The Cliffs of Insanity

I was about to start a post and realized I never sent this which was written 6 weeks ago. I just reread it and most of the sentiment still holds up so I will post it now. It will be a good segue to my next post which will happen next week as I am going to write it now.

I was discussing the famous quote by Einstein the other day which says that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I think it is an excellent definition that explains a lot of what is going on here in Israel

First the election. As you may or may not know , Israel is heading into its fourth election in 3 years. The results of the first 3 elections were almost identical. After the last election, Benny Gantz, who betrayed his coalition partners and voters, joined the Likud to form a government.

Why would he do that.

Because Bibi promised him a power sharing agreement with a rotation of the position of prime minister with Gantz taking over in 18 months

I would like to think that the man who once ran the army here knew he was being played.

I hope he knew what we all knew, that there was no way Bibi was going to step down voluntarily and hand him the reins.

Because it would be nothing short of insanity to think otherwise

Another form of insanity is voting for the same party each time thinking that  the result will be different. With all the anti-Haredi sentiment in the country, you would think this would have a negative impact on Bibi as he has tied himself to them

Nope

Bibi is polling to get the same amount of seats he did the last 3 times ( give or take 1 or 2)

All the parties are essentially polling the same.

So knowing this and knowing that voting for the same party for the 4th time will have similar results as the last three elections, will I change my vote?

No

I am insane but at least I can acknowledge it.

Besides maybe it will turn out different this time. ( see, insane)

Another example of insanity are the endless lockdowns.

We are in our 3rd lockdown this Corona season. This has been going on for 6 weeks. In addition, the entire country is closed to incoming and outgoing passenger flights.

I am not sure if the lockdowns are insane but they fact that no one is following it, other than me and my family, makes US insane.

I spoke to two people today. One said he had a wonderful trip up to the Galil yesterday. I said that sounded very nice but aren't we in lockdown

He shrugged.

Then I bumped into an elderly gentleman who was jumping into a cab to go to work.

It seems that almost no one is locking down. Of course I blame this on the people who felt they never had to , who never closed their schools and kept having large weddings.

The police have admitted that there is nothing they can do to prevent this. We can prevent Iran and Hezbollah from attacking but we have no way to deal with disobedient citizens.

So why should anyone bother.

I think just let everyone do what they want. Presumably those who are getting vaccinated will fair better and perhaps g-d will protect those who refuse to follow the rules and get vaccinated.

I say lets see what happens. Lets not invest so much emotional capital.

I have one more example of insanity

Staying in the USA, thinking it is going to get better. I have gotten several pictures of the recent snow in NYC. I enjoy looking at them while at sit at a bench on the beach.

You could be at the beach. What are you still doing there????

That's just nuts.