Elections 2009 - Bumper Stickers and flyers

Hey everyone,

Below are some bumper stickers, flyers, and signs for today's national elections here in Israel. These stickers, etc. represent both parties and issues. Bumper stickers and other political chazarei are very popular here. In fact, the most popular song in 2006 was the "Sticker Song", made famous by "Hadag Nachash", which essentially just rhymes together dozens of bumper stickers. You can find a whole educational curriculum about it here.

In English from top to bottom:

• Strong Israel Party, the new left-wing party formed by Ephraim Sneh
• Israel Is Our Home Party (though this is a flyer from the municipal election) led by Avigdor Lieberman...right-wing religious party, mostly (but not exclusively) comprised of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union/FSU (note: not Florida State)
• Na...Nach...Nachma....Nachman from Uman - a play on the name of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. This slogan is tagged, etc everywhere, as the thought is that the more you see the name of the Rabbi, the more you'll think of his good deeds and religious scholarship, and the more mitzvot you'll do.
• Gilad Still Lives: Calling attention to the plight of captured soldier Gilad Shalit is a crucial issue in these elections.
• Meretz: The Socialist Party of Israel. I loved this party and its platform in the 90s, and though I still believe in their liberal domestic platform, I have been completely disillusioned by their tactics of outright trying to influence U.S. Jews against Israeli government policy, their near-complete lack of empathy with Israel while showing total empathy with Palestinians (would balance be so horrible?), and most significantly, by their complete and total lack of understanding of world affairs - i.e. all their supporters passing out literature while wearing Che Gueverra shirts...do they not understand that Cuba is a totalitarian state which, among other things like ignoring human rights, repressing freedoms, and arresting most dissidents, has an extreme anti-Israel policy. Ok...off my soap box.
  
• Likud: The Zionist Religious Likud - A Partner for Victory!
  
• National Unity (see above) I'm Also Orange: Orange was the color of protest against the disengagement from Gaza. There is a play on spelling here from Taf to Tet (the letter representing the party on the ballot)
• It's Time To Choose! Yes To A Peace Agreement
• Today, Explanations Are Not Given. Votes Are! - Meretz (see above)
• A Different Kind of Prime Minister - Tzipi Livni/Kadima
• Mafdal/National Unity: Fighting For Our Rights! - The Religious (mostly) Ashkenazi Parties (composed of National Union, Moledet, Mafdal, and Tkuma)
• Whoever is For G-d Is For Me - Shas (in the photo is controversial Rabbi Ovadia Yosef). Shas is the religious party for Jews from Muslim countries. It is a bit of an enigma, ultra-conservative on some issues, but liberal on others (that you would never expect them to be). Their supporters, like those of each religious party, vote as the Rabbis instruct them to.
  

An Amazing Thing Happened In The Office Today...

Back in 2001, in the middle of the Intifada, I was sitting in my apartment in Old Katamon (a neighborhood in Jerusalem) one Saturday evening doing some reading for a class on Sunday morning.

The news was light that evening - almost nothing had happened, which was very rare for an Israeli news anchor to admit.

I turned off the tv, and resumed my reading. A few minutes later, I started hearing sirens screaming out of the nearby hospital...one, then two, a few more, and a few more. I groaned to myself, knowing that I would turn on the tv and see image after image of Israeli terror victims screaming in agony. I braced myself.

And I did see Israelis screaming in agony. But - it was no terror attack. It was shoddy architecture and planning.

Originally, reports indicated that the collapse was at a club called "HaOman 17", one of the best clubs in Jerusalem. If that was the case, there would have been many many students from my university there.

I called a friend of mine, Masha, who was both a tour guide (and still is, and is an exceptional one at that!) and a field/search and recovery medic. She happened to be close to the Versailles Hall at the time of the collapse. I asked her, since I was blood type O+ (universal donor) if I should get there asap. She said to just get in a cab and head straight to Magen David Adom on the other side of town.

When I got there, an amazing site awaited me...this was within about 20 minutes of news breaking about the collapse of the wedding hall. At the Magen David Station at the entrance to Jerusalem, there were nearly 1000 people waiting in line (an amazing fete in this part of the world) - all universal donors! They were all waiting to be able to give blood for the victims. I had to wait til nearly 5:00am in order to donate blood, and there were hundreds behind me.

This would happen almost anywhere in the world, yes, but - it happened here and with a complete sense of כל יהודי ערבים זה לזה - each Jew is responsible one for the other. There is a huge amount of internal debate and discord in this country, but when the occassion calls for it, the people of this country unite.

Today, I donated blood again. The professor who oversaw much of my work at The Hebrew University also works at Yad Vashem. I won't delve into detail, but he could be doing much better health-wise.

Enough employees gave blood today so that my Professor will be able to have a blood bank for at least a year. Everyone turned out. Jewish and Arab, Israeli and foreign, white collar (if there is such a thing in Israel) and blue. There is something stregnthening and envigorating knowing that you are no longer part of a minority but rather part of a collective.

I am my father's son and neither of us are able to deal well with needles or the sight of blood. It's a pity...I think I would have liked to have been a physician. My colleagues told me that while I was giving blood, I turned a white shade of pale. But - this is what was called for, and this is what we do.

I am a Zionist - Yair Lapid takes the words right out of my mouth

I am a Zionist

Yair Lapid says he belongs to tiny minority that influenced world more than any other nation
Yair Lapid

Yediot Aharonot - 1/30/09

I am a Zionist.


I believe that the Jewish people established itself in the Land of Israel, albeit somewhat late. Had it listened to the alarm clock, there would have been no Holocaust, and my dead grandfather – the one I was named after – would have been able to dance a last waltz with grandma on the shores of the Yarkon River.


I am a Zionist.


Hebrew is the language I use to thank the Creator, and also to swear on the road. The Bible does not only contain my history, but also my geography. King Saul went to look for mules on what is today Highway 443, Jonah the Prophet boarded his ship not too far from what is today a Jaffa restaurant, and the balcony where David peeped on Bathsheba must have been bought by some oligarch by now.


I am a Zionist.


The first time I saw my son wearing an IDF uniform I burst into tears, I haven't missed the Independence Day torch-lighting ceremony for 20 years now, and my television was made in Korea, but I taught it to cheer for our national soccer team.


I am a Zionist.


I believe in our right for this land. The people who were persecuted for no reason throughout history have a right to a state of their own plus a free F-16 from the manufacturer. Every display of anti-Semitism from London to Mumbai hurts me, yet deep inside I'm thinking that Jews who choose to live abroad fail to understand something very basic about this world. The State of Israel was not established so that the anti-Semites will disappear, but rather, so we can tell them to get lost.


I am a Zionist.


I was fired at in Lebanon, a Katyusha rockets missed me by a few feet in Kiryat Shmona, missiles landed near my home during the first Gulf War, I was in Sderot when the Color Red anti-rocket alert system was activated, terrorists blew themselves up not too far from my parents' house, and my children stayed in a bomb shelter before they even knew how to pronounce their own name, clinging to a grandmother who arrived here from Poland to escape death. Yet nonetheless, I always felt fortunate to be living here, and I don't really feel good anywhere else.


I am a Zionist.


I think that anyone who lives here should serve in the army, pay taxes, vote in the elections, and be familiar with the lyrics of at least one Shalom Hanoch song. I think that the State of Israel is not only a place, it is also an idea, and I wholeheartedly believe in the three extra commandments engraved on the wall of the Holocaust museum in Washington: "Thou shalt not be a victim, thou shalt not be a perpetrator, but above all, thou shalt not be a bystander."


I am a Zionist.


I already laid down on my back to admire the Sistine Chapel, I bought a postcard at the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, and I was deeply impressed by the emerald Buddha at the king's palace in Bangkok. Yet I still believe that Tel Aviv is more entertaining, the Red Sea is greener, and the Western Wall Tunnels provide for a much more powerful spiritual experience. It is true that I'm not objective, but I'm also not objective in respect to my wife and children.


I am a Zionist.


I am a man of tomorrow but I also live my past. My dynasty includes Moses, Jesus, Maimonides, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Albert Einstein, Woody Allen, Bobby Fischer, Bob Dylan, Franz Kafka, Herzl, and Ben-Gurion. I am part of a tiny persecuted minority that influenced the world more than any other nation. While others invested their energies in war, we had the sense to invest in our minds.


I am a Zionist.


I sometimes look around me and become filled with pride, because I live better than a billion Indians, 1.3 billion Chinese, the entire African continent, more than 250 million Indonesians, and also better than the Thais, the Filipinos, the Russians, the Ukrainians, and the entire Muslim world, with the exception of the Sultan of Brunei. I live in a country under siege that has no natural resources, yet nonetheless the traffic lights always work and we have high-speed connection to the Internet.


I am a Zionist.


My Zionism is natural, just like it is natural for me to be a father, a husband, and a son. People who claim that they, and only they, represent the "real Zionism" are ridiculous in my view. My Zionism is not measured by the size of my kippa, by the neighborhood where I live, or by the party I will be voting for. It was born a long time before me, on a snowy street in the ghetto in Budapest where my father stood and attempted, in vain, to understand why the entire world is trying to kill him.


I am a Zionist.


Every time an innocent victim dies, I bow my head because once upon a time I was an innocent victim. I have no desire or intention to adopt the moral standards of my enemies. I do not want to be like them. I do not live on my sword; I merely keep it under my pillow.


I am a Zionist.


I do not only hold on to the rights of our forefathers, but also to the duty of the sons. The people who established this state lived and worked under much worse conditions than I have to face, yet nonetheless they did not make do with mere survival. They also attempted to establish a better, wiser, more humane, and more moral state here. They were willing to die for this cause, and I try to live for its sake.

What I love about Israel

My building here is attached to another, with separate entrances to each. In the other building, the Womens' International Zionist Organization (WIZO) runs a center for the elderly, which includes care facilties. A woman with alzheimers disease recently wandered away from the center, and has not been seen since.

Back in the U.S., this happens, of course. Alzheimers disease is a horror that no one should have to face, but too many do. However, what I have noticed is that when you hear about an instance like this in the states, you shake your head and say, what a shame.


Here there is a sense of community and communal responsibility. I have received dozens upon dozens of emails from friends and colleagues with a notice about the missing woman. There have even been massive search efforts that have pulled in thousands of people over the past week. This morning, I took some time to join the effort before going to work...and I was joined by hundreds. I don't by any means think this is unique to Israel, but I love that it's common in Israel.