Post Israel
elections
By Kirill Pashkov
As we know, recent Knesset
elections on the 22nd of January promised us
to show something new—and they
actually did. After last year's protest events in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, as well as after the March of Millions, people's politicalegoes have activated and
demanded action. This necessity has spurred amazing proportions of
the Parliament Seats: 61 for the right-wing with Benjamin
Netanyahu and Avigdor Liberman, and 59
places on the left with Eal Lapid andSheli Ehimovich. Comparing to the previous
results, Parliament achieved its balance at last, which is a very good sign for the near future of
Israel.
A number of Tel Aviv
residents could feel the unity in
the air, which almost never happened before. There is a very interesting thing
about Tel Aviv's life: it's very unique and united, especially in questions of
politics. It is almost like anindependent state
inside the larger country of Israel. Almost
all Tel Aviv citizens gave their
votes for the Left Wing, reflective of the protests of 2011. Tel Aviv is most open-minded in such questions as homosexuality, economics,
religion, and life in
general.
One Tel Avivi, a manager of a wine store, says that the election results truly
disappointed her, and even more so the people who voted for the Right Wing. "I don't
understand,” she exclaims
pessimistically. “Why do people vote
for Bibiagain? Do they miss the old problems? Or want some
more?"
She personally gave her vote
for Avoda - Sheli Ehimovich, vowing that Sheli is a very charismatic character and she is
the only one who can actually solve
the socio-economical problems.
"Eal Lapid is a great option. People voted for him, because he is new. He is
notapart of this system, rotten from
the inside, and that is good. We need some fresh blood in our political
body."
The right wing
achieves more Parliament places due
to the lack of unity among the
opposing parties. People voted for
small parties, some of which didn't
even pass the percentage barrier and caused the loss of
votes for the stronger parties, such as Esh Atid and Avoda.
Yoni Eilat, an actor, also
voted for Avoda, claiming that almost all
of his university peers voted left, as leftist views and policies tend to
be Tel-Aviv's priority.
“I am ok with
the results,” - Eilat concludes. “It could be
better, but why complain now? How to
work on something that we've got. Something that does make
me happy is that Bibi lost his
string positions, but I am not sure yet about Lapid; notsure if he will have enough courage to do
something around Bibi and Liberman. They'll try
their best not to let him do anything. I hope that they will manage to cooperate. Of course its better if Lapid will go on his own, but he was always achicky(?) conformist, event in his journalist times.” He
ended this statement feeling uneasy.
In the center of Tel Aviv there is cafe that is almost twenty years
old. It's a very nice place, owned by a man from Georgia. The main aspects that
interested him in the candidates’ political programs were
tax problems, high costs of living, and s
ecurity measures.
He gave his
vote for Eldad Yaniv on the
left.
The owner explained, "I want somebody to deal with the corruption inside the business
sphere, because it is impossible to work when your concurrents are
playing unfair. Out of recent elections I made the conclusion that people want
to gather to solve our economic and security
problems. And that is the beginning
of positive change in our society.
When it comes to Eal Lapid , I am not sure about him.
He is new for me, so time will show everything. Now they just have to form the
government."
Some interviewees did not vote at all,
following the idea of one house for allJews, and stated that it
does not matter who is in Knesset; as long as they areJewish, it is
okay. Those people are mostly representatives of
apolitical Haredimorganizations, which form a minority.
Israel achieved the political
balance: the rights and the left now have equal chances, but one question remains: will the
two fractions cooperate and solve thecountry's most pressing issues or
they will their conflicts result with theirinitiatives’ collapse? Time
will only tell.
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