Elections and Photos

Hello people. First of all, the reason I didn't post was the run-up to the elections. I was active in the Ale-Yarok campaign. Why Ale-Yarok? Well, they want to legalize gay marriage, prostitution, gambling, and yes, light drugs. It's not good enough, but it is good.

Second, yes, Ale Yarok lost. By this I mean, they did not get into the Knesset and it does not seem likely they ever will (although the leadership is whining childishly and claims that it is possible they will get in once the last votes are counted. Bullshit, I say).

Third, Labor won – they have 22 mandates and are likely to have a key seat in the coalition. Is it necessarily bad? I do not know. On one hand, they favor a growing welfare-state. On the other, they oppose the system of children's payouts that existed before Netanyahu, as they “merely caused the poor to get stuck in poverty.” Then again, they want to increase the minimum wage.

What's really interesting is that they claim to want to do it by reducing current military and other budgets and shifting that into welfare. Which is not all bad, in my opinion, because it cuts down on the silly illusion that the Army is sacred – in Israel, most everybody believes the defense budget is sacred and not to be touched, even though we are no longer in reality in a situation where we would need to fight an all-front war.

Further, Labor wants to eliminate a lot of the bureaucracy weighing down the market in Israel – or at least claims to want to. If they do that, that would utterly kick ass. But frankly, I don't believe that. The leader of Labor, after all, is Amir Peretz. The leader of the fabled Israeli Union. Father of the strikes. Will he break down the influence of the government employees? Riiight.

And now, for pictures.

Yosi Beylin, leader of the Meretz Party


















Note the slogan over his head. Yes, it IS a vodka commercial.