A VOTING WE WILL GO

When I got off the plane in Israel for the first time in 1970, I knew I was home. Ok, it might have been the jet fuel fumes that did it, but I knew I was home. It was pretty much the same with Kiryat Shmonah. I felt right here, and still do. Last night I finally figured out that this country and town are home, and like any home, it's never finished just right. There are always things to fix and redo. Also, like a house, you don't throw up your hands in frustration and leave it because it needs work. You repaint, buy new furniture and look for ways to make it ever nicer. This country and town bring out the same feeling in me. You don't walk away because there are things you don't like; you stay and try to fix the things that need fixing.
Whiskers (Amir Peretz) got himself elected head of the Labor Party and will be running for Prime Minister. The first thing he did as Big Boss of the party was to pull the Labor ministers out of the coalition with Sharon and force elections. Sharon then broke away from the Likud and formed his own party that has attracted most of the politicians I detest really should call their new party United Sleaze, rather than Forward. A more corrupt group will be hard to find, unless you look here. Our corrupt incompetent mayor also joined Sharon and actually believes he'll be elected to the Knesset.
The surveys are all predicting almost a landslide for Sleaze United, but, I have my doubts. Surveys are fine and well, but something happens to people when they get to the polls. Dewey v Truman, for example. If we, in our stupidity, reelect Sharon, we will deserve what we get. Whiskers is as bad, if not worse, but at least he isn't corrupt, just brutal. Brutal I can live with, corrupt is another story. There could very well be a backlash vote for Whiskers, but I hope not. I talked to one of the Likud guys yesterday and told him I want to rejoin, now that the worst of the baddies are gone. I intend to support Netanyahu for PM. He really is the only one who can get the things done that need doing. He *is* the right one for this country. Whisker's people will go on and on about his stint in the Finance Ministry and that he pushed thousands of families below the poverty line. What actually did that was the decades long unquestioning acceptance of welfare. All Bibi did was try to get people off welfare and back to work. He didn't take anything away from us, the crips. Ok, he also didn't give us anything, and our benefits are at the same level they were 6 years ago and costs have spiraled up. Something really has to be done about that, but Whiskers won't do a thing about it, except spin a good tale about it to get elected. I just hope that when it comes down to it, voters will see through the BS and do some political house cleaning. Optimism is a good thing, isn't it?