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As part of our coverage on the forthcoming elections, James Grant-Rosenhead of Kvutsat Yovel
in Migdal Ha’emek and Gil Browdy of Kvutsat Aseef in Ramat Gan have both written articles
highlighting the dilemmas of who to vote for.

I have to admit that I am a lot more skeptical and cynical today than I was in previous Israeli elections,
especially after campaigning intensively for Barak in the past, and with the fresh bitter aftermath of the
recent war.

Nevertheless, skepticism and cynicism must be overcome, for they are not the constructive, activist tools of
a chalutz/a, and they do not help us to rise to the realistic needs of the hour.
So, what are the needs of the hour?

Despite any reservations we might have about Barak specifically, the Labour Party's list includes some
genuine social-democrat (even Socialist) Zionists in totally realistic (high) places (eg Shelley Yachimovitz, Yuli
Tamir, Avishai Braverman & Amir Peretz - all in the top 10). That is extremely significant when considering
both Likud & Kadima's neo-liberal, free-market capitalist approach to Israeli society (i.e. privatise health,
welfare, education, etc).

This current Labour line up is even perhaps the best we have had in a while, and the high ranking of the
people I just mentioned actually gives serious weight to the possibility of the party being reshaped by a real
welfare state oriented agenda - but only if they do well in these elections. If not, then this potential positive
new leadership which has surprisingly surfaced in the past few years could be crushed by other factions in
the party.

As bogrim of a/our movement, we need to see ourselves not only as individual voters, but as a group within a
group within a group - we are the potential hardcore renewal of the Israeli Labour movement and of our
nation. Such an approach requires that we not only think about our individual votes as citizens of Israel, but
of how we influence the future direction of the Labour party in Israel, who are the only current realistic
chance of our Socialist-Zionist values having any kind of political representation in this country.

If the Labour party goes down the tubes in this election, we may be losing an historic opportunity for a
some genuine renewal of the party's senior leadership and even the overall values, vision and direction which
they could push for inside Labour, inside the Knesset, and in Israeli society.

I don't necessarily expect Labour to win the election, but I do hope that this election will prove to be a
turning point in the re-establishment of our values in the party, as represented by this line-up, which is a
critical step towards ensuring that our values continue to be represented in the Israeli political spectrum at
all. We might not be able to save the country from Bibi / Livni in the short term by voting this time around,
but we may well be able to create enough critical support to strengthen and stabilise this somewhat
surprising revival in Labour's social democratic / welfare state direction.

Aleh V'natzbia,

James.
* * * * *

Three months ago I made Aliya, and now I already find myself in the midst of a heated election campaign. I
guess considering the longevity of the average coalition these days, I shouldn't be surprised. Nevertheless,
I am surprised by how difficult this decision is for me.

As a leftist, I am faced with three choices of parties that even remotely resemble my outlook on the future
of this country and the shape of this society. - Avodah, Meretz and Chadash. Each one espouses certain
values I agree with, and yet each has a fundamental flaw that I cannot simply overlook.