Second election-itis — a contagious disease in Israel

What Israelis did not expect was to go to the polls twice in six month, for more or less the same slate of candidates, and to have to pass a second referendum on Mr Netanyahu’s political future. 

Most Israelis I talk to at least expected a government to form — good or bad, stable or unstable, productive or unproductive, that was quite another matter. As if the sordid deal-cuttings of the coalition talks were not enough to turn the average Israeli off politics, the failure to produce any results was somehow worse.

While most citizens probably do not resent another day off from work to go to the polls, the mood is of a cantankerous duty to country at a cost of an additional 450 million shekels (£102.6 million) to the taxpayer.

August in Israel is a particularly cranky month for parents, because the state has failed to close a childcare gap between the academic school years, leaving most of the country juggling work and life even more chaotically than usual.

This annual ordeal is a reminder to the average Israeli that not much has changed in this year of electoral paralysis. Many earn lower salaries compared to other OECD nations, cannot afford to own an apartment and are warily watching prices of groceries and other domestic goods.

Meanwhile there is a general feeling that the state has entirely failed in its domestic agenda: cuts to health services, stalled public works projects, children in overcrowded classrooms, tensions between religious and secular people, and  an establishment still dominated by an Ashkenazi elite.

The citizenry are still dutifully paying their taxes, sending their kids to the army, and contributing to society, but the thought that seems to be going through everyone’s minds is: what has the State of Israel done for me lately? 

Acharei Ha-Chaggim (after the Jewish holidays) seems to be the refrain of most Israelis, hoping the whole country will get back to reality, but there is low expectation that the Jewish New Year will bring a revolution in their well-being.

My social circle ranges from the centre-right to far left and, for the most part, those who are voting Blue & White aren’t particularly taken with its leadership or platform. They have resigned themselves to a strategic vote for the “anything but Bibi” premiership — probably in a national unity government with the Likud.

Those voting farther to the left have no illusions that their vote will change much in terms of the Israel-Palestine conflict, but just want to save Labour and Meretz’s liberal Zionist vision from disappearing off the political map entirely.  A few friends have even confessed (in whispers) to a flirtation with the Joint List, or at least voiced sadness that Jewish and Arab Israelis have never sat together in a coalition and racism seems to be on the rise.

Mostly, as one liberal Zionist friend expressed at Shabbat dinner, the Israeli election is only one part of the equation and the outlook for an enduring peace with this current Palestinian leadership looks bleak.  The sad reality among the average Israeli is no party is talking in concrete detail about a solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict — unilateral annexation is likely to be on the table no matter who garners the most votes.

The State of Israel may have a new government in the next month or so; whether it will have a coalition with the capacity to lead the country into the future is far from certain.

Sara Yael Hirschhorn is Visiting Assistant Professor in Israel Studies at Northwestern University, Illinois