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Don’t get distracted by niche parties

Opinion: As elections draw near, political parties are proliferating like mushrooms after the rain, but they are mostly clones of existing parties; Voters should avoid voting for lists that exist to bolster someone’s ego.

Citizens of Israel, during the next few weeks you will be able to catch a glimpse of the size of the ego of your politicians. Watch carefully and those that insist on running alone may find themselves alone at home on the day after the elections.

 

 

The current election season brings us an inflationary amount of political parties, many only clones of older parties. Even a NASA telescope cannot identify the difference between the ideology of Yair Lapid and that of Benny Gantz, or the difference between Avi Gabbay and Tzipi Livni.

 

Orly Levy-Abekasis, Gantz and Ya'alon, Ashkenazi (Photos: Shaul Golan, Motti Kimchi, AFP)
Orly Levy-Abekasis, Gantz and Ya'alon, Ashkenazi (Photos: Shaul Golan, Motti Kimchi, AFP)

 

Personality differences — certainly; a desire by everyone to be at the top — most definitely, but if the state is more important than everything else, invite a poll, see who brings more votes for the mutual goal and someone should exit the limelight.

 

Yes, if in three weeks, the deadline to submit party lists, it becomes clear that Moshe Kahlon’s party barely makes the cut, then he must decide where he sees himself politically and join ranks accordingly. It could be Lapid or the Likud, maybe Gantz, but it is entirely unreasonable of him to allow the votes of more than 100,000 Israelis to be tossed out and leave him and his partners outside of the Knesset.

 

The same applies for the Haredim. They should all run on a joint list and after wards they can focus on the finer points of difference between the Hassidim, the Litvaks and the Sephardim. There is also no real difference between the National Union and the Bayit Yehudi Parties.

 

Dividing the votes has two principal disadvantages: one is that each of the small parties exerts undue influence on the political system since when forming a coalition, everyone has to be satisfied and it is an expensive process. The more dramatic disadvantage is the electoral threshold which is expected to stand at 160,000 votes this time. Voting for a niche party almost guarantees that your vote will be discarded thereby strengthening the opposite camp.

 

Voters, if you are considering voting for a party that is quite similar to another party with regards to diplomatic, economic, religious or other matters, then you can be assured that it is mainly someone’s ego that the party is representing; give your vote to the largest possible bloc.

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 01.31.19, 20:26
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