More election fun (boring it’s not)
Mitzna says he will form a coalition with Arab parties that recognize Israel as a Jewish and democratic state (in the unlikely case that he wins and gets to form a coalition at all) (Hebrew link). Based on the actions and utterances of most current Arab members of Knesset and other Israeli Arab leaders, I'm wondering exactly which Arab parties he has in mind. Maybe Azmi Bishara’s “Balad”? I hope it keeps OK for him. Balad list stands a chance of being disqualified “because its goals contradict the Jewish-democratic nature of the state of Israel and because it supports organizations fighting against Israel.” according to Attorney general Elyakim Rubinstein. The other lists aren’t much better.

According to this poll (Hebrew), a third of voters say their vote will be effected by recent corruption (Turns out that there’s been quite a bit of it in Labor, too, surprise, surprise, but Likud has still managed to excel in this respect) -- 18% of voters say they'll vote for another party, 12% says they won't vote at all. Hmmm, worrying. I suppose I won't have any choice but to vote Likud, and hope they clean up their act, or all the nasties go to prison (fat chance).

Shinui really is a contrary party. I may agree with a lot of what they say, but definitely not the way they say it, or the way they manage to rub everyone up the wrong way.

What will happen, I wonder, if the elections fall in the middle of the Iraq war, which looks increasingly likely? If they don't postpone them, I wonder how voting rates will be effected. Actually I don't see how they can not postpone. If this war is anything like last time, Tel Aviv will be empty. Who's going to come back to town from, say, Eilat, just to vote? This probably means the left stands to lose out. The left's voters are more affluent, and more likely to be able to afford alternative living arrangements.