The elections are over and these are the main statistics: Kadima won by 1 mandate over Likud (28 > 27 if I recall). Israel Beitenu with 15 mandates.
Short capitulation:
- Likud (meaning: unity): a right-wing party, house for many racists and biggots. Holds record in ruining economics in Israel and putting up on a pedestal every possible military action performed by Israel. Leaning on the US for financial gain while bad mouthing it. Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu said recently "We don't need US financial funding" and causing a lot of embarrassment.
- Kadima (meaning: forward): a mostly-central party formed by ex-Likud member and ex-prime minister Ariel Sharon. At some point Sharon supposedly decided peace is the only way out so he left the Likud and formed a new party which won him the prime minister position in which he _finally_ evacuated settlements from the Gaza strip.
- Israel Beitenu (meaning: Israel, our home): a fascist right-wing party that has engraved racism on it's flag. It's specifically anti-arab in a very serious way, anti-palestinian, and openly supports (illegal) transfer, an act that is against universal law, UN law and human rights law.
I tried to explain to a co-worker from Argentina, the more you know about a party, the faster you reach the point of knowing not to vote for them. The late George Carlin used to say that he doesn't vote because he thinks that it prevents him from being able to complain about whatever state (excuse the pun) will follow the election procedure.
So which is better, to vote for a less evil or not to vote at all? I don't know yet. But with every election (specifically in Israel and Palestine), the more I hear in the back of my head the trailer to Alien vs. Predator which said "whoever wins, we lose".
