Official Israeli Elections Thread

[Sirotnikov]

Ben-Gurion was always a leftist at heart, people simply misunderstand him. One of his great heros was Vladimir Lenin.

David ben gurion was a leftist with steel balls and a very national attitude.

theres still a center party - who is it ? Milo???

David Magen - a former likud member. a nobody.

[Eli]

Originally posted by monkspider
Ben-Gurion was always a leftist at heart, people simply misunderstand him. One of his great heros was Vladimir Lenin.

That's economics you're talking about. No one cares about economics in Israel.

On the Arab/Palestinian issue, the more rightist parts of the Likud are closer to BG than the Labor is.

[Sirotnikov]

well heck, Labor leadership is too the right of Mitzna, and Likud leadership and followership is to the right of Sharon - how seriously do y'all take distinctions between the parties and the PM candidates??

You're correct.

Until Mitzna, avoda was centrist and social democrat.

Until Sharon likkud was ultra right and liberal.

[Eli]

Btw, Siro, your second post in the thread with all the links is ****ed up.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Eli


Raful, no?

... sharon too hawkish...

Ha! I'm sorry, but Sharon is now standing exactly at the center. He is the first Likud PM in history to agree to a Palestinian state, to talk about "painful" concessions, etc.

Just from the fact that he prefers a unity goverment instead of a right wing one you can see that he plans a major move towards the Pals in his last cadence.

Oh i agree Sharon has been more restrained than i had any reason to expect. he's come a long way. I still think he needs to be pushed along though, and that (pace what Mitzna and the Labor doves say) Peres and Fuad had a big role in doing that. I would like a national unity govt, but i dont see that in the cards anytime soon. And given that one more vote for likud(not that i can vote there - this is all academic) doesnt seem a good thing to me.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Eli


That's economics you're talking about. No one cares about economics in Israel.

The people who vote for Shas care about economics. Too bad the secular parties (and especially labor) have conceded them to the amulet crowd.

[monkspider]

Originally posted by Sirotnikov
David ben gurion was a leftist with steel balls and a very national attitude.

He did have a national attitude, yes, but mostly as a matter of pragmatism, given the circumstances of the times. He was an Israeli nationalist by his nature too of course, but the reason his nationalist nature is so magnified in history is because of how things unfolded. In fact, if there is one thing that we can fault Ben-Gurion with it is that he probably let his nationalist feelings cloud his judgement from time to time. One thing that is forgotten is that Ben-Gurion desperately wanted peace with Israel's neighbors, and that he took great initiative to try to do so.

[Sirotnikov]

Btw, Ben gurion started out very leftist in his attitude towards the arabs.

He wanted a federation with arabs and later wanted a bi-nation state (or was it in reverse?)

in any case, between the 1920s and 1950s his view hardened.

[Sirotnikov]

The people who vote for Shas care about economics.

They care about getting funds from Shas's private aid and education network.


Exit polls and telephone polls' results in 5 minutes.

[Shi Huangdi]

Go Shinui!

[Eli]

Likud almost doubles, Shinui triples, Labor crashes, Shas crashes.

[Sandman]

Aren't there some Russian immigrant parties?

[Eli]

Sandman - There is. They lost 50% of their size, from 6 to 3.

Three channels have their own polls, here's a rough average :

Likud - 34
Labor - 18
Shinui - 16
Shas - 11
National Union - 8
Meretz - 7
Mafdal - 5
Arabs - 3 parties, total of 10.
United Torah Judaism - 5
Yisrael Baaliya - 3
Am Ehad - 3

[lord of the mark]

so sounds like Likud-Shinui-Israel Baliyah as base of the coalition, with Shas out.

Will Shinui sit in govt with UTJ???
Will Labor hold out???
Would Sharon use Labor for leverage on UTJ, NRP??
If Mitzna holds out, can Fuad push him out of leadership, or is labor base intent on sitting in opposition to regain long term strength (as they see it)
If they do so will moderate voters who put Shinui in moderate Lapid on religion and economics??

[Sirotnikov]

Polls results:

First Page