By Dr. Tziona Fleisher
 
If you want an Arab Knesset, do not vote on Febuary 10.

"Remember Florida!"  That is what I tell people when I hear that old argument that "my one voice will change nothing". At least once it did. In the 2000 elections Bush's victory over Gore was decided by a few hundred votes during the Florida recount.
 
In the Israeli elections every Jewish vote is worth pure gold.
 
Let's make some calculations:

We currently have 10 Arab members in the Knesset, making the ratio of Arabs to Jews in parliament 1 to 11. The actual demographic ratio of Arabs to Jews in Israel is about 2 to 10, more that twice as high, meaning Arabs are underrepresented in the Knesset. This is due to various reasons: some voted for Jewish parties, some were not yet voting age, some refrained from voting due to their lack of interest in Israeli democracy …  All that was in the past, but only very nearsighted and unimaginative people think that the past will be necessary repeated in the future.

Let's continue our calculations: If no Jews came to vote, then Arabs would take all 120 seats in the Knesset. That would never happen, my opponent will say. I agree, it will probably not happen. But as opposed to 2003, when 68% of Israelis voted in the elections, only 63% of the Israelis came to vote in 2006. 
 
Apparently in the past, Arabs and Jews were equally apathetic and the same percentage of them decided to ditch their social responsibility and go hiking instead of voting.  On this February 10, the picture might be different. If in this election only 60% of the Jews come to vote ("There is nobody to vote for!") and 100% of Arabs come to vote ("There are good Jihadi parties to vote for!"), the ratio of voting Arabs to voting Jews will be 2 to 6. Arab parties could take 1/3 of the Knesset seats. Maybe they will not become the ruling party, but this is not their goal. The mechanism of taking legal power is such that if Arabs are the second biggest party in the Knesset they will become partners in the coalition. Imagine that!
 
Why do we tend to think that Arabs are stupid and can not make the simple calculation that we just made? They are not stupid, and they have already figured out the power of voting in numbers. In the Haifa Municipal elections a few months ago, the Jews showed total indifference while Arabs were highly organized, with whole families, houses, and neighborhoods going out to vote.  They actually decided the Haifa mayoral election, choosing a member of an anti-religious, pro-Arab Shinui-Green party ticket.

Stopping them is easy. We just have to come and vote for a Jewish candidate, even if we do not love him with all our heart.  Vote!  Vote for somebody! Not voting is the worst possible choice. It is like opening the doors of your house and inviting the enemy in.  Not voting is like Gush Katif again, but this time it is not the Government that does it.  We do.

In the Middle East, demography and democracy are weapons of the same old war. Arabs are not stupid – we are, if we let them win.

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Dr. Tziona Fleisher is a former Zionist refusnick from the USSR and a Doctor of Chemistry