* This post is dedicated to readers that come from Lisa Goldman‘s piece in the British Guardian about the Israeli blogosphere and the upcoming elections. I wrote very similar things in Hebrew here.
I’ve decided to vote this time for the Hadash party. It is a Jewish-Arab post-communist party Hadash. Voting for radical left isn’t easy for me. It’s new for me. (Hadash means new in Hebrew).
It took me quite a long time to reach this decision. I’d rather vote for a big party, a party that can be the ruling party. I’ve voted for the Labor Party in 96, 99, and in the recent elections in 2006. I cast my vote for Meretz, mild left part in 2003, and voted for Labor’s Ehud Barak in the direct elections in 2001.
But this time, I prefer to cast my vote for a 100% opposition party. I beleive that their MKs did an excellent job, and I trust them to continue the good work.
I was deliberating if to vote for the Green Movement Meimad party, which is a socialist green party, that also focuses on education. I decided not to vote for them, mostly because they avoid talking about the Israeli Arab conflict. They focus only on internal affairs, and hid their opinions during the Gaza war.
Hadash stood up against the war, before it and during it. Their presence was seen in all the demonstrations. Only they saw how stupid and useless this war was.Â
In addition, these are days tense between Jews and Israeli Arabs. Avigdor Lieberman’s party suggests that citizenship should be revoked from Israeli Arabs if they don’t show loyalty for the country. These scary fascist ideas find many followers in the Israeli public, and it’s very alarming.Â
So, I’m voting for a party that is a partnership between Jews and Arabs.Â
So, I’m voting for an opposition party, and cleaning up my conscience.
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