Neither of which, interestingly enough, I have ever really found in my journeys through Israel. For some reason, it is always imported from some where else.

ANYWAY……….

Today is Election Day in Israel. Since the results of the election will have a direct impact on the complexity of my job in the next few months, I thought this column by one of my favorite Haaretz authors-was quite appropriate for today.

 

If you're in Israel today, vote as if your life depended on it. It does.

Over two terms, we've learned that Netanyahu will do anything and everything to stay in power. Including nothing. Especially nothing.

 

I intend to vote the hell out of this election. I intend to vote us the hell out of the occupation. I intend to kick Netanyahu in his kitsch and his slime and his cowardice and the way he'll hold on to the leather chair until we the people pry it from his cold, dead hands.

We. The people of this country who want to see peace – the two thirds of the population who want to see two states bring an end to one endless crippling Israel-killing occupation.

I intend to vote the hell out of this election, and the one after that, which could come sooner than anyone – especially Bibi – thinks. I intend to vote because I've been disenfranchised by the one in 25 Israelis who lives in settlements. I intend to vote this time and the next, and the time after that, because the government of this country has been hijacked by the spirit and the waste trail and the living, ruling heirs of Meir Kahane, and because Netanyahu just sits by and watches and fools himself into thinking that he's co-opting them, because, above all, he's scared shitless of them.

 

One of the best parts about my job today is that I have gained an real appreciation for how complex politics are in Israel. And only Israelis could make it as complex as they do. In America its pretty simple-you are either on the side of the selfish or not. In Israel, all the players are selfish-its just what they are selfish about.

Netanyahu, 63, is now the second-longest serving Israeli prime minister after David Ben-Gurion. After tomorrow’s expected debacle for Likud-Beiteinu, he will no longer be considered an electoral asset by his subordinates. What’s more, he will be lagging behind them politically; with the arguable exception of Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin, every single Knesset member in Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu and Naftali Bennett’s Habayit Hayehudi – the presumed bulk of the next coalition – will outflank Bibi on the right. He will be the new government’s “liberal.” That still probably won't stop him from attacking Iran-which will fuck up my work life royally, but one can always hope. Plus as long as Netanyahu remains Prime Minister, one will have to deal with wacko American evangelicals thinking he is paving the way for them to the rapture and Armageddon. Uh, no, thank you. We can skip that-and more settlements in Judea and Samaria are not the way forward for American Christianity or Israeli Judaism.