Israel General Discussion: Annus Horribilis

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

The situation is beginning to feel precarious...tensions are definitely on the rise. More importantly the verbal taboo was lifted and people are throwing the CW words more easily.

As in?

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

The Westminster System is the ur-example of modern democracy and it was the system of government by which Great Britain came to dominate the world. The hyperbolic moaning about how an Israeli government under that system would be the end of democracy simply exposes the utter intellectual incoherence of the socialists who dominate this board. Most of you do not care a whit about the constitutional order, you simply dislike the Israeli state and desire to see it governed by fools of your ilk.

An Israeli government under that system is not one which this reform would produce, since it'd still disenfranchise millions of Palestinians.

The biggest root of the current set of problems is, as mentioned upthread, misalignment of the electorate and the society. Large numbers of Haredis are quite insulated from society and get the vote; large numbers of Arabs suffer all the worst aspects of Israeli society without suffrage. As these portions of the population grow relative to the population as a whole, the government will grow further from society.

At the end of the road is Lebanon, if changes aren't made.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

IMO Israel should restrict voting rights to those who served in the IDF, otherwise the Haredim will multiply and take control.

Maybe another idea is imposing a punitive tax on ultra-orthodox Jews, who aren't that much different than the Taliban.

If Israel has a democratic future it needs to be majority Secular/Reform/Conservative.

Something alone those lines, or not granting suffrage to those who don't pay taxes, would be an effective way to ensure stability.

It wouldn't be effective for a number of reasons, principally because it'd be even less likely to become law than the ideas you've dismissed as implausible.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Bibi had a  cardiac pacemaker emergency transplant last night.

Pacemakers traditionally needed to be connected to a heart to function, so the technical hitch is understandable.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Well, that's him told.

Initial predictions that everybody would rally round Bibi because of this were wide of the mark.Is it not impossible that something similar is happening in Gaza?

This is an encouraging sign, but (as with his previous electoral defeats) it’s way too early to call time on his career.

Putin’s popularity has also gone up and down over the course of the war. If Israel achieves something Netanyahu can sell as victory, or if its population is brutalised by a months-long conflict in which he remains at the helm, it seems possible he comes out on top.

This is why the unity government is a trap option - if he is to serve in one, he must not do so as its premier.