Spotted in Tel Aviv this morning.
March 18, 2015
Dark day to wake up to. King Bibi has claimed his throne yet again. The adrenaline of hope & elections has given way to disenchantment and a cathartic release leading to depression. Many young Israeli friends of mine are posting statuses asking if anyone knows of an apartment in Berlin to rent, or if people want to join them in the establishment of a third state for the rational left. They say they feel as though they don't belong here.
I'm in shock and awe that a large enough majority of voters in this place supported Netanyahu after the campaign he ran. He ended with fireworks of declaring that there will be no Palestinian state under his leadership. He posted a video on Facebook that didn't even try to disguise his racism as he pleaded with his voters to vote because "Arabs were being bused in droves" to polling stations. His exhausted and wild expression showed his desperation. And yet. It worked. Results say majority who voted for him were from the West Bank settlements, whereas the communities living near the Gaza border voted for the Zionist Camp. Shows you the isolated, divided and delusional world this country lives in.
It's hard not to ignore my American notions that elections equals democracy and that the people have spoken and now we have to remain quiet as he leads this country down the dark path it's been heading. It's hard to feel like anything has changed. But that overlooks the fact that this is not a true democracy. 4 million Palestinians living under the military rule of this government do not have a say in the decisions being made. That does not represent the voice of the people living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. If we try to look for a silver lining to the day, the Joint Arab List snagged 14 seats and is now the 3rd largest party in Knesset. They could wield a lot of power and cause a great headache for Netanyahu. And at least now he had reveled his cards and the international world cannot shy away from the fact that with Bibi at the realm, the peace negotiations are dead.