Last-minute thoughts on election day

First, if you haven’t already, you should read yesterday’s post of Hillel Schenker’s pre-election thoughts. Then, you should read Ron Skolnik's excellent summary of a program co-sponsored by Meretz USA two days ago, featuring the insightful Israeli journalist, Gershom Gorenberg.

Unfortunately, our friends in the Israeli Meretz party are not getting the attention and support that they deserve. Please check out the brand new World Union of Meretz Web site and read at least one of the following two articles posted there from Haaretz: "I’m voting Meretz" by Amos Schocken (the publisher of Haaretz) and "Meretz leader to Haaretz: Two-state solution on last legs. Ari Shavit Loves Jumas"

As for the election itself, aside from looking on with a mixture of hope and dread (perhaps a larger dose of dread), I must agree with Yossi Alpher’s observation on Israel’s dysfunctional electoral system, from the Americans for Peace Now Web site:

... the four leading parties–Likud, Kadima, Yisrael Beitenu and Labor– will end up with somewhere between (in descending order) 25 and 15 mandates. Four medium-sized parties whose philosophies encompass nearly the entire spectrum of secular Zionist views are a recipe for lack of governability, to say nothing of lack of a viable peace process.

Once again we are reminded that the Israeli political system, while offering ultra-democratic representation to the most isolated minority and sectarian views, is ill-suited for the task of governance, and particularly for dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

If you still have the time and patience for online reading, you might check out my new piece at the "In These Times" magazine Web site.