Have You Heard The News?

Here I am voting in the most recent Knesset elections, March 2015

Bibi has called for elections. This year 5779 and soon 2019, Passover cleaning will also mean cleaning up all the campaign litter.  Yes, the date chosen is April 9, which is the 4th of Nissan, just a week and a half before the Passover Holiday. Yes, here in Israel we function on two calendars simultaneously.

And if you're curious, I haven't a clue as to which political party to support.

I don't know if I've ever voted for the Likud. The first time we voted, in 1974, there wasn't a Likud Party. There was Gahal, which was the Herut and Liberal parties. Herut, Freedom was headed by Menachem Begin. In those days, Begin was our political and ideological hero. And the Liberal Party was the non-socialist one. They were the two parties on the Right, while the Labor Party was on the Left, and the 1st of May was still celebrated by them.

We missed the 1977 elections, since we were on shlichut, doing Zionist youth work in London. Shlichim don't get absentee ballots, though embassy staff do.

When we returned home to Jerusalem, miraculously, Menachem Begin was Prime Minister. For the first time in Israeli history a non-Labor/socialist was in charge. But then Begin did what Labor never dared to do, something that Begin if in opposition would have condemned, he made a treaty Peace Agreement with Egypt's President Sadat, gave Egypt the Sinai and destroyed a slew of Jewish communities. After that I supported Geula Cohen's Techiya Party. I voted for them until they faded from the political scene, when they didn't get enough votes to make it into the Knesset. Since then I feel like a political orphan.

Over the next three and a half months, until Knesset Elections, I'll be in political pundit mode. Gd willing expect more posts. I warn you that I have more questions than answers. Let's talk. That's what my comments are for. Also please feel free to share this post and the subsequent ones.

What do you think? I welcome your comments.