Israeli General Election 2013

[Velasco]

Between France and the USSR I choose the first. I'm not sure about what's the most dangerous thing: Bibi or the Global Warming. I must be between Meretz, the Greenies and the Laborites, if I have to trust the guide. However, I'm not a fan of former laborites like Shimon Peres, I prefer Yitzhak Rabin. Of whom the Israeli Labor is more nearby in these days?

[Velasco]

It's a shame that division between the moderate heroes -I mean Yesh Atid and Labour- given the poor showing of the national-religious coalition. At least Meretz made some unexpected gains, although we have those sweeties of Jewish Home and Shas alongside the Likud-Beitenu bloc. I think that if I were Israeli I could understand those who spent the day on Tel-Aviv beaches instead of going to the polling stations, given the political landscape. I've just watched a video in The Guardian website showing some examples of that. On the other side, the interviewed Palestinians in the same video don't seem to expect great things from this election (normal).

[Velasco]

So it seems that right now the right and left blocks are tied at 60-60 with 99% of the vote counted. Close elections like this are so much fun

Which parties do you include in 'right' and 'left' blocs?

As it stands now Likud-Beitenu has 31 seats and Jewish Home 11, totalling 42 seats for the conservative Zionist bloc. The religious conservatives Shas (11) and United Torah and Judaism (7) have 18 seats. So, yes, the right has 60 seats.

On the other side Kadima (2) or Hatnuah (6), which are centrist parties being generous, can hardly being considered as part of any 'left'. In any case, they could form a centre-left bloc (or so) with Labour (15) and Yesh Atid (19) which adds 42 seats. Then we have the socialdemocrat/green Meretz (6) and the communist/socialist Hadash (4), which can be considered as left-wing parties, totalling 10 seats. Finally the United Arab List (5) and Balad (3) have 8 seats. The first party is described simply as a religious and nationalist Arab party, while Balad seems to be a secular Arab nationalist one. I can hardly see this half of the Knesset as an homogeneous 'leftist' bloc, not to mention that Arab parties have never been part of any Israeli government.

[Velasco]

Livni can't be considered left? The number 2 and 3 on her list are former Labor Party leaders.

Livni goes in the left-wing bloc without a moments thought.

She's certainly more to the left than Yesh Atid.

Well, being a former Israeli Laborite doesn't guarantee being a leftist at this point. At least I don't regard Shimon Peres (former Labour and later Kadima member) as a leftist, given his political action and his allignment with Ariel Sharon. On the other hand the Tzipi Livni Party is described as centrist and liberal. Probably you are right and she's on the left of Lapid -honestly, I don't know too much about him or his party- but this doesn't convert her in a leftist.

[Velasco]

It's interesting the dabate about the Arab Israeli citizens. The other day I read this article in The Guardian by Rachel Sabi about the griefs of what in Israel is called the left. Sabi argues that the center-left in Israel is elitist, myopic and Eurocentric and that these faults have contributed to the rise of the hardcore nationalist right.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/21/left-israel-own-worst-enemy?intcmp=239

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This quote from a Mizrahi is interesting:

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The author says that Likud exploited the discrimination towards the Mizrahi population in the late 70's to win a landslide victory with Menachem Begin, also criticizes the attitude of Ehud Barak after the failure of the peace talks at Camp David in 1999.  Regarding the Arabs says:

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The conclusion is quite pessimistic:

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