The addictive game of the March elections

4% of those working answer to one of 3 last names;

One out of every six functionaries lives in Berhat, in Kfar Qasim or Beit Jan: in March they promised a "celebration of democracy", and instead they received box commanders, fictitious functions, deals and settlements with voting percentages reminiscent of the elections in Syria

Kalman Libeskind

02/09/2022

Friday, September 02, 2022, 9:11 p.m. Updated: Saturday, September 03, 2022, 9:32 p.m.

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Meretz concluded her preliminary elections with a general sense of satisfaction.

Almost 19 thousand functionaries, about 81% of the vote, several Knesset members who changed places on the list, one new-old leader who returned and won big, or as we usually call it: a democratic celebration at its best.

So that's it, not really.

The data we publish here casts a big shadow on this celebration, and especially on the part of democracy in it.

To sum things up in one line, it can be said that the preliminary elections in Meretz relied to a considerable extent on box commanders, with several large functional centers, all in the Arab-Bedouin-Druzi sector, with candidates who knew that their chances of being elected without doing business with the representatives of these centers would decrease dramatically, and with One clear conclusion: without the big commanders in three Arab settlements, the list would look different.

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A democratic celebration at its best?

Meretz list of the national team (photo: Reuven Castro)

Before we touch on the numbers, a word of introduction is required, because there will be those who will comment, and rightly so, that Meretz did not invent the primary patients, nor the crate commanders, nor the deals and transactions.

This is true, of course, but in Meretz things came to an especially extreme expression.

Why?

Because history shows that great commanders, whose identification with the party is not always what led them to pay 80 shekels in membership fees (if indeed they paid them themselves), have a chance to succeed mainly under two conditions.

One, that it is a small party or a small commander.

The second, in which the Arab society is involved.

Why specifically the Arab society?

Also because this company has a better ability to attend to many people in a short period of time.

Also because the ability to control or manage the functionaries on the way to voting for the "right" candidates is easiest where you work with the head of a clan or with a dominant central commander, and such, experience shows, exist more in Berhat than in Givatayim.

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To the full article

Everything stays in the family

Let's start with the following amazing figure.

18,799 people registered for Meretz in preparation for these preliminary elections.

30% of them, 5,611 in number to be precise, came from the non-Jewish sector.

So yes, the participation of Israeli Arabs in parties in general, and in a party like Meretz in particular, is a wonderful thing.

And yet, no one tells themselves, not even Meretz, that the ratio between the numbers of Jews and Arabs in the party's census is somehow reminiscent of the ratio between the numbers of Jews and Arabs among Meretz supporters on the Israeli street, or among voters in the general elections.

To what extent are things expressed openly and clearly?

Well, pay attention to what happened in three points in the Arab society (and for the sake of it, it will also include the Bedouin society and the Druze society), where a local candidate stood for election: in Kfar Qasim, where Eid Badir contested (elected in tenth place).

In Beit Jan, where Ali Salalha competed (chosen in fourth place).

and Barhat, in which Mazen Abu Siam competed (chosen in eighth place).

In terms of a party like Meretz, huge censuses were held in these three settlements.

1,015 people worked in Kfar Qasim.

In Beit Jan 1,169.

Berhat 843 (referring to those who remained after the mass disqualification of about 850 fictitious functionaries).

A simple calculation shows that approximately one out of six Meretz members in Israel lives in Kfar Kasem, Beit Jan or Barhat.

Sound reasonable?

"They can help you and you can help them."

Salalha (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Wait, that's not all.

I checked how many people among the party officials bear the surnames of these three candidates.

So it is true that according to the rules of the game anyone can visit as many people as they want, even if they are their relatives, but when the reality shows that the list of functionaries includes 212 people with the surname of the candidate Salalha, 319 people with the surname of the candidate Badir and 145 with the surname of the candidate Abu-Siam, something here is not completely balanced, when close to 4% of all Meretz employees answer to one of three surnames.

Something else important needs to be understood.

In these three localities, there are, together, about 3,000 workers.

In the elections, each voter can choose four candidates.

I want to say, these three localities alone held 12 thousand votes.

Some of them are for personal use, and another part is available for trading with other patrons.

And in a party where less than 3,000 votes were enough to enter the top ten, the meaning is clear.

further.

I checked the number of people functioning in several Arab localities in front of the vote there for Meretz, in the last elections.

After all, it is seemingly unlikely that someone would pay 80 shekels to function for a party that he has no interest in even voting for, unless someone close to him visited him, or someone who had an interest paid for his function.

Well, it turns out that in several localities the number of officials exceeds - sometimes to a small extent, sometimes to a large extent - the number of voters in the last elections, which were held only about a year and a half ago.

Kfar Kasem, Beit Jan Verhat - hold 12 thousand votes.

The primaries in Kfar Qasim (photo: official website, no)

So in Deboriyeh, so in Kfar Nain, so in Kabul, so in Seifa, so in Mashhad, so in Bir al-Makhsur.

In Berhat, which we mentioned, nearly 1,700 residents ran for Meretz, about half of whom were disqualified by the election committee for fear of fictitious running, which we will expand on later.

In the last elections, only 470 people voted for the party in this city.

1,169 people functioned in Beit Jan, and in the last elections only 520 people voted for Meretz there.

I am attaching a small asterisk to these data, following a claim that MK Ali Salalha, a local resident, made in my ears. Salalha explained that in Arab society, people often vote for the candidate, no less than for the party. In the 2019 elections, I was in a real place, he explained, and then Meretz received in my locality a number High of votes. In the last election I was in a lower place, so the vote also went down. Now, promise, when I am again in a high place, you will see a very high vote again.

Keep it for me and I'll keep it for you

If you want to understand how problematic the system is, and how much this celebration of democracy operates in high percentages on box commanders, on deals and orders from above by the powerful commanders, go to the party leadership elections.

Let's clarify an important technical matter first.

Meretz allowed its officials to vote in one of two ways.

Either through the Internet, or at one of 32 physical polling stations scattered throughout the country.

The results in the digital elections cannot be segmented.

The ones held at the physical polling stations, yes.

In Berhat, for example, almost all the functionaries voted in physical ballots.

Yair Golan won 99.5% of the votes there, numbers that are usually reserved for elections in Syria.

Zehava Galon enjoyed a support of 0.5%.

We are talking about the candidate who won the head of the list, yes?

If you want it in numbers (minus individual abstainers), Golan got 781, and Galon got 4. In Kfar Qasim the situation is the opposite.

Galon won 99.3% of the votes, Golan got the rest (4 votes).

Are these ideological differences?

It could be that in Kfar Qasim everyone went along with Galon's concern for the climate problems, and in Brahat everyone, except for four people, connected with another deep position - to Golan's demand to declare that Meretz is a Zionist party?

Big doubt.

Golan, by the way, received very similar results (98.3%) in the list elections, in which Galon did not participate.

99.5% support on furniture.

Golan (Photo: Flash 90, Avshalom Sashoni)

As mentioned, most voters chose via the Internet.

2,922 voters and a total of 11,658 votes (each candidate could vote for four candidates), used the physical polling stations scattered throughout the country.

An analysis of the results in the various physical polling stations has a lot to teach us about the question of who took part in the deals, who was elected due to them, and who did not benefit from them at all.

How can you learn it?

very simple.

If someone receives 20-30 votes in all the physical polling stations, Arab as well as Jewish, and in two or three localities he breaks the ceiling, you understand that he had a deal there.

MK Gabi Leski, for example, who will be in sixth place on the list, is not in any of the big deals. Like Nitzan Horowitz, who was chosen for seventh place.

Who does enjoy these deals?

Michal Rosin, who received 91% of the votes in the physical ballot in Beit Jan, was clearly in the local deal.

When Eid Badir from Kfar Qasim receives a good share of votes in Berhat, and Mazen Abu-Siyam from Rahat receives, on the other hand, a good share of votes in Kfar Qasim, the deal is clear.

As mentioned, those who are not members of one of the three central centers, started the competition significantly behind.

This week I asked MK Ali Salalha, a member of Beit Jan, how the deals he managed worked. To his credit, he answered with great openness and honesty. The premise that hovered over our conversation was that he controls the functionaries in his settlement, 1,169 in number, and can trade with them." You choose for yourself groups that you can benefit from, and they can benefit from you," he explained to me. "They can help you and you can help them.

Then we found, for example, that with Michal Rosin we can cooperate."

Enjoyed the deals.

Rosin (Photo: Flash 90, Avshalom Sashoni)

And when you give her votes, does she have a place to give you back?

"Sure, she has people who functioned for her, absolutely. So what, I'm a fool? I'll give to someone and they won't give to me?".

Two others who were in Beit Jan's party are Omer Schechter, a member of the Rosh Ha'Ain Municipality Council, and Eliran Bikhovsky, who works in the Meretz faction in the Knesset.

Both people who are not known to the general public, each won hundreds of votes in the kingdom of Salalha.

"These two guys," Salalha explained to me, "talented guys, we are also friends. Eliran was our deputy coordinator in the Knesset, and we had an excellent relationship. Schechter is also a guy we know, so people knew him."

"Yes, each of these two guys made a census of something like 400-500 that he commanded. They also have power. They also know me personally and know my abilities and my power and that I am a decent person who should be promoted."

without judgment

A few days before the primary elections, when the Meretz election committee decided to disqualify about 820 Bedouin officials, Amit Segal published on News 12 some of the recordings of phone calls they made in Meretz with Berhat officials, conversations that, as mentioned, led to the disqualification of about half of them.

Some of them said that they even intend to vote for Likud.

One said that the candidate Mazen Abu-Siam paid for his and his family's performance.

The Meretz election committee, which discussed the issue, was harsh in its wording.

In its decision, the committee describes how the party made phone calls to Berhat functionaries, in which they were asked which party they would vote for in the upcoming elections, whether they would consider voting for Meretz, and whether they would like to become party members.

"The results of the test presented a difficult picture that has no place in Meretz," the election committee wrote.

"It turns out that hundreds of people registered to be members of a party against their will and in an industrialized and mass manner. The vast majority of the respondents did not know who they would vote for. The vast majority of the respondents did not know how to say that they were members of a party. Some of the respondents stated that they would vote for a party The Likud and Netanyahu... In one of the conversations it was said that gifts were promised to those who would function and that arranged financial deposits were made of a large number of people by the representative of the settlement. They took the identity card, photographed it, and with its help they recruited the people to the Meretz party, this without demanding payment. These findings ", the committee concluded, "a serious suspicion is being raised that the performance is not authentic and honest, and it is possible that there is also a suspicion of criminality".

Even in Meretz Panima, those who delved deeper into the results realized that there was a problem here.

"The key to success in the primaries also lies in one of the major commanders," says one of the contestants in the primary elections.

"Without this, there is no chance of getting into the top. There were three such commanders in these primaries - of Ali Salalha in Beit Jan, of Eid Badir in Kfar Qasim, and of Mazen Abu-Siam Barhat. Anyone who wanted to be elected to a high position knew that he had to establish contact with them and try to get involved their tins.

99.3% support in Kfar Qasim.

Galeon (Photo: Reuven Castro)

"The point is that when you come and try to join such a deal, you should preferably come with something that you can give in return. That is, if you want 300 votes from them, you must show that you have somewhere to give them back. And when your votes come from your supporters in Rosh Ha'Ain, and your fans from Be'er Sheva , and your friends in Netanya, and your relatives in one of the kibbutzim, you have no ability to present them as a block that you can sell in return. Because in the end, the ability to receive votes in the major polls is a result of the ability to give votes back to the candidate who polled and controls the poll. And because on every ballot you can vote For four contestants, so with a census of 500 incumbents, you can trade and get 2,000 votes, 500 of your votes, plus another 1,500 you'll get elsewhere, in exchange for supporting other candidates.

"Besides, the ability to visit in such a short time raises questions. How is it that so many people are willing to function at a considerable cost of NIS 80 per person? Anyone who has visited knows how difficult it is to reach over a thousand people in a few weeks. This requires a logistical operation And I explained crazy, unless the functioning is organized in other ways."

"You have to seriously consider the value of this whole game," says another primary contender.

"It is impossible to escape the fact that there are sectors where 800 people are given a ballot in their hand, and they all vote according to the same ballot, without exercising the discretion of the voter, and this is when we have not yet discussed the question of who paid for the performance.

"It is enough to see the gap between the large internal census in the Arab sector, and the low percentage of votes in the Knesset elections. The party's internal census has almost 30% Arabs, a very large share, because they are good at censuses, and because they know how to organize several hundred people, who vote exactly according to what who tell them that they didn't really function out of ideology. In contrast, in the general elections we received a few percentages in the Arab sector, maybe 5% or 6%. This creates a bias for the entire party in a direction that has nothing to do with democracy or ideology, but with business that hurts us."

It should be emphasized again that Meretz did not invent this election system, nor did Holia.

And yet, the things revealed here, in everything related to the recent internal elections in this party, should turn on a big red light.

And a final note: in everything that happened around the functions in Berhat, it is unlikely that things will pass without a police investigation.

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