Okay folks. Time to admit you don't have a clue about Israeli politics

[brooklynite]

We (and American media) tend to aggregate everything into left/right, red/blue, and with only two Parties of significance, one or the other will be above 50%. The Israelis are nothing like that. Likud and the Zionist union (itself an amalgam of other Parties) each grab only about 1/3 of the vote. The challenge for either is to cobble together a coalition from the dozen or so other Parties, which are all over the map. You have ultra-religious parties which are economically socialist, and ultra-conservative parties which are completely secular. There are ethnic parties, religious sect parties, and economic group parties. And, there are a plethora of personal relationships which either aid or inhibit the ability to form coalitions. Bottom line is that nobody here has a grasp on what the new Government will look like, other than that history says Natanyahu will have an easier time assembling a coalition than Herzog will.

[blkmusclmachine]

1. Does Israel have Diebold/SES or some other Corporation "counting" the votes???

[brooklynite]

2. This is one of the laziest questions I've seen today...

...and it's in almost every Israeli election thread.

First, it's lazy because it's easy enough to find out how the Israelis vote (they put a paper marked with a specific Party symbol into an envelope and drop it in the box) and sedcond it's lazy because it build on the completely unsupported premise that the Republicans are "stealing" elections, usually based on nothing but "we all know" thinking. Consider the following: no actual political person (candidate, campaign manager, or Party official) claims this has happened, and the same "rigged voting machines" that made us lose in 2004, 2010 and 2014 let us win in 2006, 2008 and 2012.

[AverageJoe90]

10. You may be right regarding Israel......

Not quite so much for the U.S., though. And, btw, there was fairly strong evidence suggesting the GOP tried to steal the 2012 elections, too(Romney's ORCA app may very well have been a cover for such). One must wonder if the administration may have been getting a clue as to what was going on.....(because the ORCA app started having lots of problems, not to mention Karl Rove's meltdown on FOX News; it was pretty clear that the .1% did NOT want Obama to win)

[brooklynite]

21. ORCA was a voter turnout modeling tool...

...and if you allege that it wasn't, you have to explain why there was apparently a working software tool in 2010 and 2014 that they chose not to use in 2012.

And as I said before, why is it that no political figure (the people for whom the outcome is important) has ever alleged their election was stolen by voting machine fraud? And why is it that none of the Democratic officials who came into office in 2006 and 2008 found any evidence when they were in charge?

I know the Party Chair in Ohio. I know one of the Senators. I know a Congressman who lost in 2010. I asked asked them this. They all say it didn't happen. But apparently a bunch of internet bloggers know better?

Do Republicans cheat? Of course they do. They do it the old-fashioned way. Voter purges, long lines, and emotional refereda to turn out the base. Not voting machines.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

3. You might not, but some of us do read and pay attention to the world around us. nt

[MohRokTah]

4. The Israelis don't have a clue about Israeli politics at the moment.

It's not clear that anybody will be capable of forming a government at this point.

[FargoGuy]

5. Right, like anyone really has a clue about American politics.

But that certainly doesn't deter the discussion of it.

Nor should it, it's all pretty much meaningless.

[Nye Bevan]

6. I love when DUers solemnly claim to prefer a "parliamentary system"

because that supposedly reflects the "will of the people". Ignoring, of course, the huge amount of tawdry horse-trading and favor-granting that goes on behind closed doors to cobble together some kind of coalition government that may well collapse before too long.

[MADem]

8. Horse trading and favor granting if they're lucky--if you're Bibi the Grand Wizard, it could

come down to soul selling!!!

[geek tragedy]

14. The UK and Germany do just fine.

Israeli politics are a mess because Israel is in the process of transitioning from a democratic state to something else.

[Nye Bevan]

15. I guess you haven't been following UK politics.

The situation there is so messy that one possibility that has been mooted after the upcoming general election is a coalition between the Tories and Labour.

[geek tragedy]

16. Still better than Congress, which isn't a mess.

It's just plain broken.

[geek tragedy]

7. Bibi will be prime minister.

The rest is superfluous as far as Americans are concerned.

Netanyahu will be the most explicitly racist elected leader in the world. One committed to apartheid as a matter of public record.

The only question is how quickly its supporters in the US who call themselves Progressives act on principal.

[Agnosticsherbet]

12. I now support disinvestment.

Netanyahu's blatant racism and his stand against the two state solution makes him a Pariah.

As long as an extreme right wing government rules, I can not support them.

[geek tragedy]

13. Yeah, though there are iffy elements to the BDS campaign there really

isn't going to be much choice going forward.

[Adrahil]

23. My company has a partnership with an Israeli tech company....

This morning my boss said he is looking to end that as soon as practical.

Good.

[Old and In the Way]

9. Too close to call elections are interesting, but Bibi ought not take this as a mandate.

Seems like Bibi and Likud got a message that said, "you won, but keep playing the same cards and you will eventually lose bigtime." I will be interested in how Bibi governs going forward. Does he think he has a mandate or will he moderate his policies and rhetoric to reflect reality?

[MrMickeysMom]

11. What's to know?

We fix elections, they fix elections… We're war criminals, they're war criminals… Outcomes would appear to be right in line with each new head of the regime.

[oldandhappy]

17. Very willing to admit all of that.

And know absolutely when my country has been manipulated.

[PowerToThePeople]

18. I admit it.

That is why I stay out of those threads.

[bluedigger]

19. I believe there were 26 parties in the election.

But what do I know, I'm just a dumb hick in the sticks.

[Behind the Aegis]

20. Yup, and the fact Israeli politics isn't limited to I/P.

Seems some "forget" there are other issues.

[DrDan]

22. I freely admit it - thanks for a few words of explanation

Natanyahu does scare me though - particularly in terms of influencing our RW war-mongers