It has been rainy and gross here for two straight days. These pics are from the misty walk to work this morning. One of the Monastery of the Cross (this is the valley where trees grew for the cross) and the other is of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. I can count the number of rainy days since I got here on one hand and it doesn’t rain here at all in the summer, really. The earth is dry, very dry and the country is expecting a big drought this summer. Jerusalem is green only because it irrigates like mad with water from the Sea of Galilee (which is fresh). Even the cactus garden on campus gets irrigation lines. Even though I have had a bit of a chill lately, I have to say the rain is a good thing.
A little note about the election:
The Kadima party, headed up by the blond lady, Tzi-pi, eeked out one more seat than her rival, Bi-Bi (as in Benjamin Netanyahu). Think this is a victory and she gets to be Prime minister? WRONG!
Who gets to be PM is now based on who can form the biggest coalition. So, good ol’ BB may squeeze his way to PM again (reminds me of someone else who lost an election but still tried to scratch his way to the big seat. Oh yea, Dion!). And since BB, is more right wing, he will have an easier time getting the religious parties on his side.
According to one of my labmates, forming a large coalition is achieved by appeasing the smaller parties with funding for their agendas. This often means courting super religious parties with money for synagogues, yeshivas (basically theology school) and the like. The tiny parties have much more clout here than you would expect.
I guess there is a lesson for us Canadians. With the Canuck system of regional representation, smaller but significant voices like the Green Party get no say in the house. Which sucks. With the similar system here, but with proportional representation, it has lead to many smaller parties and as a consequence, the small voices are given a megaphone because of the need for coalitions every time there is an election. This sucks too.
1 comment:
Hey Janet
This sounds like the Mixed Member Proportional Electoral System (MMP for short) that is used in NZ. It's actually a great system for small countries because it ensures that the smaller (but popular) parties have a say. It also (generally) drags extreme parties (left or right) towards the middle ground as everyone tries to be part of the coalition. We have just had an election here which has booted the Labour government out after 9 years and the National party (the conservatives) are back in power. Unsurprisingly they have formed a coalition with two very right wing groups that have had to moderate their views AND surprisingly, with the Maori Party not known to be previously in bed with any conservative faction. So there you go. It's a more co-operative system which allows the little guys to have influence.
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