An Israeli progressive reflects on the future challenges facing her cause.
___
Someone knocked on the door. Both parents arrived to welcome the babysitter. To their surprise it is Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel. He explains that they requested a babysitter, they got a Bibisitter. The parents ask if he will protect their children. Bibi asks if they would prefer the opposition leaders, Labor Party head Yitzak “Bougie” Herzog or Tzipi Livni. They joke as to why either would not be fit to watch over anyone’s children. To close Bibi tells the audience that in these elections you are choosing someone to protect your children … and to only vote for Likud.
It displays Bibi as a personable, caring prime minister who is looking to protect the future of the country. Perhaps the reason it made me so uncomfortable was the juxtaposition with reality.
|
Whoever produced the video did a brilliant job. It displays Bibi as a personable, caring prime minister who is looking to protect the future of the country. Perhaps the reason it made me so uncomfortable was the juxtaposition with reality.
♦◊♦
This summer alone 128 parents mourned the loss of their 64 children killed while serving the army in operation Protective Edge. Millions of Israelis were forced to take refuge in bomb shelters. Would those parents stand by Bibi for protecting their children?
Authorities higher up than parents have questions about Netanyahu’s decisions. Former Mossad chiefs openly disapproved of positions Netanyahu took on security issues. In 2010 former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan told reporters that he directly opposed Netanyahu’s orders to prepare to attack Iran. More recently, Former Mossad Chief Efraim Halevy said that everything from Netanyahu’s rhetoric to his policy makes Israel less safe. Making Israelis feel that they are constantly on the verge of annihilation, while good for Mr. Netanyahu’s political career, is bad for Israeli morale and empowers Israel’s enemies. Additionally, Netanyahu’s support for more, stricter sanctions threatens current negotiations and are opposed by some former members of the intelligence agency. The same intelligence agents warn against continuing settlement expansion as it is a path for a third Intifada. As a citizen and resident of Israel, I put much more faith in Israeli intelligence to keep me safe than Bibi’s policies which have failed to keep us safe from threats.
If the current government headed by Netanyahu sincerely believes its economic policy cares for Israeli children or society, we need to take a step back and look at our government.
|
Security isn’t the only place that Bibi falls short in protecting Israel’s children and future as a progressive, democratic state. A Unicef report at the end of 2014 found that 35.6% of Israel’s children live in poverty. That doesn’t sound like safeguarding to me. It is no secret that Bibi as a prime minister has failed a majority of Israeli citizens economically. Every year there is a new social protest ranging from serious housing concerns to trivial things like the cost of pudding. Many secular, educated Israelis leave the country for greener pastures in the United States or Europe. If the current government headed by Netanyahu sincerely believes its economic policy cares for Israeli children or society, we need to take a step back and look at our government.
It didn’t look like this had any chance of happening. The Israeli left has been lethargic for years, unable to captivate the Israeli public with new ideas or offerings. At the same time, many people are fed up with Netanyahu. All of the reasoning above was the impetus for Victory 15, a reason to be hopeful things could change this election.
♦◊♦
Victory 15 is a volunteer-driven campaign setting out to talk to as many voters as possible about their decision in the upcoming election. The big goal: to translate the nation’s dissatisfaction with Netanyahu into a tangible change in the next governing coalition. They are building an army of volunteers fully equipped with clipboards, maps, and phones in cities throughout Israel to sway the electorate’s unsettled mind.
Sound familiar? Probably because it is exactly the structure the Obama campaign employed in 2012 and 2008. 270 Strategies, a Washington based campaign consulting firm founded by accomplished staff from Obama’s campaigns, is advising Victory 2015. The goal? To get thousands of volunteers throughout the country to talk to enough voters to get the center-left parties enough seats to form a coalition. 270 and Israelis on the ground researched how many votes believed to be needed to change the elections. They targeted neighborhoods we need to have successful. There are concrete goals that we believe, if we get to them successfully, will change the election.
The thing that is making this simultaneously more complicated and legally possible is the sheer number of parties. With parties splitting and combining we are left with eleven parties vying for seats in the Knesset this election. International organizations funded with international money cannot legally assist a party. Luckily for Victory 2015, they are less concerned with which parties form the next government, as long as it is a mix of the center-left. Because of this law, there is no candidate or party that Victory 2015 supports. I first thought this could hurt us because there is not unifying vision, but I was wrong. We are campaigning for the change that so many Israeli citizens would like to see. I don’t know what could be more unifying than that.
Nothing inspires me more than seeing hundreds of Israelis come out to reclaim ownership of their government and ownership of their country.
|
And, that is the most empowering thing. Nothing inspires me more than seeing hundreds of Israelis come out to reclaim ownership of their government and ownership of their country. While this campaign is guided by American advisors and utilizes American strategies, don’t be mistaken; it is an unabashedly Israeli campaign. Average citizens are struggling with who to vote for, but largely they know what they don’t want: more of the same. Victory 2015 reminds people change is possible, and they do have a voice, their vote.
Photo from Flickr/Ben Piven
Anonymous completed a BA in Government and Politics and a BA in Jewish Studies. She worked as a Deputy Field Organizer on the Obama campaign and was an Regional Field Director on a Pennsylvania gubernatorial primary. She moved to Israel and is now involved with Victory 2015.