Is the fact that even when the house is on fire, we stop to decide the question "Who will take out the trash?"
Do you teach about madness or rather relative sanity?/Reuven Castro
At about a quarter to seven I made my morning walk with the dog - sabbath or not, nature dictates the animal's schedule even during municipal elections.
I wouldn't have mentioned this impressive biographical detail, if it weren't for the morning round of a medium-sized dog led by a heavy man (or vice versa), an indication of what was going on in the streets.
To borrow an image from Mashina, there is a special sadness in our streets.
That is, for five months now when people walk a little stooped, talk quietly even when they talk about exciting topics like their children for example - and it seems that even the conversations that don't sound like mourners' caress, end with the question "What will happen?", to teach us that the spirit of the afflicted has washed over the land.
Maybe not everywhere: this morning I came across the headline of "Israel Hayom" with the words "Victory of Democracy".
There is no doubt that the State of Israel is entitled to see the fact that the elections (which were postponed twice) are taking place despite the fighting in the south, but if only to unite the democratic and the nationalist, then it seems that the Israel of recent years presents all the flaws of the democratic system.
I'm not writing this, God forbid, because Netanyahu is the one who has been chosen to govern it almost time after time, but because our democratic system is as hollow as Swiss cheese:
it gives too much influence to small and sectoral parties, whether they are headed by Goldknopf or Abbas, it allows Naftali Bennett, with six mandates only, to be the Prime Minister (regardless of the nature of his performance) and allows a political cuckoo like Idit Silman to lay her eggs in foreign nests - to topple his government in exchange for a promise to the ministry (in her case, environmental quality) in the government that will be established, that is, established.
A dog's needs versus national security?
Local government elections have a much greater impact on our lives than the national elections (the nice puppy in the picture has nothing to do with the dog mentioned in the article)/ShutterStock
Zero sum game
In the absence of a constitution that will guarantee stability of the foundations, every national election (even when these are held every six months, as we learned about three years ago) is "fatal" with or without the quotation marks, for shaping the country's destiny.
This is how it is when Israeliness is a zero-sum game, where (for example) orthodox and secular cannot exist side by side, without wanting to undermine each other's world to the core.
Well, we will not deal with all of these today... because while in other countries, Germany or France for example, the local elections show a trend that may also be reflected in the general elections, in Israel - and even more so, we take note of the fact that even when the house is on fire, we pause for a moment to Argue: whose turn is it to take out the garbage?
Yes, it can be pointed out again and again that the local elections have a greater impact on the daily routine than the general ones, but this token (sorry for the image that betrays my age) fails to sink down into our collective consciousness.
You can easily prove the correctness of the previous paragraph: no government, right or left, would have stopped Hamas and Hezbollah from carrying out a combined and murderous attack, which unfortunately succeeded in the south and fortunately did not come to fruition in the north.
With all due respect to Yoav Kish or to his predecessor, Yifat Shasha Biton - the heads of local councils still have much more influence on the local education system than the minister in charge, and when you add to that the fact that a spectrum of issues - from parking to the appearance of the city, touches our day-to-day lives much more problematically As fateful as the state budget, for example, the importance of local elections increases immeasurably - and yet we treat them with a shrug.
This is of course not the case everywhere, there are cities - and especially local and regional councils, where it is a glorious battle, sometimes corrupt and even violent, between two rival clans or between those who run them big contractors in the best case and criminal organizations in the slightly less pleasant case.
And yet, while the general elections bring out crazy emotions from us, the local elections, in general, are more relaxed.
Extend the act
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Ron Huldai, Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo.
If after 25 years as mayor, all that can be said to condemn you is that you have already been in office for 25 years, a sign that you are doing something right/Official website, Eyal Nebo
Caution, "bibists" on the left
Are you talking about a new conversation, the one after October 7?
Well, these elections could have been an excellent case study, not only in controlling the intensity of emotions surrounding them but also in our ability to break old voting patterns.
I have no problem revealing mine, for example: as a resident of Tel Aviv I support Baron Huldai.
Why?
Because all in all I'm fine in Tel Aviv.
Huldai did indeed fail in finding a key to the ability of young people to live in a city that is one of the most expensive in the world (which may cause an accelerated aging of the population, already in the near future).
He also failed in the war on the city's sidewalks, which in part have turned into strange means of transportation, but if after 25 years in power, all your opponents can say about you (or more precisely, those who appear to be your main opponents) is that in a democracy you have to change the mayor after 25 years, you are probably doing mostly good.
I'm not sure that I had a clear voting pattern - yet, since its inception, with the possible exception of one election, I voted in the general elections for Yesh Atid.
In the local elections, contrary to the position of my "party" which preferred to run for mayor with its own candidate, I will continue to give credit to Huldai.
And what about the city council?
Well, here too I managed to surprise myself, because at the national level Meretz (or what is left of it) rejects me.
What's more: the one who is marked as its next leader (perhaps in union with the remnants of the Labor Party), Yair Golan, with all due respect to his impressive military resume, makes me cringe almost every time he opens his mouth.
Despite my distaste for this political movement, I am the first to admit that a project that has transformed Tel Aviv,
in practice, into one where public transportation (even good and efficient!) operates for free on Shabbat, is an outgrowth of the activities of Meretz (Mitel Lehavi) in the city council - and if so, why Not giving credit to whoever is responsible so that my children can show up for dinner every Friday without needing a taxi?
Also the fact that she included some members from among the more sane stream of Kaplanists (for example the representatives of the Economists Forum), only made her more vital to me.
Why this personal confession?
Also because I think that disclosing one's personal opinion is considered due disclosure by anyone who types plural on their keyboard, but mainly to show that even if my private choices are wrong in the eyes of others, at least I tried to break my voting pattern from the general election.
Maybe not too rudely (it's not that I voted for the joint list of Likud and Ben Gvir, which in my view is a disgrace to the political platform that inherited the freedom movement), but at least I tried to think outside my political box, or at least get closer to the edge.
Unfortunately, not everyone has adopted this way of thinking.
Someone I like very much told me last night that she would vote for the Jewish-Arab list led by Adv
. I am in favor of equality for all citizens of Israel, Arabs and Jews alike, but this is a message that might be appropriate for the general elections. What does it have to do with education, sanitation, parking, transportation, community services, and more?
I wanted to tell her that she is nothing but a mirror image of those who end every debate with "just Bibi", without giving reasons, but this is the beauty (and worst) of democracy: the right to vote is reserved even for those who don't really know how to justify their choice.
I went out to vote, I'll be back soon.
For one moment of national-municipal reconciliation, everyone stood in awe of the visible miracle/ShutterStock
A visible miracle
The walk with the dog is almost over.
At an aerial distance of less than 200 meters from my house, there are several polling stations inside a center for the elderly.
On the days of general elections, the place becomes the scene of a scuffle (non-violent, although it has already happened that police cars have been ordered to decide the debate on where one or another sign is allowed to be hung), sometimes accompanied by an amplification system on the roof of a "recruited" vehicle.
Only this morning is quiet, almost eerie: several of the strange types of the neighborhood are already standing in line in front of the locked gate
. While I'm staring at him from a distance, an obvious miracle takes place before my eyes: a car of the type Kia Forte, gray-metallic in color (the number is stored in the system), found a parking spot right in front of the polling station, yes, right in front of 48 Rashi Street!
The passers-by on the nearby sidewalk almost applaud him when he gets out of the car, as Golanchik returned from Gaza safely.
Thus, in the spirit of national reconciliation that prevails over the public for one moment when I feel like waving it over blue-white curb stones, the flag of all of us, I smile to myself:
if even when the house is on fire we stop for a moment to argue about who will take the garbage out, we will probably be able to turn off the ignition and rebuild it .
We will start with the municipal and we will also reach my country.
More on the same topic:
local elections
Ron Huldai