Why shortening the agony of a third election is no reprieve? - analysis
There have been calls across the political spectrum in the Knesset to limit the race in third elections to only 30 days.
By GIL HOFFMANThe slips used to vote in the 2019 elections, April 9th, 2019(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The Central Elections Committee announced with great fanfare on Monday that after all the experience they gained running the first two elections this year, they could now handle the third in 75 days, instead of the standard 90.They expected applause for this.But the truth is that the UK – which has 46 million voters compared to our six million – is going to an equally polarizing election on December 12, just five weeks after Queen Elizabeth dissolved the parliament at Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s request. The same day our election could be initiated, the Brits will already have theirs settled. And they are electing 650 members of parliament, not just 120.There have been calls in the Knesset across the political spectrum to limit the race to only 30 days.So sorry, Central Elections Committee. We aren’t going to go dance the hora.Making the election somewhat shorter is no reprieve for the agony of holding a third election in under a year in the first place.It’s like a dentist or a nurse saying: “This will only hurt a little bit.” Well, it still hurts, and the length of time doesn’t really sugarcoat that.There is no Novocaine to numb the pain that our politicians will put us through if they continue bickering and do not reach an agreement by next Wednesday night.The divisiveness, the negative campaigning and the expenses going to strategists who already made plenty of money over the past year instead of going to the most disadvantaged sectors of Israeli society will not be prevented, unless 61 names are submitted to President Reuven Rivlin some time over the next week.Israel’s embarrassment to the world can still be avoided, as can the gloating of our cousins in the US and UK, who will tell us that they are less polarized and their political systems are less screwed up.
If the election is not stopped, the leaders of the Pirate Party will take out their old costumes once again and come back to the Knesset to register to run. Who knows? Maybe this time people will be so frustrated that instead of voting for people who act like pirates, they will cast protest votes for people who look like pirates.So as long as there are politicians who wear costumes, perhaps the Central Elections Committee should just keep the next Knesset election on the date currently set by law if the Knesset dissolves automatically next Wednesday: March 10 on the civil calendar, 14 Adar on the Jewish calendar.Yes, on the holiday of Purim. It makes sense to vote on a holiday in which there is a tradition of drinking until good and evil are indistinguishable.It is also fitting to hold yet another election on that date, because a farce is a farce is a farce.
