Israel Votes: The Mideast Soap Opera

Lives and policies will hinge on the results of the upcoming Israeli elections, Paul Scham, executive director for The Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies, writes in Washington Jewish Week.

By Paul Scham, Washington Jewish Week

Now the courtship phase of the election has ended. In other words, last Thursday, Jan. 30, was the deadline for changing lists and candidates, and no more marriages between lists are allowed. This courtship phase has been more exciting than most. It started off with the Labor Party’s leader, Yitzhak Herzog, scion of one of Labor’s most distinguished lineages (his father was former President and General Chaim Herzog) joining with Tzipi Livni, whose father was a major leader in the pre-state Etzel (Irgun) and in the forerunner of the Likud, where her own political base was until 2005, joining together in a new party called the ‘Zionist Camp.’

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