The Election

One of our evening activities could have been called Israel’s National Election – A Primer. It appears to be a convoluted process. It also appears that it hasn't been working well, as no party has been able to remain in office for a full term of 4 years.


I had seen the billboards in Tel Aviv, and they called to me and my camera. The candidates were larger than life! The reality was that I had no idea what voting in Israel entailed.



This will be a very short posting, as I have no expertise in Israeli politics. The voting process, however, is noteworthy in an arcane way. All of the soldiers were able to vote on the base. The "local" voting sites take care of a large number of voters who would otherwise be required to submit absentee ballots. Our “club house” was turned into the polling site (and therefore off limits to us).



The soldiers came to vote in "waves", but the wait was never long.



There were about 32 parties in the running with platforms that range from “marijuana” to the “ultra-orthodox” and most everything in between.


Each party has a colored slip of paper (a small slip of paper) that is placed into an envelope with identifying information, and then put inside a second envelope, with more identifying information.



Talk about hanging chads!

News in general gets to us slowly, and news of the election results was no different. Days have turned into weeks as the candidates attempt to form a coalition. No winner as yet. Ultimately the Prime Minister makes the decision – stay tuned, and appreciate American style democracy!