This is my first diary and I have to state upfront that 1) I am not Jewish and nor to have any direct personal ties to Israeli - other than a couple of nice people I met in the course of my life - and 2) I will not be offering any type of in-depth analysis of the last elections. I'm really just throwing this story out there.
One of the more perplexing issues that's often debated here is the hold that "identity politics" has over a large enough number of the U.S. population to make just about everyone's life harder than it should be and I think it would be helpful in understanding this by seeing it play out from a different cultural perspective.
Ethnic tensions between Israeli Jews fuel Netanyahu victory
ROSH HA'AYIN, Israel (AP) — Israel's visceral election campaign has exposed a rift that many here thought had long subsided — the deep-seated schism between Jews of European and Middle Eastern descent.
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Mizrahi, or Middle Eastern, Jews heavily backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party, while Ashkenazi, or European, Jews mostly identified with the opposition Zionist Union.
That dynamic has been going on for a while but passions have run particularly high this time, with jarring results. Since Netanyahu's win, the sides have been exchanging insults that have not been heard in public in a generation — with the Mizrahi voters accused of being primitive and Ashkenazi voters viewed as elitist.
And the article discussions the historical background of this riff and notes that Mizrahis - or those who are part Mizrahi - make up approx. 50% of the Jewish population. And here's the red meat - so to speak - of Israeli's "Red State" problem:
They also account for many more poor people — and yet the poorest towns, where they predominate, tend to support Likud and forgive it the capitalist policies than have often not served their economic interests.
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"Our parents and grandparents have voted only Likud since the upheaval" of 1977, said Malkiram Bashari, who traces his roots to Yemen.
The prospect of voting for Labor? "It's too hard. There is just too much baggage there," said Bashari, 52.
Such sentiments are nothing less than mind-boggling for affluent Ashkenazi voters — who cannot grasp why Mizrahim would support Likud in an election when the country's high cost of living was supposedly a central issue.
They also often argue that Netanyahu's hard-line policies toward the Palestinians prevent a peace agreement that would bring on an economic boom that would benefit Mizrahim.
Next the article goes into the specifics and here's an analysis most here can understand:
"The politics of identity are stronger than any economic interest," said Gideon Rahat of Jerusalem's Hebrew University and the Israel Democracy Institute.
He said the ethnic vote goes both ways and helps explain why even the wealthiest Ashkenazim continue to vote Labor — which favors high taxes on the rich — rather than the more capitalist Likud.
OK, so we get the old 'both sides do it', however I don't think Mr. Rahat is channeling David Brouer and I do think he's correct - however, at least wealthier Ashkenazims would benefit in the long run with the improvements to Israeli society with improved government services as opposed to the diminished returns most Mizrahis get back with the policies their party supports.
But the ethnic genie was let out of the bottle at a pre-election left-wing rally in Tel Aviv, where Ashkenazi artist Yair Garbuz complained about a "handful of amulet kissers that have taken over the country." Other condescending remarks, including a Facebook post by leftist writer Alona Kimhi that referred to right-wing voters as "Neanderthals" and suggested they "drink cyanide," sparked further outrage.
The Shas party, which caters to religious Mizrahi Jews, tapped into the controversial comments and launched a campaign provocatively titled: "A Mizrahi votes for a Mizrahi."
I'm not quite sure how much influence these two artists did have, but nevertheless the "politics of at the root" - hurt feelings.
And of course, this could easily describe many of the rural towns in 'Red States' U.S. of A that are plagued by drug abuse and economic depression caused in good part by the policies they so overwhelmingly vote for:
In Rosh Ha'ayin, a former dusty town now on the outskirts of the greater Tel Aviv metropolis, these sentiments ring true.
"Bibi knows our mess. He is good for us," said 32-year-old Shalom Tairy, who runs a hummus restaurant in the Yemenite neighborhood of Shabazi, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.
"He knows how to talk. He knows how to make every 'fool' not feel like a 'fool' and raise his morale," Tairy added.
Sitting next door, drinking Turkish coffee and smoking cigarettes at a local convenience store, the neighborhood elders say Shabazi has always been a Likud stronghold and that is how it will remain.
They angrily recalled how Mizrahim were denied good jobs, passed over for promotions in the military and police, beaten in school and prevented a good education. They insisted that Israel's founding father David Ben-Gurion didn't even want them to come.
"We should be regarded like Holocaust survivors," said Uri Barzilai, 60. "We were treated like third-rate citizens and we still feel damaged."
I think Shalom Tairy summed it up with this quote: "He knows how to talk. He knows how to make every 'fool' not feel like a 'fool' and raise his morale"
I know that Shalom Tairy is likely using 'air-quotes' with his use of 'fool', but this is something I think we've seen in polling - deep down there's a portion of the RW population who 'knows' they're being stupid and maybe ashamed to say it to even a pollster over the phone, but they act on it in the voting booth.
And the full article can be seen here: http://news.yahoo.com/...
