Opinion

Dry Bones VAT

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Editorial

Israel's Political Disarray

I

sraeli President Shimon Peres posed
the following questions at the open-
ing of the winter session of the
Knesset at the end of October:
•"How can we ensure Israel's security
in light of the various threats we are faced
with? How will we end the Israeli-Arab
conflict and bring peace to our people?
•"How will we lead [Israel] to economic
prosperity while maintaining social jus-
tice?
•"How will we sustain the internal soli-
darity and fortitude of Israeli society: the
rule of law, the inclusion of minorities and
just governance?
•"How will we cultivate the younger
generation — Israel's future?"
The answer to all is that they can't be
answered without electoral reform.
Israelis will head to the polls in
February because of Kadima leader Tzipi
Livni's failure to form a government fol-
lowing Ehud Olmert's September resigna-
tion as prime minister. Meanwhile, Olmert
continues as acting prime minister though
he has been disgraced with scandal and
his approval rating is miniscule. But not
only is Israel's government unpopular, it is
inherently dysfunctional.
This is no way to run a country.
Livni is saying she had no choice

because Israeli politics, as usual, are in
disarray. She's risen to the top because
of her Ms. Clean image, but in the very
rough-and-tumble Israeli campaigns,
her image is bound to bruise. Already
she's getting criticism for not demanding
enough from the ailing Labor party, which
all polls show will continue to shrink
under the leadership of former Prime
Minister Ehud Barak.
Similarly, she's being criticized as naive
for not giving in to the political blackmail
of the Shas party because capitulation has
always been a price of forming a govern-
ment. Shas — built on the votes of Israel's
Sephardic community and adhering to the
pronouncements of its 88-year-old rabbi
— demanded a billion shekels to provide
greater welfare for large families and
insisted there be no negotiations regarding
Jerusalem. Livni refused, but found that
without Shas there was nowhere to go but
to elections.
We're about to see a bruising battle
between Kadima and the Likud Party
led by former Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu. The campaign is likely to rein-
force to Israelis all the reasons they are
dissatisfied with their politicians and their
political structure. Netanyahu, a veteran
at political hardball, already has report-

edly told Shas that, if
elected, he will agree
to its terms.
As noted by the late
eminent student of
Israeli politics Daniel
Elazar,"Successful
political systems from
a democratic perspec-
tive are those in which
the government has
sufficient energy to
govern, that is to say,
to confront the tasks
placed before it, and at
the same time is suf-
ficiently controlled to
be responsible to the
people!'
Israel's system doesn't have this neces-
sary balance.
The plethora of parties and the low
threshold for representation in the Knesset
give small parties in Israel inordinate
power. In such a situation, a governing
coalition is an oxymoron; keeping a coali-
tion intact restricts the ability to govern.
The outsized importance of political par-
ties and the lack of regional representation
in the Knesset feed the frustration and
alienation. Another serious problem is

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www.drybonesblog.com

that lack of faith in the system and politi-
cians breeds extremism and vigilantism.
Ironically, while many in the U.S. feel
limited by the major-two-party system,
Israelis feel limited by their multi-party
system.
Israel needs a democratic government
that can govern and leaders who can lead,
but it just won't happen without electoral
reform. Israel needs to address the prob-
lem. Peres' questions aren't just rhetorical;
they need answers.

❑

Reality Check

Days I Do Remember

A

big problem I have with getting
older is the realization that my
nostalgia is now in the minority.
This hit me while watching the new TV
show Life on Mars (which is really pretty
good, albeit a bit preachy). The setting is
1973, into which year the star has been
inexplicably transported after being hit by
a car in 2008.
That adds up to 35 years ago. People
dressed funny and had odd haircuts then.
The things that are the common coinage
of our daily life — cell phones, personal
computers — are nonexistent. Police pro-
cedures are brutally different and sexual
harassment rampant.
For the majority of TV viewers this
would be nostalgia central. But it's barely
the day before yesterday for me, and the
'70s were not my favorite era.
The energy that defined the '60s already
had turned sour. The counter culture was
now the mass culture. Vietnam was wind-
ing down and Nixon was on his way out.

Even aunts and uncles were dab-
bling in pot.
"The Night the Lights Went
Out in Georgia;' topped the
Billboard chart for two weeks.
Need I say more?
A few days later, I was discuss-
ing the need for a transfusion
with some friends and suddenly,
as is my wont, burst into song:
"I'm just a cotton-pickin' mess
of contusions.
I'm never, never, never gonna speed
again:
Slip the claret to me, Barrett!'
They looked at me as if I had sud-
denly gone mad. They had never heard
the Nervous Norvus hit from 1956.
"Transfusion" was a song that infuriated
most right-thinking people and delighted
us teenagers. I can't remember the last
time I heard it, even on an oldies station.
It rings my nostalgia bells, but it is the
sound of silence to most people.

Then I saw a magazine
article about the top televi-
sion innovators of all time. It
neglected to mention either
Steve Allen or Ernie Kovacs,
brilliant men who expanded
the visual possibilities of the
new medium. That annoyed
me, too.
The original meaning of
the word nostalgia in ancient
Greek was "homesick!' It was
a longing for the place you belonged, not
where you happened to be at the moment.
In those years, when a trip abroad meant
an absence of years not hours, that was
understandable. But time changes mean-
ing. Now it's time, not distance.
Many readers of the Jewish News associ-
ate nostalgia with old city neighborhoods
that are gone forever, a sense of close
community that we now enjoy only in the
abstract. When I write about Linwood or
Seven Mile, they kvell, even though their

houses are so much larger now and vaca-
tion trips may involve a cruise to South
America rather than a week in South
Haven.
I'm pretty sure I don't belong back in
1956, and even less in 1973, when I was
living in a one-bedroom apartment in
Palmer Park and had two years to go
before I met my wife-to-be.
I'd like to be in a place where I was
healthier and doctors were a once-a-year
event rather than a weekly occurrence.
Where so many I loved were still with
me. Where daily newspapers thrived and
the rush of working a breaking story was
unlike any other I have ever known.
Maybe that place exists only in my
mind. Because even with all the aches and
pains, I wouldn't trade anything for the
smiles on my grandchildren's faces.

❑

George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor614@aoLcom.

November 6 • 2008

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