MARCH 5 • 2020 | 31

are allowed to vote at the 
Consulate General of Israel 
to the Midwest in Chicago. 
Tomer Moked, Director of 
NEXTGen for JFMD, is also a 
representative from the Jewish 
Agency for Israel and can like-
wise vote at the Consulate in 
Chicago.
“While there are not many 
Israelis here in Michigan 
who can vote, the people 
who I do converse with 
about the elections are very 
frustrated and exhausted 
with them,” Moked said. “I 
do hope things will change 
and that these candidates 
will be responsible adults 
and move forward because I 
do not believe we can go for 
another round of elections.”
Moked has even talked 
with some Israeli voters 
who have changed their 
votes from the previous two 
elections in hopes that their 
switch will help make a dif-
ference in the outcome. 
 Netanyahu won the first 
election, but Gantz won the 
second. Both failed to form a 
majority coalition. Since the 

second election Netanyahu 
has been indicted by the 
Israeli Attorney General on 
corruption charges, throwing 
yet another wrench into the 
political process. 
Results for the third elec-
tion were not yet available at 
Jewish News press time.
“My worry is not with peo-
ple who are changing their 
votes. My fear is that Israelis 
who can vote choose not to, 
because they believe their vote 
doesn’
t matter,
” Moked said. 
“That is the worst thing we 
can do as Israeli citizens.
”
Klevitsky agrees that Israelis 
are not only frustrated with 
the candidates’
 inability to 
work together to form a 
government but are also at a 
point where these elections 
are becoming “ridiculous.
”
“Our country is not func-
tioning. There is no budget, 
no new laws or policies 
can be implemented, and 
everything is just at a halt,” 
Klevitsky said. “Our candi-
dates need [to] put their egos 
aside and work together for 
the people of Israel.” 

www.WalkForIsrael.org

CelebrateISRAEL

Adat Shalom Synagogue

SUNDAY
, MAY 3, 2020

peace and security.”
The day’
s loudest ovation 
came when Israel Prime 
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 
appearing via satellite one day 
before Israel’
s third election 
in 10 months, issued his own 
unnamed rebuttal of Sanders.
“I have news for all you rad-
icals who seek to weaken the 
alliance between the United 
States and Israel,
” he said. “The 
best days of that alliance are yet 
to come.
”
Like others, Netanyahu’
s 
remarks landed as personal 
toward a single candidate, even 
though some of Sanders’
 rivals, 
including Biden, knocked Israel 
for its plans for annexations 

and settlement expansions 
in the West Bank. Though 
Sanders would make history as 
the first Jewish president, his 
rise has given pause to even 
those who count themselves 
as AIPAC’
s more left-leaning 
members.
“I run in pretty liberal cir-
cles, but they’
re also Zionist 
circles,
” said Rabbi Marc Israel 
of Tikvat Israel, a Conservative 
synagogue in Rockville, 
Maryland. “There’
s a struggle 
that there could be a Sanders 
nomination.
”
When asked if he could see 
himself voting for Sanders in 
November, the rabbi paused.
“I don’
t know,
” he said.