I'll Bet You Think This Song Is About You

Just got back from the states (again). I came back to what I think is good news. It seems the person I voted for, did what I was hoping he would. I voted for Avigdor Lieberman, the head of Yisrael Beiteinu. He is known as being the Russian candidate and as I have mentioned before, I might be the only English speaker who voted for him.

He refused to join the coalition government under Netanyahu and instead of giving another party the chance to form one, BB called new elections. He then blamed Lieberman for stabbing him in the back, causing the country a huge expense and accused him of being left wing.

There is some truth to the last comment.

A few years ago, Lieberman was considered the far right. Now he is the only person on the right who still supports a two state solution. It is true that this comes with transferring land that is inhabited by Israeli Arabs to Palestine, but at least he is willing to give them a state eventually.

You would think many people would be angry at him. He has caused a new, expensive election. He opened the possibility that the right will not form the next government.

Funny thing is he is polling to get 9-10 seats up from his current 5.

What happened?

Firstly, people heard how much of their civil liberties BB was willing to give away to form his government. On top of controlling all religion in the country with the most extreme interpretation of Halacha ( Jewish Law) , giving them tons of cash for their schools that do not teach basic math or about the state and the continuation of letting them skirt the draft ( which was Lieberman's main issue) he also promised that he would change laws to allow public assemblies to have forced separations of men and women and there was talk of passing a law to force women to the back of the bus ( like the good ol' days) .

So the issue that I am most passionate about, religious coercion, is finally showing up on everyone's radar.

What changed?

Well, I think people are starting to realize that the demands of the religious parties will get more outrageous as time goes on and at some point we will be living in a state ruled by halacha as interpreted by the most extreme of us.

You might wonder, why is BB doing this? Can't he see what is happening. Every agreement that the Religious parties have entered  into ( a pluralistic prayer area at the Kotel, the drafting of more Yeshiva Students) they have backed out of the second they thought they had the upper hand politically.

Why does BB insist on giving them so much?

Simple. He wants to avoid jail.

We are now finding out the extent that BB is willing to go to secure one thing. A law that will prevent a sitting prime minister from getting indicted.

He was willing to give everything without a thought to what would happen to the rest of us.

Thank g-d for Lieberman

I hope that this issue will now become one of the main points of the next election. Today, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed on this clash in Israeli society.

People are starting to care.

The dream is for BB to go and the Likud form a coalition with the Blue and White party ( with Lieberman of course).

Keep the extremists out.

But BB is not going anywhere voluntarily. Perhaps when he can't form a government after the next election he will get the hint.

There will be a lot more on the elections. It is a national sport here.

As far as the title , the vain ones will understand.

Chag Sameach.