Not a Disaster, a Sign of Hope: Israel Needs This Third Election

Tel Aviv's Rabin Square may have hosted one of its most bizarre demonstrations on Tuesday night — and Israel's epicenter of contestation has known many a weird event. It was slated as a youth protest against a third election being held inside a year; but there was no protest, and there were no young people. 

An eclectic group of children and teenagers did cluster around some people who identified themselves as the few who care. The event speakers, Shani Bibi, who told me she became an activist because she is the child of deaf parents, and On Rifman of Hashomer Hachadash, an organization that was set up to protect Jewish farms, thanked the hundreds who came – or rather failed to.

Speakers at a protest against a third election in Rabin Square, December 10, 2019Ofer Vaknin

I still don’t know what the guiding interest behind this muddled event had been. But if we take at face value that this was meant to voice the pain of those who are sick of elections, a cry on their behalf wasn't really made.

Maybe behind the vapid clichés (“the hospitals are collapsing and they’re holding another election!”) that people burble just to avoid any genuine interaction, or worse, any complex contemplation, Israelis have come to terms in their heart of hearts with the fact that a third election is necessary.