with selichos and the Yamim Noraim approaching, I thought it would be worth posting this episode...

Among us religious people many of us say we want the State of Israel to be a halachic state. Maybe we don't have enough power to do it yet. Maybe there arent enough religiosu people yet for it to happen. The goal though is for Israel to become a religious and halachic state, at some point. Some of us say it, or believe it, or say we believe it, even if deep down we really dont want it (because we like our freedom to choose, or whatever other reason it might be). But we say it. We either really want it or we say it because we think we are supposed to.

Aryeh Deri, Minister of Interior and head of Shas, just said on the radio "enough of all the spin - we do not want a medinat halacha - a halachic state".

There you have it gentlemen. You do not need to feel obligated to want a halachic state or feel obligated to say you want a halachic state. The cat is out of the bag. It is fine to want Israel to be a Jewish state without aspirations of turning it into a halachic state run by rabbis you dont want telling you what to do.

Lieberman will topple me. Whoever does not want me as Prime Minister - should vote for him

  -- PM Benjamin Netanyahu

I have not heard anybody talk about throwing the Haredim out of the country, so I am not sure where this is coming from, but it is a good clip..

It seems PM Netanyahu is on a streak of failures. This might be the new Bibi, as he used to be considered the magician who could pull a success out of almost any seemingly bad situation. The latest is the failure to pass the law he tried to ram through the Knesset, against the wishes of the Attorney General, mandating the ability to document polling stations by video.

The thing is, Netanyahu did not work on this law for a reasonable amount of time, trying to obtain support of the various parties, leading a public debate as to the necessity of such a law, and all the normal process of passage of an important law. He just tried to ram it through and calling on, or demanding from, his potential coalition partners to support his position, and even pitting Right against Left on an issue that has no reason to be a right-left issue. As much as the Right has historically, and currently, accused the Left and Arabs of cheating in elections, the Left has accused the Right, the Settlers and the Haredim of cheating in elections. If done properly, such a law could easily be supported by a large majority of parliamentarians.

Netanyahu almost surely knew in advance that the law had little chance of passing. If he had the numbers supporting him, he would have been able to form a coalition. So he knows he does not have the numebrs and would not be able to pass the law. This was really all for show. Netanyahu wanted to show the voters on the Right that he is working for them to try to stop the cheaters on the Left. He wanted to show that the cheaters on the Left have no shame and publicly just want to continue cheating. He wants to show that anything he does, even a good thing, will be blasted by everyone opposed to him, even illogically.

And, Netanyahu wanted to blame Avigdor Leiberman for more problems. Netanyahu blames Lieberman for the elections, despite the fact that it is Bibi who led the initiative to disperse the Knesset and go to elections rather than return his mandate to the President. Lieberman did not join his government because Bibi and his partners would not agree to his demands, but Bibi led the way to elections rather than letting the process continue. And now Bibi is blaming Lieberman for the fall of the camera law, because Lieberman did not support it.

Lieberman owes Bibi nothing. he had no obligation to join his government and he had no obligation to support Bibi's silly law. For 13 years, plus an additional 3 before that, Bibi could have worked on passing such a law when he was leading relatively stable governments. He did not, but only decided to do it now when he has no government and a minority of support. Lieberman is not in his coalition and owes him nothing. Bibi seems to think that blaming Lieberman for his failures will bring him votes. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. That remains to be seen. It does seem, to me, that the people are just no longer buying Bibi's lokshen, as they say in Hebrew.

I think Benny Gantz is running a lousy campaign.

Gantz should be harping on Bibi's power struggle, his recent string of failures (including today's camera law) and how he went with no precedent and did not return the mandate to the president, essentially wasting hundreds of millions of shekels. He should be harping on Netanyahu paying off Hamas regularly. He should be harping on Netanyahu running the country while under indictment and distracted by his personal legal issues. He should be harping on all sorts of issues one can legitimately be upset about regarding Netanyahu as Prime Minister, but you hardly hear him talk, let alone about anything that would help him and maybe turn people away from Netanyahu.

People claim Gantz is unqualified for the position of Prime Minister, and that his party is full of unqualified people. I would just say that Bibi was unqualified for the job as well, until he won and became prime minister. He became qualified on the job, and that included making mistakes along the way. I am not sure anyone running for such a position is qualified, until he/she actually gets the job and figures it out. His being unqualified does not bother me. Also, for many people, as far as I can tell, the real reason to vote for Gantz is just to get rid of Bibi, assuming that if Gantz wins Bibi wont continue to run the Likud for long and will retire from politics. These people largely accept that Gantz being unqualified and his government likely to fold relatively quickly is just the price to pay for getting Bibi out.

Another big issue with Blue and White is that I see no path to government for them. Even if they trounce Bibi/Likud and win more seats, they have no way to form a government. They arent truly left and wont sit with the Arabs and likely not with Meretz/Barak . Likud would be silly to jump in and say we'll join a Gantz-led coalition when they know they can stonewall and prevent Gantz from forming a government. The Haredim wont join because of Lapid (and maybe also because of Lieberman). Yamina, or parts of it, could join but they would likely do like the Likud and stonewall. I dont see how Gantz even gets close to forming a government, even if they win more seats.



(I might make this a series of the problems I have with each party. Or I might not.)

I don't get Ron Kubi and his campaign for the Knesset. He hardly has much of a campaign going, at least that i can see. All the parties are putting out slogans and campaign videos and responding to events and situations with statements.

I don't see any of that from Kubi. The only videos I see him put out are his selfie videos that pretty much all look the same. His entire campaign seems to be going from city to city and getting into pathetic arguments with a handful of bored Haredi teenagers and documenting it to his Facebook page. I am not sure why he thinks that is either mature or will be enough to propel him into national office.

For a guy who ran a successful campaign as an underdog to become mayor of Tiberias, one might think he would have a decent campaign going. For a guy who talks so much, one might think he has something to say that voters might be interested in hearing. Kubi has been boring me lately, and I was so looking forward to an exciting campaign from him. I dare say, Kubi has gotten boring, and even pathetic.