As the Election Nears….
06 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Background to Israeli current events, Elections in Israel
The Israeli elections are nearing, and campaigning is in the air. I have been following the American presidential campaign for a few months already, and now I get to follow our own local election process too.
Tzipi Hotobeli writes in Israel Hayom (Israel Today) about the danger of the “radical center”. Dan Margalit, also writing for Israel Hayom, is looking forward to the upcoming battles with relish.
Danny Danon (Likud) has started procedures to challenge the right of Arab Member of Knesset Zoabi to run for the next Knesset.
A post about the elections has to have a poll….the latest shows that Bibi Netanyahu enjoys 48% of the vote for who is best fit to be the next Prime Minister. The closest runner up is Shelly Yechimovich with 19%….The next election seems to be about who will be the runner up and not the winner!
Israel’s Conservatives – Yuli Edelstein
27 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Elections in Israel, Israel's conservatives
Knesset Member Yuli Edelstein was born in the former Soviet Union and was imprisoned there for three years for the crime of teaching Hebrew (although they trumped up a drugs charge). He was released from prison and made aliyah to Israel in 1987. His biography in English is here.
He has served in the Israeli government five times, as part of the Yisrael BeAliyah party (founded jointly with Natan Sharansky) and as part of the Likud. He is now the Minister of Information and Diaspora. You can hear him speak in English here, addressing the Taglit/Birthright trip last night. His blog (sadly, only in Hebrew) is here.
Israel’s Conservatives – Danny Danon
22 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Elections in Israel, Israel's conservatives
Likud Knesset Member Danny Danon is another young conservative in the party. Aged 40 and married with three children, he lives in a moshav in the Sharon coastal region of Israel.
Before his election to the present Knesset, he was known to have worked hard against Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan from Gaza.
Danon is well known for his campaign against Arab Knesset Member Azmi Bashara, who fled the country after allegations that he aided Hizballah during the Second Lebanon War. Danon filed a petition with the Israeli Supreme Court to revoke Bashara’s Israeli citizenship.
He is a very active Knesset Member, as you can see in his blog in English. (Danon is one of the few Knesset Members who maintains a blog in English). His latest bill proposal is one calling for a loyalty declaration to the State of Israel before receiving an identity card (which entitles one to Israel’s version of Social Security Benefits, etc.).
Israel’s Young Conservatives – Tzipi Hotobeli
15 Dec 2011 2 Comments
in Elections in Israel, Israel's conservatives
Tzipi Hotovely was elected to the present government as a Likud member and holds the record for the youngest Knesset member (she was 30 at the time of her election). Although she is Orthodox she served in the IDF in their educational division (Orthodox women in Israel are given an automatic exemption from army service, and they usually do voluntary national service. So it is unusual for someone with Hotoveli’s background to make this choice). After her army service she went to law school and practiced for a time in Tel Aviv. She is a doctoral student in law.
She is extremely active in the Knesset in many areas, including working to help pass legislation in favor of Judea and Samaria. She is the head of the committee on the status of women. She is media savvy and has appeared in both Israeli television and on the BBC. Her website has been partially translated into English.
Israel’s Conservatives – Ze’ev Elkin
08 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Elections in Israel, Israel's conservatives
Another dynamic Likud Knesset Member is Ze’ev Elkin. Born in the Soviet Union he was active there in Bnei Akiva, and immigrated to Israel in 1990. He was originally elected to the Knesset as a member of the Kadima party, but later quit the party as he thought it was too left wing. He is now the Likud coalition chairman.
Elkin was one of the sponsors of the anti-boycott law. Along with Knesset Member Yariv Levin, he has initiated a bill which would give the Knesset the right to disqualify someone wishing to be a member of the Supreme Court (at the current time, Israeli candidates for the Supreme Court do not go through an approval process by the Knesset. These Knesset Members are trying to change this).
Elkin lives in the Judean town of Alon Shvut. He came in second in Matot Arim’s “top ten” list of Knesset Members who have worked to further the interests of Judea and Samaria.
Israel’s Young Conservatives – Ofir Akunis
01 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Elections in Israel, Israel's conservatives
In a previous post I introduced the Likud Knesset Member Yariv Levin, as part of a continuing series about the young conservatives in the Likud party. This time I would like to write about Ofir Akunis, who is known lately as the person who put forth the law prohibiting groups who promote boycotts of Israel to benefit from state funds. He is also known as one of the promoters of the law against NGO’s receiving monies from foreign governments.
Akunis is deputy speaker of the house, and is another young Israeli conservative that doesn’t” fit the stereotype”. He lives in Tel Aviv and is secular. He has an extensive background in journalism and as a spokesperson for the Likud party and for Bibi Netanyahu.
You can read about him in English here. His views are both politically and fiscally conservative, and he believes in lowering taxes and breaking up monopolies. The latter two beliefs are not as common in Israel as they are in America – most Israelis, even conservative ones, believe that the government has an important role in safeguarding what is called here “the weak layers” – referring to the lower socio-economic sectors. There is a greater tolerance for high taxes and strong unions. Akunis’s viewpoints stand out, even in the Likud.
Akunis’s website (in Hebrew) is here. His Youtube channel is here - even if you don’t understand Hebrew, you can see that he holds his own when interviewed by the hostile media.
Your Knesset Members at Work
26 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
Thanks to Israel Matzav for pointing this article out, about how the NGO Mattot Arim has been keeping track of the activity of the right wing Knesset Members, and their work for promoting legislation that is good for Yehuda and Shomron (Judea and Samaria). Please note the number of Likud members on the list of the top ten.
Meet Israel’s Conservatives – Yariv Levin
21 Nov 2011 2 Comments
in Elections in Israel, Israel's conservatives
Israel’s elections took place in February 2009, which means that elections will take place here again in about another year, at the latest (with our usually stormy political scene, elections are usually called earlier than every four years, although I have a feeling that this government will last out the full term).
Primaries are not always held before each party makes up its list – some of the smaller parties have committees that appoint the people who will be the next Knesset members. This is one of the reasons (but not the only one) that I do not vote for the smaller religious parties, but I vote for the Likud. (For some background read here and here )The Likud party holds primaries before every election, where its members can influence who will be the next Knesset Members. There are some “saved seats” in its list, that is true, but the majority are chosen by election. (If you are interested in joining the Likud, go here, fill out the form and send it in. Depending on how long it is before the next election you may still be allowed to vote in the next primary).
I have decided to focus some of my posts for the next few months on the Likud Knesset Members, and especially the younger ones. I would like my readers to be introduced to some of our young conservatives. Some of them fit into the stereotype of what the media likes to peg the” right winger” – religious and living in Judea and Samaria, but most of them don’t. Yariv Levin doesn’t fit the profile. He is young, does not sport a yarmulka, and lives in Modiin.
There has been a lot of activity in the Knesset lately regarding how the judicial system chooses its judges. (Contrary to the American system of checks and balances, the judicial system in Israel holds enormous power, and the left leaning judges hold on to this power indefinitely). One of the Knesset Members who is trying to change the system for the better is Yariv Levin, a young member of the Likud party.
You can read about him in English in this Wikipedia article (note the impressive number of laws that he has worked on in the Knesset) and here in his biography on the Likud site. He wrote an opinion piece in Ynetnews here after the first boycott law was proposed and the left tried to kill it in its first stages. More recently he has proposed a law giving a Knesset Constitution Law and Justice committee the right to veto Supreme Court appointees.
For those of you who understand Hebrew, his Youtube channel is here.
He is just one of many Knesset Members that I am proud to have voted for in the last election. More to come…..
The Closest Thing to Direct Representation
26 Apr 2010 1 Comment
I have written before about the electoral system here in Israel, and how the government is not a direct representative system as it is in America. In short, when you vote in national elections, you vote for a party and not directly for the Prime Minister or a Knesset Member. Each political party has a different way of choosing its party list (the people who will ultimately be the Knesset Members).
The Likud has a primary system to choose the Knesset list. Although there are some “saved seats” peppered throughout the list, most of the Knesset Members are chosen by those who have officially joined the Likud party.
I have had discussions with others about the advantages and disadvantages of voting for the small religious parties versus the Likud – but for now my point is this: Right now Bibi and others in the Likud are looking at the numbers of people joining the ranks (people need to join now as there is a waiting period before a new member can vote for the party list). They are tallying up those who are joining through “national religious channels”, and they are looking at the demographics of those who are joining individually, in order to do what politicians do best – test which way the wind is blowing. In a few months the government will need to lift the building freeze – or give in to American pressure and continue it. If the politicians see a huge influx of new Likud members from Yehuda and Shomron, or from those who define themselves as “national religious” it will influence this decision!
Even if you don’t plan on voting for the Likud in the national elections (although I believe you should), joining the Likud now, and voting later for the party list, will have a positive influence.
Dan Ilouz (who has just opened his new website) adds his “two shekels” here.
If you would like to join the Likud and be “identified” with the national religious camp, go this website and follow the directions (either filling out the form online or downloading the PDF and sending to their address).
If you are independent minded, and would like to join individually, you can download the PDF form here and just send it directly to the Likud’s address: 38 King George St., Tel-Aviv 63298
