Israeli Election

[Ferrus]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7883176.stm

Thoughts?

[C.J.Woolf]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7883176.stm

Thoughts?
Does anyone know what the Shas party's platform is? Looking at the bar graph, it looks like there isn't enough "left" for Kadima for form a coalition without the support of right-wing parties. Even the United Arab List wouldn't put such a coalition over 60 seats, and I understand it's a political taboo for any Jewish party to form a coalition with them.

Short answer: Peace ain't gonna happen with this Knesset.

[YHWH]

Do you know nothing about fascistic Yisrael beiteinu ?

And they're on the rise : (

[JazzTulip]

We can only hope for a slow movement towards resolution over time. Nothing lasts forever, but somehow I think where this part of the Middle East is concerned they can make it last a very long time if only they try hard enough.

[Ferrus]

Does anyone know what the Shas party's platform is?
Wikipedia was surprisingly informative for once:


Shas is a strong advocate of Halakha playing a pivotal role and providing a fulcrum for the operation of the state and its identity, such as laws prohibiting various activities on the Shabbat. Shas has a socially conservative agenda, while also supporting generous welfare payments, especially for yeshiva students, as well as supporting the Baal Teshuva movement, through which it has encouraged many non-Orthodox Israelis of Sephardic and Mizrahi-Jewish heritage to adopt an ultra-Orthodox Jewish lifestyle. Its policy regarding the Israeli Arab conflict has been relatively flexible, although it generally supports the Greater Israel consolidation movement united under the crown of the Mizrahi Torah, in accordance to HaMaran Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's flexible foreign policy derivatives. They have never taken active measures to support the Gush Emunim movement and do not strongly favor the Israeli settlements, on which they are closer in policy to Agudat Yisrael than the Tkuma or Jewish National Front. Furthermore, it is also skeptical about Non-Observant Ashkenazi Jews being at the helm of State affairs, due to principly their 'assumed' reported discrimination against Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in the early days of Israel's Statehood, as well as opposing their non-Torah idealogy.

Shas has at times been able to exert disproportionate influence by gaining control of the balance of power in the Knesset within the context of the traditionally narrow margin between Israel's large parties, Labor and Likud, now joined by Kadima.

The majority of Shas voters are themselves not ultra-orthodox. Many of its voters are Modern Orthodox and 'traditional' Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews. Some Druze also vote for Shas, due to its alignment with the promotion of an 'authentic Middle Eastern' Israeli culture, which fits well with traditional Zionist beliefs of a revival of authentic Jewish culture. However, they are still representing, by principle and not practice, their Sephardi and Mizrahi Haredi Jewish Sectors in the Knesset.

It furthermore also demands and endorses an immediate compensation package for those Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews that were forced to leave their host countries and their subsequent property, as well as other connurbations, behind. This clause being fulfilled by Arab Countries in any Bilateral Peace Agreement is a hard condition for Shas being willing to accept any peace deal with the PLO.

[sandwich]

The Knesset needs some serious reform so they aren't doing an election every two years. They can't do anything constructive for their country or international affairs because the parties are too busy building inner coalitions for the next election. Looks like Olmert will keep his office a while longer :dont: .

[*Strictly_The_Facts*]

The Knesset needs some serious reform so they aren't doing an election every two years. They can't do anything constructive for their country or international affairs because the parties are too busy building inner coalitions for the next election. Looks like Olmert will keep his office a while longer :dont: .

:dont:

[lowtech redneck]

Do you know nothing about fascistic Yisrael beiteinu ?

And they're on the rise : (

I know about them, and they're bad news. Fascist sentiment (at least in terms of extremist ethnic nationalism) has been steadily rising in Israel ever since the "second intifada" (though it deserves mention that Israeli public support for such things is still far below that which is found among the Palestinians).

Yesterday, I was actually considering creating a "The World is Full of Suck Today" thread, including news about Yisrael Beiteinu's kingmaking status among several articles that are full of bad news (incidentally, free speech is completely dead in the United Kingdom), but in the end I was just too lazy to link so MANY fucking articles from that day...

[YHWH]

Eh, this article is interesting (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1062798.html).

I didn't make the counts yet, but a coalition counting the Likud, Yisrael beiteinu and Shaas (is that possible ?) sounds terrifying.

[sandwich]

Find yourself on the Israeli Political Compass!

http://israel.kieskompas.nl/

[Oso Mocoso]

Find yourself on the Israeli Political Compass!

http://israel.kieskompas.nl/

Wow. I'm a middle of the road Israeli moderate in most dimensions. How boring.

[dubbeltop]

Israeli Election

1)Meretz .72 %
2)Ra'am-Ta'al .72%
3)Hadash .70%

[Limey]

Which ones have the US backing again?

[YHWH]

Find yourself on the Israeli Political Compass!

http://israel.kieskompas.nl/

Is it only not working with me or is it not working ?

[sandwich]

Is it only not working with me or is it not working ?

It does not approve of your blasphemy. Consider altering your name to G-d or Hashem.

Also.. it could depend on where you live. Does your country boycott Israeli products?

[C.J.Woolf]

Find yourself on the Israeli Political Compass!

http://israel.kieskompas.nl/
I'm Labour, as I expected. The Labour Party built the Israeli state; it makes me sad that they get so little love these days.

[Limey]

Ische ga bibble?

[nonperson]

Which ones have the US backing again?

All of them. Well once they reach government. :grin:

[lowtech redneck]

I'm closest to Kadima, which makes sense; Shinui was once the Israeli party I most identified with, and they effectively got absorbed by Kadima.

[YHWH]

I'm watching a documentary now, a bunch of Lieberman-Russians that just got to the middle-east chanting "death to Arabs".

Can't even imagine what would happen when -since this seems very likely in the coming years- this guy gets to power.