Those who didn't make it

CARL ALPERT SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

Though the fate of parties such as Likud, Labor and Shinui were still a little questionable up until election day, it was understood they would each merit numerous seats in the Knesset. But there were those parties who were not even popular enough to gather sufficient votes to give them representation at all. Who were the others? What did they stand for? We look at a sampling of those who did not succeed.

• The Men's Rights party. Their platform demanded equal rights for men in divorce cases, the right of fathers to prevent unwanted births, the linkage of alimony to rises in pay, and not to the cost of living index. Working with the party was the Association of Taxi Drivers, who fought against restrictions on their operations.

• Yisrael Aheret (A Different Israel). This was a party against politicians – all of them. The leaders demanded that all posts in the government cabinet be filled by professionals, qualified by talent or experience in their fields, and not by politicians. On general issues they advocated unilateral separation from the Palestinians, privatization of government-owned industries and separation of state and religion.

• The Social Justice party campaigned jointly with a bloc seeking to advance the interests of the Negev. Their campaign slogans included "Social revolution," "Return the rule to the people," "Defend the citizens from the authorities" and "Separate the people's representatives from the capitalists."

• Ahavat Yisrael (Love of Israel) was founded by the grandson of 106-year-old kabbalist Rabbi Yitzhak Kadouri, who was in open opposition to the large Charedi party, Shas. Kadouri's promise that voters for his party would be rewarded by the Almighty with wealth, happiness and, where appropriate, with a proper spouse, was censored out of the publicity by the national election board, but somehow kept showing up.

• Moreshet Avot (Heritage of the Fathers) was headed by the colorful and flamboyant figure Yosef Ba-Gad, a former member of the Knesset, who had been a clowning figure there. He demanded that ministers in the government cabinet serve voluntarily and give their salaries to social causes. The day before the elections, he withdrew his party from the poll.

• Tsomet (Crossroads) was the party of Rafael (Raful) Eitan, former chief of staff of the military forces and a former member of the Knesset and a government minister, but he took no part in the campaign. The platform was secular and right wing. Its slogan: "Zionism always needs you."

• Citizen and State party. All of its campaign publicity was in the Russian language and, presumably, sought to attract the votes of Russian immigrants.
Its call to the Russians was to take over the government and save Israel.

• Lehava (Flame) undertook to represent the unemployed, the handicapped and the single-parent families. It also called for reducing the power of the banks.

• Liberal Progressive party (Leader). The party called for an international campaign against terror, encouragement of aliyah and adoption of a constitution that would separate religion from the state, but its publicity was nowhere to be seen.

• Hamercaz (The Centre). This party had originally been the great hope of those who sought to bridge the gap between the right and left in Israeli politics. It made a grand entry into the previous Knesset but quickly disintegrated and was abandoned by most of its leading members. Its recent attempt to make a return faltered and, only two days before the polls, it announced its withdrawal.

• The Green party had an environmental program to combat air pollution and destruction of beaches, and to preserve Israel's green areas from the destructive activity of building contractors. It also stood for social justice and civil liberties, and nice generalities, like motherhood, that no one could oppose.
Certainly no one could say that Israeli voters had little choice.

Carl Alpert is a freelance writer living in Haifa.

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