular, who live in Britain and in other European countries, know what Islam is, and know what Islamic law - Sharia -- is and, therefore, they're against Islam and Islamic law -- Sharia -- but, because they're Leftists, and because they're in the West, and, particularly, in Britain and in other European countries, and because, therefore, they've been inundated with the ubiquitously propagated anti-Israel lies that are part of the atmosphere in those environments, they hold antipathetic wrong views about Israel and are against Israel. This is a very bad situation. It's precisely ex-Muslims who live in the West who would be the best allies of the Jewish people and Israel if those ex-Muslims knew the facts of the history and current reality of the situation that Israel is in. However, unfortunately, the Soviet-legacy genocidally anti-Jewish so-called "Anti-Zionist" propaganda that is the fertilizer of the contemporary Left, and the Western mass-media universally propagated general mainstream anti-Jewish anti-Israel lies, have taken their toll -- because (as what has always been usual) Jewish people have not fought back against the lies by simply telling the truth about the situation. It's time for Jewish people to tell the truth about the situation -- the facts of the history and current reality of the situation that Israel is in.
"I think that Classical Liberalism is part of the remedy to what is happening in the world."
Delete...because of the control that Marxist totalitarians are now having in the world -- particularly as, now, the main controllers of the U.S. government, and including their support and enablement of the Islamic supremacist political movement, and in their influence in, and support of, the now-completely corrupt totalitarian detrimental dangerous organization the United Nations. Most Jewish people, and most other people, have no idea what's going on. And what is almost completely unknown by most people is the totalitarian so-called "Progressive" movement in what "Leftists" and run-of-the mill contemporary "liberals" would call the political "Right". The Bush Family, the Rockefellers, the State Department -- these groups are prime figures of the totalitarian so-called "Progressive" movement in what "Leftists" and run-of-the mill contemporary "liberals" would call the political "Right". And I think that all of this also includes and involves actual Nazi-legacy organizations.
And all of these groups are waging a covert racist intendedly genocidal war against Israel and the Jewish people.
Jewish people have no clue what's going on.
*This* is why I am now leaning toward Classical Liberalism (which is now what contemporary "Conservatism" is in essence).
And I think that most of the people who know about this totalitarian agenda among the "Right" are "Paleoconservatives" and Conspiracy-theorists who get crucial things wrong and who, in I think most cases, or all cases, are anti-Jewish bigots. Everyone -- all of these factions -- are against the Jewish people -- and Jewish people are clueless sitting ducks...*who are attacking themselves*. As it has ever been. However I hope this changes. I hope Jewish people begin to become informed and begin to be mindful.
DeleteThe Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt
Deletehttp://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/index.html
Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Thomson_Iserbyt
"Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt is an American freelance writer and whistleblower who served as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education during the first term of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, and staff employee of the US State Department (South Africa, Belgium, South Korea). She was born in 1930 and attended Dana Hall preparatory school and Katharine Gibbs College in New York City, where she studied business. Iserbyt's father and grandfather were Yale University graduates and members of the Skull and Bones secret society.
"She is known for writing the book The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America. The book claims that changes gradually brought into the American public education system attempt to eliminate the influences of a child's parents (religion, morals, national patriotism), and mold the child into a member of the proletariat in preparation for a socialist-collectivist world of the future. She alleges that these changes originated from plans formulated primarily by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Education and Rockefeller General Education Board, and details what she says are the psychological methods used to implement and effect the changes.
"In an interview concerning secret societies and the elite agenda she disclosed that in the early 1980s she had a chance to meet with Norman Dodd who had been the chief investigator for the United States House Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations commonly known as the B. Carroll Reece Committee. In the video interview she claims that Dodd discussed a 'network' of individuals including Carnegie who planned to bring about world peace by means of rapid changes in society. These changes would be brought about by involving the populace in various wars and military conflicts. She further claimed that Dodd had discussions with Rowan Gaither, the president of the Ford Foundation in which he revealed that directives from the President of the United States compelled foundations related to the Ford Foundation to direct their funding into bringing about the merger of the USA with the Soviet Union.
"'Mr. Dodd, all of us here at the policy making level of the foundation have at one time or another served in the OSS (the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA) or the European Economic Administration, operating under directives from the White House. We operate under those same directives… The substance of the directives under which we operate is that we shall use our grant making power to so alter life in the United States that we can be comfortably merged with the Soviet Union.'
"— Rowan Gaither, President Ford Foundation - 1953, Norman Dodd - friend of Iserbyt"
The Secret War Against the Jews, by John Loftus and Mark Aarons
Deletehttp://www.amazon.com/Secret-War-Against-Jews-Espionage/dp/0312156480
"The authors demonstrate that numerous Western countries, especially the United States and Great Britain, have conducted repeated and willful spying missions on Palestine[2] and later Israel over many decades. While on the surface these two countries and others profess to be ardent allies of Israel, they work, in fact, through their intelligence services to betray Israel's secrets to the Arabs. Their motive: oil and multinational profits, which must be attained at any price through international covert policies. To understand the duplicitous nature of the West's diplomatic relations with Israel, the authors contend that one must understand the history that begins after the end of World War I with the sordid Mideast exploits of a British diplomat, Jack Philby. They then proceed into a detailed discussion of the boardrooms of American and English bankers and lawyers who had strong connections with Nazi leaders and Arab oil tycoons in the 1930s prior to the outbreak of World War II. Particularly intriguing is the information that the writers present to suggest an all-too-cozy financial relationship that existed between the Allied intelligence community and German banks even during the war. ..."
America's Nazi Secret: An Insider's History, by John Loftus
http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Nazi-Secret-Insiders-History/dp/1936296047
"Fully revised and expanded, this stirring account reveals how the U.S. government permitted the illegal entry of Nazis into North America in the years following World War II. This extraordinary investigation exposes the secret section of the State Department that began, starting in 1948 and unbeknownst to Congress and the public until recently, to hire members of the puppet wartime government of Byelorussia—a region of the Soviet Union occupied by Nazi Germany. ..."
John Loftus was a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Justice Department who had above Top Secret security clearance in the U.S. government.
Note: * "Palestine": The British Mandate of Palestine
On the Orwellian Use of the Terms ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ -- And on the Dangers therein to Israeli Politics, by Francisco Gil-White
ReplyDelete"...The use of the terms ‘right’ and ‘left’ has also become rather strange in Israel. Just as the United States does not have a significant left-wing, Israel has never had a significant right-wing when it comes to issues unrelated to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Just as all politics in the United States is conducted on the right, because both major parties are right wing, most politics in Israel are conducted on the left, and this skew, as in the mirror-image that is the United States, accounts for the curious manner in which these terms are used in Israel...."
...
"...So here is the contradiction: it is precisely those who call themselves ‘leftists’ who have pushed for an Arab state in the West Bank and Gaza run by the PLO. This absurdity obtains generally but we are talking about Israel, where there is a surprisingly large contingent of Jews who have pushed hard for this suicidal outcome, and who call themselves not merely ‘leftists’ but proponents of ‘peace’!..."
http://www.hirhome.com/israel/left_right2.htm
Israelis are consummate Seinfeldians and voted accordingly.
ReplyDeleteThey voted for the least controversial and guilt free dessert. Not too surprisingly, Lapid was a big beneficiary of this sentiment.
Israelis are not particularly exercised by ideological arguments.