Israeli Politics for Dummies
I regularly receive commentary on events and developments in Israel from Yaacov Lozowick, who is the director of the archives at Yad Vashem and author of Right to Exist (reviewed on the Blue Monkey Review). Yesterday he sent along the following. The text is entirely Yaacov. The links are mine, so don't blame Yaacov for them. A general primer on Israel parties can be found on the BBC.
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As you may know, we've got an election coming up soon. Me, I already know what the result will be, and indeed, even published them in the paperback edition of Right to Exist. However, I've decided that prudence is an admirable virtue, so I ain't saying, not till after the results roll in and I've had the opportunity to airbrush my version a wee bit as necessary.
In the meantime, however, here is an e-mail I sent out earlier this evening to a fellow voter, who is still undecided at this late date. Slightly annotated, for the benifits of those of you unversed in our shorthand.
If you like settlements, you vote for Ichud Leumi [right-wing religious], coz Lieberman is not to be trusted [Lieberman =a Russian party, nominally right-wing, but not if that means being in the opposition], and Bibi even less, especially as he may get thrown out and Silvan will run to join Olmert. [Bibi (i.e. Beyamin Netanyahu): need I explain? If Likud gets thrashed, the assumption is that he'll get ousted, and replaced by Silvan Shalom]
If you don't like settlements, you vote Kadima or Labour, depending upon what you prefer: crooks or communists. if you want to be a real feinshmeker, you vote Meretz. That more or less sums up all the options this time round. Ah, and abstaining is not an option, because the issue really is important, and you have to choose.
See? That wasn't so hard.