In Israel, as this voter demonstrates, it is not so simple:
1. After long deliberation, I decided to vote for Natan Sharansky and Yisrael B'Aliyah in the elections on Tuesday.
2. I initially intended to vote Likud. What brought an end to this idea was the series of Likud scandals. This 28 year old Inbal Gabrieli, the daughter of a wealthy casino owner with underworld connections, and with no real life accomplishments of her own, if elected, would be a disgrace to the Knesset. But what really iced the cake for me against Likud was Sharon's "Cyril Kern" speech, in which he said that his son 36 year-old son Gilad "was a talented businessman, who has a gift for making money." This is outrageous. Any close relative of a Minister of National Infrastructure, and later Prime Minister, can make a buck from influence-seeking contractors like Dudi Appel. When Sharon said that, "Gilad is a trained economist, and deserved every shekel that he earned for the economic study that he wrote," when the fee was several hundred thousand dollars, I could not help but to roll my eyes. That Ariel Sharon cannot understand that Gilad massively benefits in his professional life from being the son of a famous and powerful politician, is simply facetious and disingenuous. Ariel Sharon gives me the impression that he does not really believe that the laws of Israel apply to him. He feels that he is honest, moral and good intentioned, and that is enough for him. He feels that he is a special case, different from us.
3. In general, though, I feel that Sharon has done an excellent job during the past 2 years. He inherited a disaster, a war that Barak and the Oslo architects brought about. For Labor supporters to deride Sharon now because Israel is not prosperous or at peace, is analogous in my mind to supporters of Neville Chamberlain criticizing Churchill in 1944 for V2 rockets landing on London, as well as military fatalities and food rationing. It was Chamberlain who got Britain into the mess that they were in during WWII, and it was the Barak, Peres and the Labor Party who got Israel into the mess that we are in right now. Churchill got Britain out of the Nazi mess, and Sharon, for lack of a better choice, is the guy getting Israel out of our PA-Arafat- Hamas-Tanzim mess.
4. I hosted MK Mudi Zandberg of Shinui at our home two weeks ago. I worked with Mudi when he was in Tzomet. Mudi is a brilliant, charismatic, ethical, honest and idealistic politician of great potential. The difference between Mudi, a "secular" Shinui MK, who happens to put on tefillin every morning, and the best and the brightest Likud MKs, is quite small. I see, or "saw", at least, great potential for Shinui to bring together secular and those "kippa sruga" Israelis, such as us, who work, pay taxes, and serve in the army.
5. I readily confess that I often feel a greater kinship with secular Zionists who build this country and risk their lives defending it, than Haredi Jews who do neither. I see Haredi Jews in our synagogue, but I do not see them on my military base. Most of the people that I serve with are Shinui-like secular people.
6. The Shas and Yahadut HaTorah mentality, in my mind, is that they are simply too holy to dirty their hands doing things like work and army service. They obviously think that we Zionist Jews, both religious and secular, who send our children to the army, must not love our children as much as they love theirs. Their mentality runs contrary to my sense of justice. [To be fair, there is a small population within Shas that does actively participate in Israeli life (workforce-army)].
7. I fully identify with Shinui's anger at the injustices done to Israel's secular, hard working, tax-paying, miluim-serving population. The fact that we, the knitted-kippa population, do not speak up against the religious coercion that secular Jews feel, let alone against the haredi military exemption status quo, is something that greatly embarrasses me. This is why I chose to experiment and invite a Shinui representative to speak in our home.
8. Shinui's Mudi Zandberg was as brilliant and idealistic as ever, but I was disappointed. I expected Mudi to convey to us that we, a community of taxpaying, army serving, religious Israelis are natural allies. That we, together with them, are the "good guys" in Israel that they represent. But Mudi instead conveyed discomfort with us. We are a community that destroys Tommy Lapid's "good guys vs. bad guys" thesis. We prove that "good guys" can wear a kippa, but Shinui is not yet ready to recognize that. This may change in the future, though, as the Shinui party matures.
9. Why Yisrael B'Aliyah? Because Natan Sharansky is a brilliant, courageous, incorruptible man of integrity, who has a talent for correctly reading the political map. He brings together the Jewish people worldwide, and does not divide us. He was opposed to Oslo far before I understood this. He is a reasonable man who is capable of compromise when conditions warrant this, and tough when there is no choice. He does not succumb to group-think and unwarranted dreams. He brought down the corrupt and inefficient Soviet Regime, and he can do the same thing here, by cleaning up our statist, lazy bureaucracy.
10. I am also a close friend of Eli Kazhdan, #5 on the Yisrael B'Aliyah list. Eli is one of the most decent, brilliant, personable and modest people that I know. Only in his early 30s, he has been Natan Sharansky's right hand man ever since Sharansky entered into politics in the mid-90's. Natan thinks the world of him. Eli Kazhdan will be an excellent influence on Israeli politics, and bring pride to Anglo-Saxon immigrants, American Jewry, as well as Russian Jewry (before America and Harvard, Eli originally comes from the CIS.)
11. I am in favor of religious Jewish pride, but also in favor of secular Jewish pride. Shinui, unfortunately, only believes in secular Jewish pride. Like me, Yisrael B'Aliyah believes in both.
12. Why am I voting to the right of the middle? Because of Oslo. The Labor Party and Meretz screwed up big time. Every single person connected to that disaster should have resigned in shame from public life. This is what Lyndon Johnson did in 1968. Anthony Eden did the same in 1957. Menachem Begin resigned as well in recognition of his own mistakes in 1983.
13. Why am I not voting Ichud Leumi? Because Avigdor Lieberman is not my cup of tea. He means well, and his clear thinking often impresses me, but he seems to be obsessed with military power. MK Benny Elon is a cultured man of reason, though. In general, I like the way religious and secular Zionists cohabit this party in an environment of mutual respect.
14. Why not Mafdal? Because they don't understand free market economics or have a sophisticated view of Clean and Efficient Government. I like their Jewish-Zionist pride, though. I wish people like Adv. Yaakov Neeman were on their list - people of the world who combine learned religiosity together with accomplishments in the business-academic arena.
15. Am I COMPLETELY satisfied with Yisrael B'Aliyah? No. They are not moving fast enough out of their ethnic immigrant shell into mainstream Israel, in my opinion. But they are the best party available this time, for me at least. If there was a single police investigation into Yisrael B'Aliyah, then I would hold my nose and vote Likud. But it appears that Natan Sharansky is a completely clean and honest politician, as is everyone else over there. That's good enough for me. (A personal message to future MK Eli Kazhdan: Eli - you're getting my vote - you better stay clean! No bribes, no free vacations, no posing in jacuzzis! In all seriousness, you are the pride of AngloSaxon-Russian-kippa sruga aliyah. Congratulations on having gotten so far. I know that you will be an excellent MK. I take my hat off to you.)
Update: Stefan Sharkansky's father has another lengthy commentary on the Israeli elections.
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