Blog/October 2022/Oct 28th

Oct 28th

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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:

1. Remove socialists and narrow sectarian parties. That leaves me with “Jewish Home”, “Likud”, “National Unity”, “Religious Zionism”, “Yesh Atid”, and “Yisrael Beitenu”.
2. Remove leaders I despise and distrust. That includes Bibi, Leiberman, and Lapid. So I’m left with “Jewish Home”, “National Unity”, and “Religious Zionism”.
3. 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 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 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 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 may be opposed by the Biden administration.
• Honest coverage of Fetterman is not “ableist”.
• Plastic recycling is “a failed concept” according to Greenpeace.
• Archaeologists prove invasions of Biblical Israel match Biblical narratives, by means of Earth’s magnetic field.
• Did you really think 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:
homemade ḥalla, crockpot-chicken, various salatim, and cookies.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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