THEY JUST DON'T GET IT: OR MAYBE THEY DO

Yesterday was primary voting day in several parties, notably, The Likud and Shinui. Shinui's delegates seem to have gotten the general idea and voted in new faces for their list of Knesset candidates. That's nice, but as Shinui is right up there with Labor as far as I'm concerned (useless) it really doesn't matter. Likud completely missed the point and kept all the same old, tired, people. That shouldn't come as surprise because they really don't understand that we, the people, want something better. If it had been a proper primary, open to all party members, it might have been different, but, alas.....It sucks that we have to vote for a list, and not individuals. The upside is that no one knows who voted for whom or which list. I desperately want Bibi as P.M. but just as desperately don't want anyone on the Likud Knesset list to get in. Quite a problem I have here. At least I have until the end of March to decide. In many ways I think The Likud has earned a resounding slap in the face, and will most likely get it on 28 March. Just for refusing to give up their ministerial positions, every single minister deserves to get the boot.
If it weren't so important, I could easily sit back and watch the circus, but it is ever so important and that new party must be kept to a minimum in the new Knesset. The Americans are already twisting Ulmert's arm, much as I suspect they twisted Sharon's. It's probably too much to hope that he'll be able to withstand the pressure any more than Sharon did. He's already allowing them to vote in East Jerusalem in the upcoming P.A. elections. Sharon at least was resisting that one. That will make it next to impossible to not allow Jerusalem to be divided eventually. On the other hand, that will make a good campaign issue for Bibi and he'll be easier able to counter their their "radical right wing" rhetoric, which is beginning to sound like a broken record. They are all reading from the same script. I just hope there'll be a backlash vote against them, but considering how we Israelis are not exactly independent thinkers (for the most part) I doubt we'll do as we should and send the lot of home and demand a representative democracy in place of the current insanity we put up with and try so hard to convince ourselves and others is a democracy.