# 335 – Post-Election Blues

Post-Election Blues

Not too long ago, I was one of those who suggested giving the winner of the Israeli elections an extra 15 seats in the Knesset. Give the winner a chance to follow on from their manifesto, without having to crumble to the whims of the smaller coalition partners.

Well, they didn’t listen to me – and anyway, it was a ‘dead heat’ this time, between Bennie Gantz and Bibi.

Bibi will continue to rule.

Amen.

And those who implied I would be happy with the result continue to show that they have difficulty understanding Israel and me.

Believe it or not, the Far Right parties lost out. And Bibi’s majority comes partly from some religious parties, who are NOT Far Right. They are stubborn and they are selfish, but their interests rarely involve foreign policy.

I was for Yair Lapid’s party, Yesh Atid (There’s a Future), which joined up with Benny and his 2 other ex-chief-of-staff colleagues. A Centre party, accused by Bibi of being Left.

None of these 3 have political experience, and that’s worrying. No matter how much we dislike politicians, this IS politics… Some may feel that Trump is OK, but most of his supporters would admit that his knee-jerk reactions to almost anything is ‘dangerous’.

Yair Lapid has 6 years’ experience – Netanyahu has far more. That’s partly why he won. He’s actually handling national and international affairs quite cleverly.

This election was bad for the Palestinians. Bibi is getting used to either ignoring them or swatting them. Abbas, now in the 14th year of his 4-year term, is ageing, and has less options every day.

Soon, Donald Trump will be announcing his ‘peace plan’ soon and the Palestinians have already said no, without knowing a single word of its content. Israel might say yes, as it will surely involve some of the ‘moderate’ Arab nations, and that’s always good for Israel.

The poor Palestinians are still screaming for 100% of their original claims, and cannot face the fact that they will be lucky to get 50%.

As on the crap table, they must realise that if they don’t cut their losses today, all will be gone.

Fingers crossed that N. Africa does not again erupt into catastrophe.

May ‘Our Lady’ in Paris rise again to her former glory. As with Sagrada Familla in Barcelona, Notre Dame will never cease to attract the tourists, despite the scaffolding.

And may the problems of this World pass over all of our heads….

Happy Holidays,

  Stephen

April 17, 2019