Candidates for Prime Minister and Knesset are making their final rounds for votes. The Land of Israel itself could be at stake in this election.
*** National Union in New York
In Crown Heights, New York – a Chabad-Lubavitch bastion – dozens of posters for the Ichud Leumi (National Union) party have been posted on subway stations, buildings, and elsewhere. Israeli residents of the neighborhood explained that their purpose in bringing the Israeli elections to New York is to “raise awareness about the National Union and the dangers to the Land of Israel.”
Click below to hear Ichud Leumi leader Yaakov "Ketzaleh" Katz present his campaign platform
They say that the elections are not just a political matter: “These elections are critical in stopping the dangerous schemes for the division of Jerusalem and the expulsion of 60,000 more Jews from their homes in Judea and Samaria. These plots have already made their way from the U.S. to Israel, via the emissary of U.S. President Obama, former Senator George Mitchell, – who did not even wait until after the Israeli elections before arriving.”
*** UTJ Reaching Out to Arabs
The United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party is reaching out to Arab voters who are specifically offended by the anti-Arab stance of Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) party. UTJ activists have been distributing flyers in Arabic entitled “Ultra-Orthodox Jews for Equality.” UTJ MK Moshe Gafni explained, “We are against racism. We are for the Torah, in which it is written, ‘You should love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.’”
*** Get Out and Vote!
In light of the constantly decreasing voter turnout percentages in recent elections, a group of concerned citizens is turning their efforts towards bringing out the vote. Amotz Eyal, a Jerusalem resident who recently completed his army service, is spearheading the drive on behalf of the Yechiam educational association, which deals with love of the land and democratic values. Eyal and colleagues plan to spend Election Day afternoon at various polling stations in central Israel, giving out random cakes and candies to those who vote.
They will also disseminate literature explaining, “Many struggles over Israel’s future await us in the next Knesset. If you stay home on Election Day, or if you do not work to have all your friends and neighbors go out to vote, you are entrusting Israel’s future in the hands of those who think the opposite of what you think.”
*** Planting in Migron
Members of the Ichud HaLeumi commemorated Tu B’Shvat by planting saplings in Migron, a flourishing community north of Jerusalem that has been designated as an “unauthorized outpost.” Candidates Yaakov Katz (Ketzaleh), Uri Ariel, Aryeh Eldad and Avi Rath took part. “This is the Zionist response to the continued rocket attacks,” they said. “We will continue to grasp onto our Land without fear, to work to establishing communities all over the Land, and to work to apply Israeli Law to all of Judea and Samaria.”
*** Rabin and Netanyahu
Yuval Rabin, son of assassinated Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, held a joint press conference with Binyamin Netanyahu, expressing support for a Likud-led coalition government. “Bibi [Netanyahu] knows I’m not voting for the Likud,” said Rabin, whose father headed the Labor Party, “but I don’t see any possibility of a strong centrist or left-wing government.”
*** Jewish Home Calls Upon Women
The Jewish Home-New National Religious Party is reaching out to women. Noting that a record number of women are to serve in the upcoming Knesset, the party points out that it is the “only religious party to be smart enough to place two women in its top ten.” The two – Emunah head Liora Minke and Kfar Darom co-founder Shella Roznak-Shorshan – are not expected to enter the Knesset, because they are in slots #6 and 7, while the party is not expected to receive more than four seats.
An email letter from the party states, “We are turning to you, as to all the other women of the religious Zionist camp, to come en-masse to vote for the Jewish Home, in order to promote the women’s agenda in religious Zionism from within the Israeli legislature as well.” A list of some 15 prominent women who endorse the party, such as writer Chayuta Deutsch, “Bat Ami” National Service organization head Rabbanit Yaffa Gisser, and lawyer Miriam Rechtman, is appended to the letter.