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Nov. 2, 2007
Israelis are tiring of politics
The country's leaders are seen as corrupt and self-interested.
RHONDA SPIVAK
"No, I won't vote. There's no point. They're all the same. Every Israeli politician is out just to look after himself. It's all corrupt here," said Daniel Ashern, a clean-cut soldier, who sits at the train station in Binyamina.
Ashern's sentiments appear to be shared by a growing number of Israelis. Two years after Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip, there appears to be another form of disengagement that the country is undergoing – a disengagement from politics altogether.
The seemingly endless string of investigations into alleged corruptions of the prime minister and others in the government, the resignations of former finance minister Hirschzon and former president Katzav, have left a sense of moral decay in the body politic. An increasing number of Israelis are exhausted and worn out. They are soured on politics and simply want to tune out as a means of coping. Some have even stopped reading the newspaper.
As Dudu Barkan, who served in the air force during last summer's war, said, "I stay away from politics, and won't be voting." When asked about whether he thinks Israel ought to try to strengthen Mahmoud Abbas, he said, "I don't know. Who is Abbas?" His friend Reuven laughed: "Dudu, Abbas is Abu-Mazen. You don't even recognize the name Abbas, because you don't listen to the news at all."
Yonatan, who served in the navy during the war in Lebanon, also said he won't vote in the next elections. In the war, he helped put out the fire on the ship that was hit by Hezbollah off the coast of Lebanon. Now he is waiting tables at a restaurant on the beach in Netanya. "I don't read the papers. The political situation here is a balagan [a complete mess]. I try to stay out of it," he said
Ali, a middle-age Israeli Arab and a father of two, who waits tables with Yonaton, has also cut himself off from politics. "It doesn't make a difference which leader there is or which party wins in Israel. They [the politicians] are all corrupt. They only care about looking after their own seat. Abbas and Hamas are also corrupt. I don't like to think about the political situation. I don't follow the news. I didn't even know Tony Blair [the Middle East envoy for the Quartet] was here until you mentioned it. Let's talk about soccer instead. I follow soccer. I'm a fan of Hapoel Haifa," he said.
Reuven Franco, a lawyer from Netanya who, in the last elections, voted for the Pensioners' party, said that he doesn't intend to vote at all the next time around. "None of them; Olmert, Barak or Netanyahu are worthy of being prime minister again. They are all failures. Last election, I voted for the pensioners as a protest vote because none of the other candidates were deserving. Next time my protest will be not to vote at all."
One of the major upsets in the last Israeli elections in 2006 was the meteoric rise of the Pensioners' party, a party that went from failing to pass the minimum electoral threshold in all past elections, to receiving seven seats in the 17th Knesset. It is likely that much of the party's support came in the way of a protest vote among the young, particularly in Tel-Aviv where nearly one in 10 voters voted for the party. The party had actually encouraged voters to vote for their party rather than submit a blank ballot.
One way of measuring the pulse of Israel is by talking politics with taxi drivers, who are notorious for their colorful political assessments and who usually have a definite opinion on how they'll vote. But, they too, show signs of disengagement form politics.
Nissim Cohen, a taxi driver from Herzylia, said, while driving through Kfar Shmaryahu: "Look, [former finance minister] Hirshzon, who has resigned, lives somewhere in this area. You have to be wealthy to live here. How did Hirshzon get his money?.... Me, the reason I will never afford to live in Kfar Shmaryahu is that I'm not a thief. Why should I vote for thieves? It's better not to vote at all."
David Kalman, a taxi driver in Jerusalem, chuckled as he said: "The whole thing is a joke. I voted for the pensioners last time as a protest. Next time, I won't vote."
Mickey Safra, a taxi driver in Ra'anana, has questions about Ehud Barak. "How is it that in the few years Barak left politics he made so many millions of dollars? In the five years that he left politics he earned 30 million shekel. How did he do that?... He used his political connections to make himself a pile of money. He made 30 million shekel when he left politics and now he is back to lead the workers party [Labor]!" exclaimed Safra.
During Labor's primary campaign last spring, the Ra'anana College began an advertising campaign with the slogan, "If Ehud Barak can, so can you." The unspoken message behind the slogan was that if Barak was able in five years to make six million dollars, so could students of Ra'anana College. According to the Hebrew daily Yediot Achronot, the spokesperson for the college, Dekel Shichrur, has complained to the police that Barak's brother, pollstor Avinoam Brog, and other Barak confidents, threatened and pressured him to drop the advertising campaign.
The fact that Barak lives in the exclusive Akirov Towers in Tel-Aviv is the subject of much chatter among Israelis, especially since it makes him seem very removed from the concerns of less fortunate people.
"Barak certainly isn't made from the same mould as Shimon Peres," said Ettie Broya, a school teacher in Tel-Aviv. "After all these years in politics, Peres [before moving into the president's house in Jerusalem] lived in the same apartment he always has. He never used his political position to make a fortune for himself. He has connections everywhere in the world and could have used all these connections to make himself millions like Barak, but he didn't. That says a lot more for him than for Barak."
Anat, a psychologist in Tel-Aviv who did not want to give her last name agreed with Broya. " There's a real leadership crisis in this country – there are no real leaders who are out to look after the state's interest, rather than their own personal interest anymore. Everyone is in politics just to line their own pockets. We haven't moved forward. We're recycling old leaders – Barak and Netanyahu. The choice will be the same as 10 years ago. No wonder people are turned off with politics."
Rhonda Spivak is a Winnipeg freelance writer.
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