The Peculiar Challenge of the Forthcoming Elections

For people with the values of most of the participants in this forum, the forthcoming elections in Israel present some peculiar and frustrating challenges.

Let's say that you share Jonathan Rosenblum's concerns about the problems of the economic catastrophe in the charedi world and its potentially devastating consequences for the country. And you recognize that if UTJ joins the government, it will do so in exchange for making the problem massively worse. So you don't want to see UTJ in the government.

But at the same time, you recognize that there is no viable partner for peace on the Palestinian side, that any land given to them will almost certainly be used as a base from which to attack Israel, and that there is no way that Israel can ever defend itself from attacks launched from civilian areas without incurring global condemnation. And so you don't want to see a left-wing government that will give away land to the Palestinians.

The problem is that there is no party which stands for both of the above. Every party currently running for Knesset will either pay off UTJ to join them, or will support a left-wing government.

So you have to weigh up which of the above issues is more important. Now, let's say that you decide that the security issue is more important. Therefore you want to empower a party that won't take foolish risks in the futile short-term hope for international legitimacy - let's say, Bayit Yehudi. But who do you vote for, if you want Bayit Yehudi to be in the government? There is a real risk of Labor being the largest party and being able to put together a left-wing coalition. So the bizarre nature of the forthcoming election is that if you want Bayit Yehudi to be in the government, then there's a very strong argument for not voting Bayit Yehudi, and voting Likud instead!