The Right won a big victory, but too many votes were wasted - the Right could have had an even stronger bloc, an even stronger coalition. Yet time and time again the Right splits itself with smaller and smaller parties that think what they have to offer is so unique that they cannot do it within another party but must do it alone.
Every single election season, and we have way too many of them, the politicians on the Right do the same stupid thing. I don't know why, but each time someone thinks he can ignore the lessons of the past and he will succeed where everyone else failed. I would have liked to see Yachad get in, even if just to ensure those votes not be wasted, but I think they were foolish for running separately, I think the people behind them were foolish for supporting them.
The Left is smart enough, but doesn't have enough support (thankfully). The Right isn't all that smart, in this regard, but wins despite that. We already know that Moshe Feiglin is preparing to do the same exact thing next time that Eli Yishai just did yesterday.
Please, next time, make a deal with a stable party, and don't waste all that money, energy, and votes.
and I think, I hope, that is it for my election thoughts. It is time to move on.
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Well said!
ReplyDeleteI think you are joining the crowd-bashing mob, unless this is just some idea for discussion.
ReplyDeleteThe 'right' does not waste votes, but rather the religious/Haredi 'right-wing' parties assume that they have a monopoly on who the right is. Come on. The secular-left is equally fractured - where did Lapid and Cahlon come from?
the majority of Yachad voters did not have anyone else to vote for - not Deri,Bennet, Liberman, Likud, or Gimel and would have stayed home.
Of course Yachad's voters had whom to vote for. Yishai's voters should be with Shas - split was totally personal, not ideological. And right-wing should have voted for Bayit.
DeletePeople think they need to agree with ALL of a party's positions. They have to realize that the perfect is the enemy of the good.
Same applies in shiduchim. :-)
Yishai's voters were mostly not shas voters. I think most of his voters were former Bayit Yehudi voters, and Otzma voters with some shas and some UTJ
DeleteI don't think that too many people voted for BY last time and Yishai this time. It just doesn't look at it if you look at the breakdown by city. Most of the otzma voters voted for him but I doubt those people have ever or will ever vote for Bayit Yehudi. I think that in general the right wing gets much higher turnout so many of them vote for small parties that don't get in but if those parties didn't exist then I think many would have stayed home .... just like what happens on the left.
Deleteyou dont think some, many, tekuma voters who voted BY last time voted Yachad this time because of Chetbooun ala Rav Lior and Rav Aviner?
DeleteNo, probably not. Yachad plus Shas still doesn't equal what Shas had last time.
DeleteYishai clearly couldnt make a deal with Shas, but maybe he could have with Bennet or with Lieberman, and that they didnt is not just his fault but also Bennet's fault and Liebermans fault. They should have seen it as more important to avoid wasting votes, especially because all the polls were showing it was a very close race.Had it come out like the polls predicted, these wasted votes would have been disastrous.
ReplyDeleteYesh Atid and Kahlon are in the same boat. Yesh Atid should have joined Hamachane Hatzioni (because he ran on the anything but Bibi ticket) (if Livni could make a deal with Labor despite her history, there is no reason Lapid couldn't have)and Kahlon should have joined Likud or Habayit Hayehudi. When you get 10 or 11 seats though, it is hard to say that is a small party wasting votes.
People don't see to give credit to Yishai for not being able to stand Deri any longer, even if it meant risking a promised ministerial seat for going it alone. Deri in the past two years has simple not 'launched' Shas anywhere. Still talks the same, did not make progress in taking the school system to a new level (so I guess the forced reforms under Yishai were okay?). His choice to put Rav Shalom as head of the moetza was disastrous for the Shas moderates. Rafi and DR - you really think all Shas voters could suck it in and vote Shas again?
ReplyDeleteI called from the beginning of the campaigns that these were the selfie elections with the leader out front and the party at the rear. Lapid's ego could not join Labour, and Cahlon would not beg back into Likud (he took a big risk and became the big winner of the day).
But Livni did admit defeat and merged into Labour and
Mofaz folded Kadima and left politics.
Instead of blaming others, the Bayit Yehudi should do its own soul-searching why it distanced many srugim. But they won't. Rav Rontzki stated (and most of the campaign confirmed) that the BY has more in common with seculars than Haredim. Bennet 'took a risk' and strived to attract more seculars at the expense of the 'settlers' (who the BY did not really openly defend the past two years).
DR, Yachad was also made up of Marzel supporters who the Bayit Hayehudi ridicules even more than Shas, so please don't think that Otzma could have found a home with the BY.
many couldnt suck it up and vote Shas. They mostly switched to Bayit Yehudi and Likud, with a small amount going to Yachad. Yachad, Bayit Yehudi, Beyteynu should have all found a way to merge with each other and/or Likud, in various combinations, and Shas and UTJ should merge with each other. Look how well the arab party did because of it. find a way and make it work. so they wont agree on everything. big deal
DeleteOkay, I'll roll with you on this. The Arab parties really had a gun to their heads and clearly would not, even in hindsight, have passed the threshold on their own. They are three quite different parties with one common denominator only - Arab or joint Arab-Jewish and that is it. That denominator was enough to unite.
DeleteFrankly, if Deri had integrity he would take Galon's lead and resign for the major loss.
Though not sure if anything in common, in the next elections Meretz and Lapid will be at disadvantage.
On the other hand, I understand your desire, but there is no loaded gun pointed at the right wing parties (except between Yishai and Marzel who did in fact unite) As you probably know first hand, Shas and UTJ cannot possibly unite. Too much ego, pride, and auto-racism exists today. The only reason they would unite is possible in the next elections if they one more time stay out of the government, they do join the government, but with crappy positions, or sometime before the next elections they do leave or are forced out of the government and then unite to be against the world.
Yachad got a boost from the tzaddik - Rav Yoram Abergel. I do not know his reason for leaving Shas.
The core bleeding heart BY supporters cannot stand Kahane supporters who make the dati-leumi sector 'look bad'. They felt they already had to take the pill and accept Tekuma.
Another thing about unity, it failed with Likud-Yisrael Beitenu in 2013 and that is something to think about as well.
In my city, it seems like Otzma was stagnant while votes bailed from Shas and Bayit Yehudi to Likud.
regarding Deri resigning I agree. The funny thing is he has declared it a victory. he says he kept Shas together, while any other party that went through what Shas did would have disintegrated. Also, he thinks he won because Yachad did not make it in. Also, he only lost 2 seats, while he did not even have Maran to campaign (though he used the image of Maran, he did not have the actual person)
Deleteyes, there is a lot of ego preventing it
I suppose that you can blame the idealists, like myself, who want their cake, and eat it, too. :-/
ReplyDeleteOTOH, This whole threshold minimum is bunk. Whether voting for Yachad, Alei Yaroq, or whichever small party, not everyone's voice is heard. Not everyone's voice matters.
So much for democracy, or, in Israel's case, deMOCKracy.
You know of course that Feiglin tried working within Likud, and they did not play fair. So it's no wonder that his supporters and others feel disenfranchised, and would rather throw their votes away.
ReplyDelete