Coalition Choices Will Reveal if Sacrifice to Vote Likud Was Righteous

 

If as all are assuming and Benyamin Netanyahu is chosen by President Rivlin to attempt to form a ruling coalition, the choices which Netanyahu makes, and the sacrifices he decides are either favoring his intentions or necessary for assuming power, will be scrutinized by the Religious Zionists who have already made a huge sacrifice taking away votes, mandates and eventually influence from their normative parties such as Jewish Home (: הַבַּיִת הַיְהוּדִי), Yachad (יַחַד) and any other nationalist, Zionist, religious or politically conservative party and entrusted Netanyahu and the additional Knesset Ministers to carry out their desired goals. There have been signs that Netanyahu recognizes these sacrifices but it will remain for all to witness for how long he keeps these trusts in mind and for how long, if at all, the additional Ministers remain faithful to the traditional and core principles found within the Likud foundational documents and beliefs. Some of the important trusts which Netanyahu could perform immediately after the Knesset votes affirming his coalition range from the easy, shattering the silent building freeze and allow extensive enlargement of the communities in Judea and Samaria including allowance for the seeding of new communities and industrial and other economic centers across the width and breadth of Area C and, further down the road, adding new ventures in Area B.

 

Netanyahu can alter the conversation of forming an independent Arab state by stating that Israel is willing to allow a semi-autonomous Arab entity which rules its denoted area independent of Israel as far as governing themselves much as they currently live but remaining as an autonomous entity within Israel and reliant on the IDF for any defensive requirements and restricted from acting on the international level such as making treaties with other nations or acting in ways detrimental to the needs, requirements, political policies or relations beyond those already existent within Israeli foreign policies and relations. As Prime Minister of Israel he should bring the Levy Report to the forefront of Israeli actions towards the lands of Judea and Samaria and stress the commitments that Israel expects the world to recognize as explained and set out in the report’s conclusion.

 

As Prime Minister, Netanyahu must also begin and reinforce stressing constantly Article 80 of the United Nations Charter and bring to the fore the San Remo Conference documents and surround these two legally binding principles recognized and presumably enforceable under International Law making an airtight irrevocable claim of ownership over all of Judea and Samaria as well as the rest of the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. These ideas and their implications should end any further claims that International Law forbids Israel from annexing all of Judea and Samaria as long as the Arabs residing within the annexed areas retain full religious rights, full human rights, full legal rights, and virtually any form of rights imaginable with one very important exception, they may be denied political rights. This is the situation which must be stressed due to its importance and revealing the full rights pertaining to the Israeli rights to all the lands making them not only no longer contested but that their occupation by the Arabs is illegal and that any autonomy granted to the Arabs by Israel cannot and will not be construed as allowing for an independent Arab State or any other state as the lands were preserved for the Jewish State under International Law without even a sliver of doubt or contention by any other entity.

 

During the forming of the Twentieth Knesset, Prime Minister Netanyahu must make every effort not to include Yesh Atid and thus place Yair Lapid in the opposition thus any disturbance which emanates from him will not be a direct threat to the coalition or cause the governing coalition to be dissolved. The formation of a ruling coalition which is stable and supportive of the principles which Netanyahu was elected to pursue, protect and empower should be the foremost thought and a requirement of which each party must agree to value just as stridently and with vigor equal to that used backing their primary issues without exception. Here is the list of the Parties according to ideology and probability to be included in the coalition to those expected to be relegated to the opposition: Likud – 29, Jewish Home – 8, Yisrael Beiteinu – 6, Shas – 7, United Torah Judaism – 7, Kulanu – 10, Yesh Atid – 11, Arab List – 14, Meretz – 4, Labor/Hatnua – 24. Likud could ally with their 29 mandates and add Jewish Home, Yisrael Beiteinu, Shas, United Torah Judaism, and Kulanu reaching a total of 67 total seats while avoiding including Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid. Of course should the Labor/Hatnua take the remaining mandates and swing Kulanu and they also would have over 61 mandates which makes Kulanu, or technically Yair Lapid the deciders of the results of the election and whether or not Likud is able to put together their required mandates and form a government. Hopefully Netanyahu will use the wiles and strong turnout and support for his party to form his coalition. This process will be noted and hopefully will not cause concern but what will really matter are those few items the such as honestly putting the building freeze out of our misery and permit building and allow such building in all areas of commerce, industry and residential allowing for strong and attractive communities. Then there will be the initial pressures to restart the peace process in which Netanyahu will need to bring the argument and propaganda to rest and replace it with the facts, treaties and accords which define which lands belong to whom and under, that ever so mentioned and used to bludgeon Israel, International Law which should stand firmly beside Israel and all her claims to retain all of her lands, period!

 

After establishing these two initiatives Bibi can then address the social issues with solid economic steps which are reasoned and fully debated moving ahead with measured steps and firm reliance and faith in the practices established by previous similar situations which produced the desired results. In numerous instances what may be required is for the government to get out of the way and relegate some functions to religious institutions that are better suited for some functions such as free kitchens which feed those in need of such assistance. There will also be those functions which government is best suited to solve and should act. This should come naturally to Netanyahu as he proved in a previous government when he was assigned the Economy Minister. Such problems are usually traceable to a few requirements which make achieving a goal which would protect the poor and provide relief with minimal red tape. The same is true of many items burdening the Middle Class. As stated, Netanyahu will be facing the closest scrutiny from more than the usual entities as he received a strong mandate from people outside his party and beyond his base and these people have known grievances and demands and they will watch sitting on nervous expectations that had best be addressed with a sense of urgency. So, as said all too often after elections, we will wait and see with open minds and soaring hearts all kept within reason by good Jewish kidneys. (Oh yes, we had a whole article using the Biblical reference by King David to kidneys and their blessings and importance in so many ways, honest.)

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Vote Your Conscience and Ignore the Polls and Potential Coalition Possibilities

 

As elections approach there will be party primaries followed later by the general elections. How we vote in each level of the election cycle may surprisingly be a parallel to Psalm 26:2 and the different translations from the original to the modern day. The modern translation states something along the lines, while retained the flavor to the original and having the essential difference, “Lord, try me and test me; look closely into my heart and mind.” The original translation stated, “Lord, try me and test me; look closely into my heart and kidneys.” How this relates to voting in primaries and general elections and which goes with which, well read on.

 

There is always the temptation to vote with our hearts which very few are capable of avoiding without, according to most modern thinking, the discipline of our minds. Ancient Jewish teaching may teach a different lesson which might also have its place in our modern world. But first how can we differentiate how to choose our votes between primary elections and our votes in general election. Let us first assume that we are choosing a righteous manner for our votes and not some cynical use where we attempt to damage a party we would never give even a thought of supporting in the general election, as none amongst us would ever choose such a deceitful path. There is a basic difference between primary elections and general elections. A primary election is where as a voter we are free to vote for anybody we desire as it is supposedly a measure of our most honest desire, especially in a parliamentary election where our choices will determine the order of the party card which it will present listing its representatives for office and if those you choose make it high enough on the list, then you get your own little piece of representation in the government. In the general elections you are not really voting for a person as much the party which you feel will serve you and the nation the best. Of course if you are fortunate to have any of the people you voted for in the primary elections head the Party ticket, then if your party is tapped to form a ruling coalition and they succeed, then your primary choice will likely be the Prime Minister and you get to feel vindicated, otherwise we must simply feel satisfied if we are able to get any of those we voted for in the primary elections seated in the government after the elections.

 

The primary elections is the place for voting purity where you listen to your heart and then refine your choices with the filter which is the kidneys which remove the impurities and assures that the blood carries sufficient red blood cells transporting oxygen to the body, assures that chemical and mineral concentrations are within the proper limits and are the organ which receives approximately twenty percent of the blood pumped by the heart from each beat. Thus using the heart and the kidneys we take our desires and refine them such that they perform the best in producing results which reflect the honest desires of the combination of everyone’s individual preferences in composing the tickets presented before the general electorate. Further, in most primary elections in a parliamentary system many parties allow for each ballot to contain more than one selection to be tallied and each party has their own manner for tallying the ballots cast. In some you receive a ballot with a set of positions for each member of the party to place the names of their preferred candidates’ names. Then the votes are counted and, where appropriate given weight depending on position if appropriate, and the tallies then decide the position on the party’s slate each candidate will be placed. If their party receives as many or more mandates than their position on the slate, then they will be placed in the government and if their position is beyond the number of positions, then they go home instead.

 

There are those parties where they have an established slate of members which stand and their primaries are scheduled independently from any election cycle but are held at set intervals. These parties thus do not hold primaries simply because a government has been dissolved but simply hold elections periodically and this can lead to them placing the same slate before the voters with the same leader at the head of the ticket thus allowing for the exact same presentation on the party’s slate to stand for more than a single election if the elections are held prematurely before the end of their scheduled term such as the elections currently being faced in Israel. Parties can also decide on new slates for each election having them chosen by a select committee which could be decided by ballot, decided by executive selecting committee or by any system which the elites of the party might choose as long as the rank and file members agreed to such a method for choosing the ballot and the steering committee no matter how unfair such systems may appear to outsiders. When the elections approach all parties slates are revealed to the public and then the elections are held and the people vote.

 

During the general elections we have only a single vote which we will most likely give to the Party we prefer or to the party whose person heading the party slate we most desire to be the Prime Minister. Whichever party is amongst the top vote recipients and with the greatest probability of forming a viable coalition, that party and candidate for Prime Minister is tapped to try and form a ruling coalition and if they succeed, then a government is formed, and if they fail then the next most likely candidate for Prime Minister and their party are given their opportunity. Should nobody be capable of forming a coalition, then new elections will be forced to be held and the entire cycle is repeated. When we vote in the general election, we are still given an initial impetus to vote in a particular manner by our hearts which is tempered by the logic and other mindful considerations from our minds, which places the deciding voices of the public before the separate parties of combined tickets such as the one be being formed by the Labor Party and Tzipi Livni and her party. What makes this a heart driven decision is that Labor stands to gain the equivalent of possibly as many as four seats but if predictions are accurate the presence of Tzipi Livni and her party will only produce at best three and most likely two additional seats. The Labor Party is likely to grant Ms. Livni as many as four or potentially five seats depending on the total number of mandates received by the combined blocks. This will mean that Labor will likely receive less additional seats than the number of slots they will be giving to Tzipi Livni and those in the leadership of her party. This will probably prove to be a great deal for Livni and not so much for Minister Hertzog and the Labor Party. Since there may be other parties reaching agreements where they combine tickets or agree to either both be included in any government or neither be included such as was done in the last election with Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett making an agreement that either both parties or neither party would enter the government forcing Prime Minister Netanyahu to agree to include both parties in order to reach a coalition and may have been part of why the coalition failed prematurely. The different potential combinations and the fact that our usually favored party might decide to team up with another party with which we have a high degree of revulsion would make our support for our usual party problematic. This is why our vote in the general election requires more than just the heart, but the kidneys purifying the decisions of the heart is not likely to be helpful in choosing when the parties make agreements with those we refuse to give our vote to under any normative situations, thus instead of the purifying kidneys we substitute our minds to massage and shape the feelings of our hearts. By using our minds to shape and adjust the dictations of our hearts we might find we are capable of voting for our usual preferred party despite their compromising their purity and positions combining with some we do not honestly desire to prefer and reward with our votes. Thus in the general election we still initially choose with our hearts but use our minds to determine if our party will remain sufficiently pure no matter those they share power with in order to maximize their representation in the government after the elections. Thus we temper our hearts with the logic and power of our minds in the general election contrasting the purifying our primary selections of our hearts by filtering all with our kidneys and that is the major difference between the primary voting and our general election casting of ballots. So, which translation of Psalm 26:2 do you believe best represents your own election thinking for the primaries and the general elections and for what reasons?

 

Beyond the Cusp