It’s the elections, stupid

You get cynical in your old age. Well, I have.

Whereas I once went along with Bismarck’s adage that politics is the art of the possible, I now look at it as some sort of vague quasi-science for people who are desperate to stay in the game.

I mean, look at what some Israeli politicians are willing to do for a simple vote.

With wars on several fronts, Defense Minister Israel Katz, mindful of today’s Likud primary, skipped important security briefings to brown-nose members of his party’s all-important internal power apparatus by attending the weddings and bar mitzvas of their offspring.

As national road deaths spiked and highway traffic ground to a halt, Transportation Minister Miri Regev was busy doctoring old photos of herself with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a ploy to convince the Likud rank and file that she remains within his good graces. Which is not entirely the case.

As for Netanyahu himself, he’s reigniting wars in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. He is doing so to the chagrin of his patron in Washington, President Donald Trump, and to the delight of hardcore Likud voters everywhere.

Of course, Netanyahu need not worry about today’s primary; he’s already nailed the Number 1 spot. He’s more concerned about the general election, scheduled for October 27, and where the votes of former supporters, put off by October 7, strangely remain up for grabs.

I MIGHT ADD YOAV SEGALOVITZ to the list.

Segalovitz was a top police detective who went into politics but never rose beyond a mid-bencher in the Yesh Atid party. Now he says he’d like the Number 2 spot in an Arab party. And not just any Arab party, but one long associated, at least until recently, with an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.

An Arab party? The Muslim Brotherhood?

Well, it’s complicated, but the United Arab List actually was part of an extraordinary iteration of a left-center-right government co-led for all of 18 months by Segalovitz’s party before primal politics and raw racism led to its downfall, to new elections and to the return of Netanyahu – this time backed by a slew of horrid far-right coalition partners.

Yes, I could add Segalovitz to the list of Israeli politicians who will do anything for a vote. But Netanyahu – strangely enough – remains a political threat after October 7, meaning Segalovitz’s anticipated move could lend a load of legitimacy to the United Arab List if it’s again called on by opposition parties to form a governing coalition.

This in turn might relegate to the dust bin of history a longtime Israeli political taboo against Arab parties in positions of power, right now a potential necessity should either side come up short in the numbers necessary to form a government.

Which is the whole point of this piece.

For years, Israeli pols have allocated hours of their precious time to boost the egos of party hacks who hold the key to their continued participation in politics. This practice will not disappear anytime soon. In fact, if my feelings are correct, Segalovich – should he go through with his plan to join the United Arab List – will himself become a regular at all the rights of passage that UAL members hold for their offspring.

It’s a political fact of life. So what’s key here is not to turn up your nose at politics over… well, politicking. The key is to vote!

ISRAEL’S HIGHEST VOTER TURNOUT – 87% – was recorded during the first Knesset election, held on January 25, 1949. That’s quite a slice of the country’s eligible voters.

Since then, however, aside from some ups and downs, voter turnout has eroded. In 2022, when Bibi returned to power, it was just 70%. That’s more than in a lot of other Western countries. Yet it means that fully 30% of eligible voters were not sufficiently motivated to show up.

Of course, Netanyahu’s planned judicial putsch and Hamas’s October 7 onslaught had yet to happen. So now Israel is on the cusp of emerging from a dark and dangerous predicament to one of hope, change and a concerted effort to undo what four years of callous disregard for both Israeli and Palestinian lives has done for the country’s standing both at home and in the world.

The key to change is getting out the vote. If you didn’t vote in 2022 and are miserable because of the outcome, this is your chance.

This is not to say that all of those who failed to vote in 2022 will vote for sanity. It is entirely possible that many will vote for Netanyahu and the Right. And it is their prerogative. But with so much hanging in the balance, and so much of it existential in nature, nothing less than the 87% that turned out in 1949 will do.

We are at a crossroads. One that will shape this nation for the coming decades. Only a high turnout of voters in the upcoming election will put to bed the nation’s true feelings.

Vote as if your life depended on it. Because it will.