Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Israeli elections: the Bad, the Ugly and the Terrible

At this point 99.7% of the votes have been counted in the Israeli elections. Sometime later today, I'll try to write a longer post with more analysis. At this point (albeit slightly different Knesset seat counts appear on different websites) a few things can be said (based on figures from this morning in the Jerusalem Post):

*There is no clear winner between Kadima and Likud, Kadima appears to have gotten 28 seats, Likud 27. Kadima has thus been able to position itself slightly under its 2006 result. Both parties claim to have won, both parties will try to form a governing majority. Lots of wrangling negotiations to follow, probably even worse than the horse-trading that torpedoed Livni's first attempt to form a cabinet in 2008.

*Far-right Yisrael Beiteinu came third (15 seats), a historic shift in Israeli politics. Party supremo Avigdor Lieberman has declared that he's willing to negotitiate with both blocs, as long as they can promise extensive bloodshed in Gaza and zero negotiations with Hamas.

*Labour Zionism has suffered a humiliating defeat. The Israeli Labour Party, for decades the dominating force of Israeli politics is now reduced to fourth position (13 seats). The Meretz party only got three seats. In the 1949 elections, Labour had 46 seats and Mapam (the Marxist-Zionist precursor of Meretz) had 19. Now the non-Zionist left (Hadash) is larger than the Zionist 'Left' (Meretz), a historic occurance. The shift to the right in Israeli politics is now sealed, and the last illusions on the pioneering Israeli socialism (that some Western leftists have nurtured after spending a vacation in a kibbutz) ought to be shed.

*There was an expectation that Arabs would increasingly boycott the elections in protest of the Gaza massacre. It seems that the rise of Lieberman in the polls reversed that trend to some extent. According to Jerusalem Post, the United Arab List (Ra'am)-Ta'al got 5 seats, Hadash (a joint Arab-Jewish front, led by the Communist Party) 4 seats and the National Democratic Assembly (Balad) 2. Ra'am-Ta'al and Balad have, combined, the same number of seats as in 2006 whilst Hadash has increased with one seat.

*Other results: Sepharhim Orthodox party 'Shas' comes fifth with 11 seats (down from 12), the Pensioners Party 'Gil' falls out of the Knesset (had 7 seats last time), United Torah Judaism 4 seats (down from 6). The far-right parties Jewish Home and National Union got 3 and 4 seats respectively (they had contested the 2006 election unitedly, getting 9 seats). The advances of Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu has weakened other right-wing parties.

*The remaining votes (0.3%) to be counted are those of diplomats, soldiers, seamen, prisoners and hospitals. Final results will be declared only on February 18. I won't guess how these 0.3% will incluence the outcome, but probably Arab parties will not be represented very well amongst them.

News links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 Blogs: Svensson, Bildt, Anna W, Röda Malmö

3 comments:

  1. Israel is going from bad to worse, definately. Does Israel still believe itself to have moral immunity because of the holocaust? Is its' historical integrity so diluted that it believes in its' methods of treating the Palestinians?
    -Willfully killing children with rockets from drones and phosphorous clusterbombs? Are the politicians and people so stupid that they believe that this will WORK? To scare people away from Hamas? Well, Israel has successfully created a new generation of highly motivated terrorists, having brutalised the children of Gaza.
    Well done, Olmert, you corrupt and violent bastard, and Peres -of whom I thought better... (Should have the peace prize withdrawn)
    Poor children of Gaza and Israel! It will never end.
    To hell with the cynicism of Israeli politicians and those who supported the Gaza slaughter. -And I mean it literally -to Hell with them. That is where they belong.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Copied below is a link to Dom Martin’s prophetic imagery to the 2008/2009
    GAZA GENOCIDE. They have a seemingly prophetic parallel with the images
    that emerged from the 2008/2009 Israel war on Gaza.

    The drawings are from Dom Martin’s series, ‘Palestine’s Wailing Wall’,
    which were created in 2004, and were first printed in his book of poems
    titled: “COEXISTENCE: Humanity’s Wailing Wall”, (2006). Some of the
    drawings were subsequently reprinted in his current volume of poems:
    “GENOCIDE: The New Order of Imperialism”, (2008).

    www.propheticimagery.com

    Human compassion is progressively in solidarity with Palestine’s
    incarcerated grief and suffering, as well as with all grief and suffering
    brought on by the yoke of imperialism.

    Trusting in universal concurrence on this.

    Kindly spread the message, for the realization of greater enlightenment
    and healing.

    The Editor
    www.PropheticImagery.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Copied below is a link to Dom Martin’s prophetic imagery to the 2008/2009
    GAZA GENOCIDE. They have a seemingly prophetic parallel with the images
    that emerged from the 2008/2009 Israel war on Gaza.

    The drawings are from Dom Martin’s series, ‘Palestine’s Wailing Wall’,
    which were created in 2004, and were first printed in his book of poems
    titled: “COEXISTENCE: Humanity’s Wailing Wall”, (2006). Some of the
    drawings were subsequently reprinted in his current volume of poems:
    “GENOCIDE: The New Order of Imperialism”, (2008).

    www.propheticimagery.com

    Human compassion is progressively in solidarity with Palestine’s
    incarcerated grief and suffering, as well as with all grief and suffering
    brought on by the yoke of imperialism.

    Trusting in universal concurrence on this.

    Kindly spread the message, for the realization of greater enlightenment
    and healing.

    The Editor
    www.PropheticImagery.com

    ReplyDelete