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We’re heading into elections this coming Tuesday (as are our USAn friends and family), though our elections are likely to be a repeat of the past several, unfortunately.

I’ve decided for whom I will cast my vote, and thought to share my selection process with you. ''Disclaimer'': I don’t like ''any'' of the parties likely to pass the electoral threshold. However, there are those I actively dislike, while others have points in their favor. I’ll try to give you a feel for what it’s like when you’re “politically homeless”, as I am and have been for quite some time.

The parties likely to pass the threshold are: “Hadash-Ta’al”, “Jewish Home”, “Labor”, “Likud”, “Meretz”, “National Unity”, “Religious Zionism”, “Shas”, “United Arab List”, “United Torah Judaism”, “Yesh Atid”, and “Yisrael Beitenu”. Some combination of them will try to form a coalition government.

The culling process begins:
# Remove socialists and narrow sectarian parties. That leaves me with “Jewish Home”, “Likud”, “National Unity”, “Religious Zionism”, “Yesh Atid”, and “Yisrael Beitenu”.
# Remove leaders I despise and distrust. That includes Bibi, Leiberman, and Lapid. So I’m left with “Jewish Home”, “National Unity”, and “Religious Zionism”.
# Remove weaklings. Sorry, Shaked — I had great hopes for you, but you’ve not lived up to your potential. Sorry, generals, you’ve demonstrated a severe lack of political acumen. So that leaves me only with “Religious Zionism”… but can I vote for them in good conscience?

After reading [https://zionutdatit.org.il/ their party’s platform], I found a number of things I like and somewhat fewer things I didn’t like (none of which have been part of the [https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-720196 incessant anti-Gvir campaign]). But the big point in their favor as far as I’m concerned is that they are a truly nationalist party, and if they garner enough seats (as appears likely [https://www.jns.org/opinion/why-israeli-firebrand-itamar-ben-gvir-is-soaring-in-polls-and-why-the-left-calls-him-a-racist/ according to polls]), they’ll provide a needed counterweight to the tendency of Likud to bow to the Left under pressure. Of course, that supposes the “right” can even form a stable coalition — which, based on the past several attempts, seems unlikely.

Other things:
* Musk’s takeover of Twitter [https://thepostmillennial.com/biden-administration-weighing-options-to-block-musks-takeover-of-twitter may be opposed] by the Biden administration.
* Honest coverage of Fetterman [https://hollymathnerd.substack.com/p/honest-coverage-of-fetterman-is-not is not “ableist”].
* Plastic recycling is [https://news.slashdot.org/story/22/10/24/213208/plastic-recycling-a-failed-concept-study-says “a failed concept”] according to Greenpeace.
* Archaeologists [https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-720453 prove invasions of Biblical Israel] match Biblical narratives, by means of Earth’s magnetic field.
* Did you ''really'' think [https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-720658 Russian antisemitism] was suddenly over? Not a chance!

We were back to a normal work schedule this week, meaning we worked all the time. Nothing exciting to report, really.

Our friends recommended a handyman to us, because we need to replace the door to our outside storage area. If it were possible for me to just go buy a door I would have done it myself (I’ve hung doors before, it’s not rocket science). But it turns out that “it’s complicated”. So we’re waiting for the guy’s estimate; hopefully it’ll be reasonable.

The weather was nice and almost fall-like. We were supposed to have gotten rain, but only a few drops appeared. Next week is supposed to get colder and more rainy. ''Shabbat'' will be dry and warm.

We’re invited out one meal, so our basic ''shabbat'' menu has:<br>
homemade ''ḥalla'',
crockpot-chicken,
various ''salatim'',
and cookies.<br>

Until next time,<br>
''shabbat shalom''!

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