Gadi Pickholz from the Israel Fathers Advocacy Rights Foundation emails: An analysis of the true winners and losers the election, and the implicit trends they represent:
1) Bibi Netanyahu, Livni and Leiberman, and to a lesser extent Barak, have garnered all the press coverage. They are nearly irrelevant to the truly significant changes that have occurred, and will be hostages of the events unfolding on a much broader scale beneath them within the Knesset.
2) Israelis are the most ecologically irresponsible people on the planet. The Knerret is a sewer; the Dead Sea all but dried up from overharvesting. Hotels are falling into sinkholes. The Green party, which in most European nations represents the fastest growing voting bloc, failed to secure sufficient votes for even half a seat in the new Knesset.
3) The pensioners and handicapped rights parties fared even worse.
4) Rabbi Michael Melkior, the Scandinavian Rabbi who served in the past three Knessets as the voice of modern religious tolerance within Israel and as the Minister of Diaspora Affairs for contact with World Jewry, failed to secure even one seat. In Israel, no good deed goes unpunished.
5) There are now an astounding 18 MKs in their 30’s, representing an entirely new generation of political leadership for decades to come. A true changing of the guard. All 18, without exception, are on the right (Likud) or far right parties. All 18. Labor;s leadership could never accept a changing of the generationlal guard, and will take the party of Ben Gurion to their graves with them. Kadima seems to be one election behind them, given an equal adamacy not to yield power internally and cultivate a Dor Hemshech.
6) Of the five religiousn parties, ranging from the most liberal to the most Charedi, not a single woman was even proposed for a realistic chance of a seat in the Knesset, despite a specific governmental Affimative Action initiative in this election to appoint women. Not one woman in any stream of Jewish religious politics. In total, women MKs increased to 21 from 18.
7) The Arab parties all included women candidates without exception, and one succeeded in making the new Knesset, the former Deputy Mayor of Acre for the Arab Communist party Balad.
8) There are now nearly twice as many Arab MKs as Mizrahi/Bnei Akiva/Dati Leumi MKs. Begin Eshkol and Shamir must be spinning in their graves.
9) Labor has just one more seat than the Arab bloc, a point that must have Ben Gurion standing on his head in the grave.
10) There are now only 6 Dati MKs in the four major parties. Aside from special interest religous parties, there are essentially no longer any religious Jews in the major political parties.
11) There is not a single AngloAmerican or French oleh in the Knesset. A complete shutout of any and all Olim, particularly those from the Western countries.
12) There are 13 MKs not born in Israel, down from 14, equally divided between the Arab countries and the former Soviet Union.
13) Academics & Professors dropped from 14 to 11; journalists rose from 3 to 8.
14) Former military Generals rose from 11 to 13; MKs with backgrounds in Education and Social Welfare Ministries dropped to zero. Israelis want to rattle sabres, not solve socioeconomic and long term ediucational problems.
15) MBAs and financiers dropped from 7 to 2, despite the global economic crisis (Netanyahu and Labor MK Avishai Braverman).
16) The Shoah Survivors Rights to Benefits party secured only 2,111 votes, a true scandal.
17) The Education Reform party secured 105 votes nationwide. The kids will learn all they need to know in life in the army.
18) Right wing party leader Ephraim Sneh secured only 6,402. The shift rightward exemplified by Leiberman is predominantly Russian voters, not sabra Israelis. The division in voting between Russians and native born Israelis has never been so dramatic.
19) The division of the Two Kingdoms continue in full force; Judea (metropolitan Jerusalem) voted overwhelmingly for Likud, Leiberman and Shas. Israel (defined as metropolitan Tel Aviv, Beer Sheva and Haifa) voted for Kadima, Labor and Likud a very distant third.
20) The Divorced Fathers Party, Ra’ash (Noise), received 847 votes nationwide, which was sufficient to maintain status as a political party and receive government funding.
