Comments on: The Likud presents: The craziest, most radical list ever expected to win elections

By: Idan

Idan — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 21:09:51 +0000

I have to object to the writer’s seeming attitude to Hevron. Jews have lived in Hevron for centuries. Does the writer think we should abandon such a place? As Jews, even secular, I think we have an obligation to our people to hold on to such sites as Maarat Hamachpela, and not let yet another Jewish site become blocked from Jewish presence.

By: richard witty

richard witty — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:09:06 +0000

Electoral politics is both a leading and a following effort at political education and community building.

It anything the commitment to prepare for an election is a great motivator to learn, to listen, to organize, to intentionally coach and supportqualified candidates for the future needs, by forward vision of future needs.

Israeli elections are set in danger more than intentional development. This election is an example. Like in the us election, the primary arguments are, and really are, “what will happen to us if this idiot is elected again”. We have to go further argue for a positively constructed set of objectives.

Most important is to do that work before the two months before an election.

I liked the prospect of the social movements going further in cultural and economic organizing that put in practice color-blind equality and invitation to neighborly participation.

By: XYZ

XYZ — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 03:45:32 +0000

The Palestinians view themselves as fighting for what they (wrongly) believe is justice, not merely to prevent things from getting worse, as you believe. That is why no Palestinian leader can give up the “Right of Return” of the refugees. Therefore they don’t view any difference between Derfner and Feiglin. It is just that Feiglin is more honest about his position.

By: Greg Pollock

Greg Pollock — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 03:10:47 +0000

I understand what you mean, Richard, and I know the journalists on this site don’t need me given “advise.” I am the view that social action must make a case which can later help form a jurisprudence and begin to shift public opinion. Democracy measures electoral sentiment. Rights are supposed to limit actualization of that sentiment. And as I have said too often here, until you have an expansion of rights jurisprduence within Israel, how can you expect change in IDF procedure? This fight is neither the American South nor South Africa, at is appears to be coming into a long dark time. So you begin to prepare now for the disasters surely to come.

By: Greg Pollock

Greg Pollock — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 02:59:50 +0000

We all get, hiding XYZ, that you are all for racial expungement, seeing it as righteous national action. The position of the Israeli left is to stop encroachment now, not reverse from the 47 line granted by the UN. To let Palestinians live the chance of a fair life where they are now is to also let Israelis doso within their State boundary. What you are trying to do here is create an ideology purity test for acceptable residence in Israel. But your Declaration of Indpendence is, alas for you, much more liberal than that. Free ingress into Israel for Jews is free ingress–even if they believe Palestinians should be allowed their homes.

By: Piotr Berman

Piotr Berman — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 01:17:20 +0000

I try to see it in more universal terms, after all, the world has many unique and exceptional countries, so they are not THAT unique and exceptional.

One opposition is to have a boring rule, a.k.a. technocrats who solve little boring problems, or to have excitement, like hunt for the enemies of the nation. Fans of excitement often talk on apocalyptic terms, but in actuality they are far from paranoid (hopefully! hopefully! when they are, they may volunteer too die for common good, in a war or in an assassination of a traitor). So in Poland there is quite a bit of talk about traitors etc. but people who crave that excitement are in minority, ca. 30%. In Israel it is more like 60%, but any few are truly paranoid.

By: Vicky

Vicky — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 15:47:49 +0000

You live in Efrat, if I remember correctly. You have a few million near neighbours who don’t get a political voice. They’re under military rule, and the treatment they receive is influenced by the vote of people like you.

‘Democracy’ really sucks when it consists of the other guys sitting around deciding just how repressive to be to you.

By: Richard Witty

Richard Witty — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:32:13 +0000

The dividing lines of the parties (likely three distinct perspectives) is already mapped out, with the different weights of grey between the balance of Jewish and democratic.

The likud/Israel Beitanhu’s emphasis is 90% Jewish, maybe 10% democratic.

The centrist Kadima and Labor and other stand alone parties, is closer to 60% Jewish, 40% democratic.

The Hadash, Meretz and other Arab parties to a lesser extent, emphasize maybe 0-10% Jewish and 90-100% democratic.

The socialist vision that filled early labor governments, that prominently included democratic in their mix of Jewish and democratic, is very weak, if existent at all in Israeli politics.

Noone is arguing FOR the democratic emphasis so much as against the nationalist.

To the extent that that continues, that those that regard the democratic in the formula as pragmatically superior emphasis (not just ideologically) do not take the responsibility undertake the education in a positive manner (not as contempt), then nothing will change at all, or maybe things will get worse.

By: Richard Witty

Richard Witty — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:24:00 +0000

This is list is predictable. It is their intention to form a “super-party”, that could only be opposed by a comparable “super-party” opposition.

It represents a drift, more than a drift, away from multi-party coalition governance (with very distinct and often conflicting coalition partners) to a two or three party system. (The two party system is the US and Great Britain. The three party system is the Orwellian description of 1984 as an alternating ganging of the 2 party coalition on the remaining minority.)

By: Mitchell Cohen

Mitchell Cohen — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:15:29 +0000

If this was facebook, your comment would get a “like” from me big time….