I hate blogger.
Shit, just wrote a long entry and blogger ate it up. DAMN YOU BLOGGER! Screw this, Ill re-write tomorrow.
Final results. Likud dominates.
Final results can be found here. Shocking how the people regained confidence in Likud.
Exit polls!
Channel one and two exits polls!
Likud - 36 - (32)
Labor -18 - (19)
Shinui - 14 - (17)
Shas - 13 - (9)
Am Echad - 3 (3)
UTJ - 5 (5)
Meretz- 5 (7)
Arab lists - 10 (10)
NRP - 5 (5)
National Union - 8 (10)
YBA 3 (3)
Channel Ten poll:
Likud - 35
Labor -18
Shinui - 17
Shas - 10
Am Echad - 3
UTJ - 4
Meretz- 7
Arab lists - 10
NRP - 5
National Union - 6
YBA - 3
Herut - 2
UPDATE: Looks like Shinui and Am Echad are the big winners tonight. Yisrael B’Aliyah got crushed, as did Meretz. Goes without saying Labor too.
DOUBLE UPDATE: Yossi Sarid, leader of the Meretz party just said that if the polls prove accurate he will resign as party leader and from the Knesset. Benny Begin abandoned Hayechud Leumi in the last Knesset elections as well after their poor showing.
TRIPLE UPDATE: Shout out to the Head Heeb. I updated the Channel 10 exit poll results. I don’t understand how they changed though….weird.
We’ll know the final make-up of the Knesset officially by Thursday.
Knesset results almost in…
Ignore my list. The threshold is going to be considerably lower because of the low turnout. The small parties are going to clear house. The exit polls are to be broadcast in less than a half hour. They already have the information, that much is clear. They are hinting that the big parties are going to suffer.
Likud and Labor are definitely not going to fair as well as initially thought.
The National Union is going to increase (Extremists are always more passionate than your everyday voter) to 12.
Am Echad is going to get five seats.
Shinui will get 15-16.
Is anyone reading this? Do you think I’m crazy?
UPDATE: Check out the Head Heeb’s and Diane’s Knesset predictions.
I voted.
I voted. It was incredibly uneventful. My wife and I went together. We both weren’t sure whom we were going to vote for until we actually went into the voting booth. We discussed our votes afterwards and had a good laugh when we couldn’t remember whom we voted for and weren’t completely sure that we put the right ballot in the envelopes. It was a blur. Strange, no?
I used to live in Jerusalem and my previous voting stations were local schools. I always had to wait and there was always a crowd. This time it was a tiny office on my Moshav. There wasn’t anyone there when we voted. The entire process went really quickly. They had cookies on the table though I forgot to grab one on my way out.
As I was voting I was thinking about the amount of wasted paper and all of the trees that were destroyed just so we can have this absurd election and I almost voted for the Greens. Didn’t happen though.
I’m with Imshin and I am keeping my vote to myself.
Word is that the big parties (i.e. Likud and Labor) are going to suffer as a result of the voter apathy. So my predictions might be way off. Shas will probably end up with another couple of seats and Herut might get in. Only an hour and a half to go and the turnout is simply abysmal. Embarrassing really. Only 63.5 of the eligible voters voted thus far. Keep in mind the Arabs boycotted the last election and are voting this time.
Goes to show how out of touch with reality our leaders are. They are the only ones who seem to have wanted an election in the first place. But like the lemmings they are, the Israeli people will continue to vote for the same leaders who constantly and consistently screw them over.
UPDATE: If any of you numskulls who know me and know who I voted for post anything in the comments I’ll beat your brains in with a wet salami. Yeah, I’m talking to you!
Harry’s Knesset Predictions!
Here is what I think the next Knesset is going to look like. I welcome your comments. No real surprises. The coalition that may result from this might be more interesting than the elections itself.
Likud - 33
As predicted in the polls the Likud party will once again regain their strength and become the largest party.
Labor - 19
Unless Mitzna’s last minute plea to former Labor voters worked the Labor party will suffer tremendously. I do think however that Mitnza ran a good campaign. He could have easily faired better as a moderate, but chose not to coat his rhetoric with right wing leanings which gives him respect, but not votes.
Shinui - 14
Shas - 10
The secular revolution will result in an excellent showing for the Shinui party. The next Knesset session will make it or break it for Shinui. People are going to expect results. I think however that they will be left out of the coalition on the sidelines. Shas is a more natural partner for the Likud. They can be controlled. Offer them money and they’ll do and believe whatever the Likud says. They will take a hit and lose seats but with ten mandates they cannot be ignored.
Meretz - 7
Meretz will lose three mandates to Shinui.
Yisrael B’Aliyah - 5
All polls show YBA receiving between 3-4 seats. I think that they’ll get at least five, perhaps six. There is a large Russian non-Hebrew speaking community who don’t understand enough Hebrew to answer polls. I have also read articles that have stated that the Russian community is apprehesive in general to give any information over the phone.
National Union - 8
The right wing block will receive a respectable eight mandates.
Green Leaf - 2
Instead of people voting with a white ballot, they are going to vote for the Green Leaf party. Interesting to see how this plays out.
Arab Lists - 10
Due to a low Arab turnout, all of the combined Arab lists (including Hadash) will receive ten seats.
Am Echad - 3
Amir Peretz’s union party who don’t seem to have a platform at all, will increase to three seats, possible four. I find this amazing considering Peretz’s attendance record is among the lowest of all MKs.
NRP - 4
Effie Eitam, wasn’t the savior of the National Religious Party as he was supposed to be. He screwed himself with his absurd idea of resettling the Palestinians in the Sinai Penisula. Thousands abandoned him to the Likud.
United Torah Judaism - 5
UTJ will increase to five seats due to the natural growth of the Haredi community. Their power base will continue to grow in the years to come.
Voter turnout all time low
Just heard on Israel Radio that voter turnout is at an all time low. Only 10.2 percent voted thus far - this is the lowest in the history of Israel.
Interesting to see how this plays out.
Are you confused by Israeli politics?
Imshin breaks it down.
I wish she would elaborate on the radical politics of the leader of the Green Leaf party. I haven’t heard he is a radical, but I have heard he is stupid. A friend of mine heard him speak at Hebrew University. He couldn’t even remember the names of the people on his list.
Less than 24 hours before the voting begins and I still have no idea who I am voting for.
Commercials and Patrols
Shit. So last night I patiently sat down for the full hour and a half of election commercials. I took notes. I had so many things that I wanted to share with you. Too bad that didn’t happen.
I took a shower and as I am getting dressed, the damn Police who patrol my village show up. They tell me that it’s my turn to guard. Normally, I wouldn’t mind. But give me some notice for crying out loud. They are supposed to give you at least a week. I’m already on bad terms with the head cop. He thinks that I am constantly blowing off the duty. He claims he personally put the letter in my mailbox. He is a lying son of a bitch. I haven’t gotten squat.
So I ended up driving around in a Police jeep for four hours last night. Since we live on the Seam Line there are security warnings all the time. It was pretty uneventful though. The highlight of the evening was scaring the shit out of a couple of teenagers “hanging out” in their car at Yad Kennedy .
The police officer who I was escorting had the intelligence of my big toe. We barely spoke to each other.
It was a complete waste of time. Now I’m tired, my body clock is all messed up and my week is screwed.
Worst of all I had to suffer through all of those absurd election commercials for nothing.
Preparations
Blogging has resumed.
I finally got around to picking up my gas mask yesterday. It was uneventful to say the least. I haven’t purchased any plastic or tape to seal any of the rooms in our house yet. Most new buildings have a bomb shelter and sealed rooms already built in but we aren’t in luck.
I have to be honest. I have been pretty apathetic about the whole thing. The nation seems apathetic as well. People are talking about it but no one seems to be doing anything. I should probably buy some plastic this week before the inevitable mad rush. It’s probably cheaper now and there are no lines at the hardware stores. I was at ACE hardware yesterday and saw that they are selling full body suits against chemical and biological attacks. I wonder if anyone is actually buying them.
I’m really not that scared. Perhaps if I lived in Haifa or Tel Aviv I would be. I live right on the green line, extremely close to Bethlehem. The odds of being targeted are slim.
Maybe the general apathy is due to the elections. Another thing I am completely apathetic about. I was a big Shinui supporter for a long time but I’m not sure if I am going to vote for them. I actually voted for Sharon for PM and Shinui for the Knesset in 1999. This election is a joke and a sham and a complete waste of the taxpayer’s money.
I think I’m going to vote for the Green Leaf party. They have a serious chance of getting enough votes for two seats in the Knesset. I assume that most people who are voting for them are not voting for them because of their hardcore belief in pro-marijuana legislation but rather a complete disgust with the other parties.
I am really leaning towards voting for them. Could be fun, no?
NOTICE: I added a guestmap in the left column. Check it out. I see from my stats that there are people all over the world reading this - so please say hello!
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