Sunday, March 08, 2015
Vote Commerce in Israel
1. There exists in Israel an anti-democratic practice of vote trading among political parties that is called "surplus votes agreements." In any real democracy these would be prohibited. They work the following way: suppose that Party A receives enough votes for, say, 10 Knesset seats plus a "surplus" of 5000 votes beyond what was necessary for those 10 seats. If the party has a "surplus agreement" with Party B, then these 5000 votes may be transferred to Party B to allow that party to squeeze in one extra Knesset seat for itself. Or the surplus votes from Party B can similarly be given to Party A for an extra seat. Parties signing such deals tend to be from similar ideological orientations, such as two Orthodox religious parties.
Let us emphasize that the "deals" are patently undemocratic. If I vote for a party, my vote does not become a tradable market asset that this party can sell in the marketplace to someone else, in effect making me vote for that OTHER party against my will. If I wanted to vote for that other party then I would have done so myself. I am not aware of any other democracy where such vote commerce operates.
Nevertheless it is instructive to see which parties strike deals with which parties.
For the past few weeks Meretz has been attempting desperately to negotiate such a "surplus votes" deal with the United Arab List, which is a merger between jihadist and Stalinist smaller parties united only by their hatred of Jews and Israel. In the end the surplus deal failed to go through because the jihadists were unwilling to sign with Meretz. I guess Meretz was too anti-Israel even for them. The fact that Meretz was so anxious to have a deal with the Stalinist-fascists is highly instructive. Had the deal gone through, every person voting for Meretz would have known that his or her vote could actually end up going to elect Stalinist or jihadist anti-Semites to the Knesset, including Haneen Zoabi.
Let us emphasize that the "deals" are patently undemocratic. If I vote for a party, my vote does not become a tradable market asset that this party can sell in the marketplace to someone else, in effect making me vote for that OTHER party against my will. If I wanted to vote for that other party then I would have done so myself. I am not aware of any other democracy where such vote commerce operates.
Nevertheless it is instructive to see which parties strike deals with which parties.
For the past few weeks Meretz has been attempting desperately to negotiate such a "surplus votes" deal with the United Arab List, which is a merger between jihadist and Stalinist smaller parties united only by their hatred of Jews and Israel. In the end the surplus deal failed to go through because the jihadists were unwilling to sign with Meretz. I guess Meretz was too anti-Israel even for them. The fact that Meretz was so anxious to have a deal with the Stalinist-fascists is highly instructive. Had the deal gone through, every person voting for Meretz would have known that his or her vote could actually end up going to elect Stalinist or jihadist anti-Semites to the Knesset, including Haneen Zoabi.
2. David Grossman is a veteran leader in Israel's Literary Left, just behind the Scarecrow of OZ (Amos Oz) and A.B. Yehoshua. Mister Yellow-Wind-in-His-Shorts Grossman has long endorsed all the platitudes of the ultra-Left. (See for example http://zioncon.blogspot.co.il/…/david-grossmans-foot-in-mou… )
But the Messiah must be nigh because Grossman suddenly exhibits some uncharacteristic common sense this week. In any interview he gave to an Italian newspaper he proclaims that Netanyahu is correct and that Iran IS a major threat to the world and not just to Israel.
(I am curious if Zehava Galon soiled herself when she heard about this)
3.
If the Labor Party under Herzog wins the elections, then for the first time in the country's history Israel will have a Prime Minister who goes to sleep at night hugging his teddy bear.4. Fool me once - shame on you.
Fool me twice - you must be Yair Lapid.5. The anti-democratic leftist YNET web site ran this puff piece about an official in the New Israel Fund and "forgot" to mention that her husband is a major promoter of world boycotts against Israel and is co-organizer (together with Hebrew University's Amiram Goldblum) of the campaign to call on European countries to undermine Israeli sovereignty by "recognizing" the "state of Palestine":
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4633542,00.html
6. Basically Netanyahu has 10 days to turn the creation of Hamastan, the ethnic cleansing of Gush Katif, the capitulation to Hamas and the consequent Gaza war last summer into the main election issue - or else lose the election. Instead, Netanyahu is trying to run on a platform of "leadership." No doubt Labor's Herzog is a parody of a leader and could not govern a PTA committee or lead a Little League team, but Netanyahu's own record in "leadership," such as ending the Gaza campaign in the middle before it was finished, is not exactly a solid reason to vote Likud.
7. Israel's Fascist Left is all upset because some people from Baruch Marzel's party disrupted a speech by the terrorist Knesset Member Haneen Zoabi and one even spilled some juice on her. Heavens to Mergatroyd, oh the humanity. Except that the people rolling their eyeballs in mock horror are the very same people (including Haaretz editorial writers) who were besides themselves with glee when radical homosexuals and their friends violently disrupted talks by Naftali Bennett and drew him as Hitler!
We were at a big gala Purim feast in Haifa in a hotel when one of the waiters accidently spilled some juice on my wife. Who do you think I am, she screamed at the waiter, Hanin Zoabi?
8. You might like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxaH6kRuAR4
# posted by Steven Plaut : 4:13 AM
