Israel’s News Blog Magazine: Daily Stories Video and Photos

Well it looks like there are a few last minute shifts in the election results. The military ballots were now counted and they have made some significant changes. The new numbers are:

Kadima gained one and went from 28 to 29 seats.
Likud gained one and went from 11 to 12 seats.
Meretz gained one and went from 4 to 5 seats.
Shas (religious party) lost one and went from 13 to 12 seats.
Israel Baitenu (Avigdor Liberman) lost one and went from 12 to 11 seats.

Overall these military ballots actually make a lot of sense and have balanced out the results of these elections.

Thank you guys !!

We all know the election results but in case you missed it. Kadima is the narrow winner, the pensioners rocked (got 1 in 10 in Tel Aviv), Likud (Bibi) was killed, Israel Baytenu (Avigdor Liberman) did very well and so did the religious parties. Now there are 28 days for Ehud Olmert to put together a government. Not going to be easy.

Meanwhile, these 3 videos are part of the Drink Milk site . Check out the “second chance caveman” flash campaign as well.

Click here to see all 3.

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Elections are in full swing here and regardless of your political inclination you can’t ignore the fact that the process itself works. Voting rates as of 7:00 PM are still low, actually very low, only around 47%. The various experts predict a “low” 60% rate by tonight. Really it’s all relative though and at the end of the day Israel is a political country. The morning shows today interviewed kids “play voting” and when I think about the fact that in most western countries kids still need to be taught who the country leaders are, I feel proud.

Great walking around Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, the center of the happening today and into tonight. A nice day for a political celebration and for those that still feel like democracy does not work, you’re invited to take a look and learn. Every political party (no matter how ridiculous) is there trying last minute recruitment efforts, a huge line up for kids who also have special play voting booths, families, music and activists “flying” their political colors. The whole area is heavily guarded of course, there are currently over 60 security warnings, 14 of them targeted to election events, and both police and army are at the highest state of alert. Israeli democracy in its purest form !!

Channel 10 News did a very smart thing and took over the entire event placing a clear studio in the center of the square with entertainment stages, Mini Israel display for kids and snack bars all around the square. Felt a little like an amusement park. Keep an eye on this news network, they’re making the right moves, have a real fresh way of presenting the news and are innovative.

So what’s the scoop and what are people talking about. Well the old news on the street is that Kadima will take it. They are sort of the default option and represent the “CENTER”.

Ehud Olmert is okay, he had a little bit of a rough time getting into the shoes of Sharon and there was talk of his political track record and capabilities, there was also a scent of some dubious business dealings. He managed to get passed that for the most part. Olmert’s family stayed out of these elections and he ran on his own in the campaign.
The one rising star and a woman I fully expect to be Israel’s next Prime Minister is Tzipi Livni. The woman is giving off some great vibes, is getting noticed and as far as the Kadima lineup is concerned, is definitely a top tier asset. As Foreign Minister she is taking her first steps and besides, taking that position from Shimon Peres was really sweet. He was PISSED.

The obvious weak links in Kadima are Shimon Peres who now seems to be suffering from credibility issues and who is a long standing symbol of what being a loser is all about. The man has even lost the title of biggest political loser to Menachem Begin, if you can imagine that. Peres was a misunderstood academic who was respected for years but who has over time proved to be in love with being in the limelight at all costs.

The other weak link is the number 9 candidate, Tzachi Hanegbi, a corrupt slime that manages to keep slithering away from one scandal to the next. This man while in the Likud single handedly appointed over 80 Likud Center Party members into various positions in government. He is now being charged with election corruption, breach of trust and deception. This is a man who is making some voters a little uncomfortable with Kadima.

EMET or Labour party. Well there are some great people there. I even like Shelly Yechimovitz and really like Amir Peretz. Unfortunately, the discussions always come back to two main issues. Fear of business and economical growth slowdown that will be brought on by a strong socialist agenda. We all know how well that worked out for the communists…
The other issue, and I feel bad saying this, is Peretz and his English. I think he is great but in today’s world if you can’t speak English you have nothing to do in politics and especially if you are going to lead a country. PERIOD. I come from a long line of Labour supporters and still I can’t handle the English or lack there of. I keep imagining Peretz speaking in the United Nations or visiting the US and giving another one of those speechs and I start sweating.

Finally, Likud. Likud has really one very big weakness that’s preventing people from voting for it and people I talk to seem to agree on this. Benjamin Netanyahu.
I have some good friends who although I believe they are politically confused (and I forgive them), are true Likud supporters and even activists. A good friend who has voted Likud for years met me right after voting and admitted he couldn’t do it. “Just can’t vote for Bibi again”. Bibi is not believable, not credible and some say not human. He is a political opportunist and someone who is desperate to get into power at all cost. The biggest running joke is his panic and sweating attacks. The Hamas fear campaign in this election was just another nail in his political coffin in the eyes of many voters.

Every major network is broadcasting from Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square and this will go on into the night. Keep an eye and wish us luck…

Post and Photos By Niv Calderon

A common conversation these election days is apathy. Many people are saying they are not going to practice their democratic right to vote. Why? Many reasons.

Some say they no longer care and that “every one” is the same crap. Some say it’s the corruption and that they don’t believe anyone anymore, and some say their vote wouldn’t make a difference anyway.
These are all examples of known reasons already spoken out in the media. I wish to add a more, let’s say, “sociological” explanation.

1992 was the last ”normal”, once-every-four-years election. Since then, Rabin was murdered in 1995, Peres lost to Netanyahu in the early elections of 1996 when buses started exploding in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu was Kicked out in 1999 by Barak who too was kicked out two years later in 2001 by Sharon who was reelected again in 2003.
The right wing dominion in Israel starting from the late 70’s through the 80’s with a short break in the 90’s shows us that there are more Rights in Israel than Lefts. Makes sense? Maybe? I think differently.
To start at the end, I think we are dealing here with a vicious circle. I don’t think there are more people on the right then the left. I think the numbers are about even, maybe more leftists but less left voters are coming to vote. So why is it vicious you ask, and why a circle? There’s a simple answer to that.

The less leftists voted - the less left power there is. The less left power - the less difference they can make. The less difference they make - the more left voters will not vote. A vicious circle.

And then comes someone like Ariel Sharon. Suddenly at the age of 70 something he realizes he was wrong, takes the 2003 Avoda/Meretz agenda (primarily Amram Mitzna’s), of disengagement from Gaza and makes it happen. At an instant he takes the core ideology from the Left wing, “centralizes” it, declares ownership and a new political movement is born, a “new-age” center movement.

From that point on in history, with the dilemmas we face daily, when we are finally wiling to deal with and take responsibility of our civil and social status and worry not only about our lives and the terror we are so tired of, from that point on, the center (unless it dissolves and breaks right again) will include the Left. It represents a new stage in the evolution of the Israeli democracy, a new state of mind.

This is a photo essay of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The ground on which the church rests is venerated by most Christians as Golgotha, the Hill of Calvary, where the New Testament describes that Jesus was crucified. It also is said to contain the place where Jesus was reportedly buried (the sepulchre). The church has been an important pilgrimage destination since the 4th century. Today it serves as the headquarters of the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Catholic Archpriest of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. The church is a topic of much debate and argument within the Christian world.
This is dedicated to Virginia.

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A few months ago, an acquaintance in Israel told me that Al Jazeera in English was looking for local staff and suggested that I apply for a reporting position. When he mentioned the salary I was, I confess, tempted. It was far, far more than I could ever hope to earn working for the Israeli media.

So I ran the idea by a Palestinian friend of mine - a journalist who’s based in the West Bank.

“What do you think?” I asked. “Should I go work for Al Jazeera?”"

“Sure!” he said. “Absolutely. Great idea.”

“Seriously?”

“Absolutely. Then you can kiss your career as a journalist good-bye, ’cause nobody serious will ever hire you again.”

When I read this report on Al Jazeera, I thanked the powers above that I’d listened to my friend. Incredibly, a news outlet that professes to be the CNN of the Arab world, has published a report that purports to “prove” that Israel was behind the attack on the World Trade Centre.

Yes, boys and girls, you heard it here: it was the Joos.

The most hilarious part of the article is the sources. Scroll down to the bottom and you’ll see a list of them - but they’re not direct links to original sources. Instead for each source the reader is told to google a string of words. Do that and the first hit will be another secondary source - usually a conspiracy theories site - that again quotes the supposed primary source without linking to it directly. And of course the quotes, if you can find the original source (good luck with that) are one-liners that are taken out of context.

It’s the most pathetic piece of crap I’ve seen in a looong time. Read it and weep.

By Debbie Gold Hadar

Yes. Rantings. I rant - or write - to you from a small and sheltered corner of London, where the temperature outside is languishing somewhere between 1-6 degrees, and inside it feels like Ibiza because I can’t turn down the central heating. So it’s a question of skipping around the room, scantily clad until it’s time to go outside, whereupon I must don my industrial strength steel wool cami-knickers and girdle set; and, to my clothing ensemble on top of this add hats, coats and various scarves and brave the English winter.

Seriously, shame on me. I lived here for 25 years. You’d think I might have some sort of recognition factor, that my body - if not quite embracing the cold as a long lost friend, might have at least shown an inkling of comprehension. Apparently not. God it’s freezing here.

(Not as I type, of course, which I’m doing semi-nude in order to avoid melting into a puddle.)

On the plane on the way over here, I was fortunate enough to catch the latest chick flick. My colleague - a lovely man who resembles the Little Shop of Horror’s Seymour Krelbourne in attitude if not in looks (seriously, I was looking out of the taxi window exclaiming at how central London has changed for the better, he was squinting at the pavements for signs of perennial flora) and I very much enjoyed “Prime”, starring the magnificent Meryl Streep and Uma Thurman - two of the better actors of the female persuasion. Ever. In my not-so-humble, although much considered personal opinion.

Maybe you’ve heard of this movie? Thurman plays Raffi (I know. I know!) - a newly-divorced 37 year old woman with a healthy attachment to her Jewish, successful therapist (Streep). On the path to post-marital enlightenment and happiness she falls for David, a Jewish 23-year-old wannabe artist (who was total eye candy and made the movie even more compulsive viewing than it already was).

David, of course, being Streep’s son. A Jewish boy and the ultimate shiksa. Every Jewish boy’s wet dream; every Jewish mother’s nightmare:

“No, don’t worry about me, I like it here with my head in the oven, this way the light doesn’t hurt my eyes, and I’ll die quicker than waiting for the heart attack that I’ll get when you walk down the aisle in the Church. Or maybe you should just smack me over the head with your baseball bat, dollink. And do something with your hair.

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By Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg
Director, Program on Conflict Management
Bar Ilan University

Israelis are about to go the polls for the 6th time in less than 14 years –an unenviable record among the world’s democracies. The high frequency of national elections is surely one of the main reasons for apathy and the number of undecided voters in the pre-election surveys. Other factors include the lack of charismatic candidates in the post-Sharon era, and Kadima’s apparently insurmountable lead.

Nevertheless, these elections are very different than other Israeli elections, at least in the past twenty years. In the previous elections, the main issues were based on ideology – left vs. right; religious vs. secular, etc. But in these elections, pragmatic realism is the main theme, not only in Kadima but spilling over into Labor and Likud.
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by Liza Farachdel

Less than one week shy of Election Day, and to say that pre-election excitement is in the air would be an almost dream-like exaggeration. Instead of the usual bombardment by Israeli youth pushing flyers and stickers at me at every intersection and junction, I only spot the occasional roadside billboard while riding the train to work, or banners hung half-heartedly on fences, flapping listlessly in the wind. Nobody I know is watching the daily election commercials, and not only do my friends not know who to vote for, but many of them have told me that they don’t think they’ll be voting at all - a most disturbing trend indeed.

Here we are, living in a society resembling a democracy, and while granted, this gives one the right not to vote, the question is why.

Why not exercise your right to vote? I can understand the lethargy, the lack of motivation, the frustration. The very act of living in Israel is exhausting, and we are tired of politics. I imagine that we are even more tired of politicians – their scheming and scandals, the perceived lack of progress on just about any issue (except, quite coincidentally I’m sure, for the issue of expanding salaries and benefits for Knesset members, which is always dealt with in a most efficient manner).

We are tired. And on many levels, we just don’t care anymore. Sadly, this is a poor excuse for not fulfilling your obligation – no wait, your right – as a citizen to vote.
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Kaki Metumtam is the name of this clip. The loose translation is “stupid shit”. A parody on Israeli interviews of famous actors.
The clip is in English, well sort of…
Enjoy
Hat Tip: Arutz 2