No, I Will Not Vote!

 

My husband just got back from the polls.

 

He won't tell me who he voted for because he doesn't want to influence my vote in any way.

 

There's very little chance of that happening.

 

I don't intend to vote anyway.

 

I'm not taking part in this charade anymore.

 

I didn't vote for him, but I certainly believed that Arik Sharon meant what he said and had this country's best interests at heart.

 

I would never have believed that he, of all PMs, would be the one to run Jews out of the homes utilizing the army, the police, the riot squad and UN soldiers, throw them out into the streets and scatter them helpless throughout the country so that they could not regroup.

 

Those who voted Sharon in did so because they feared that a Labor PM might do such things. No one believed it would be Sharon.

 

He destroyed our faith in any politician.

 

He crossed the line into making Israel a fascist state that turns the armed forces on its own citizens for political purposes.

 

There are still some families from Shomron who do not have homes. There are still some children who are not in school.

 

Young adolescents, I mean boys and girls as young as thirteen, were put into adult prisons for demonstrating.  Their parents were not allowed to bring them school supplies.  A judge ruled that: "being in jail is not a luxury".

 

The wife of the lawyer who was giving counsel to the Jews in Shomron was arrested and taken to prison, though she did nothing. She was nursing at the time.  They hauled the baby off with her.

 

If Sharon, the supposedly most staunch defender of Israel did all that, who would not? The next stage of evacuation of Jews is already in the works. Minister of Defense, the former Chief of Staff, Sha'ul Mofaz has said he supports the plan.

 

Dan thinks that it's important that I vote.

 

For what? A grotesque? A farce - that is anything but funny?

 

It is clear that whoever is dictating Israeli policy is outside Israel and will continue to do so no matter who the PM is and no matter what the breakdown of the seats in Knesset will be.

 

No. I, for one, will not play their game. I will not take an action that will signal to them that I'm still buying into the lie that this is even a quasi- or ersatz democratic state. 

 

By not voting I cast my vote.  It is a vote for anarchy.

 

March 28, 2006

 

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The record low voter turnout at the polls yesterday, 57%, which broke the record set in the last elections, when 63% of eligible voters cast their ballot has been interpreted by some commentators that the voters don't care what the future of Israel is.

 

The public was adjured to vote by organizations whose stated purpose is to uphold democracy.  They were told in repeated broadcasts: "Get out and vote. It is more than a right.  It is a duty. Don't give up your rights to someone else."

 

Oh, please! The reason why so few Israeli voters didn't bother is because after having been betrayed by Ariel Sharon we learned that the "democratic process" is an utter farce and it doesn't matter how we cast our votes.

 

More important, vastly more important, is the fact that they do not understand that our inaction does not bespeak indifference or an abrogation of our power.

 

We are whittling away at the ersatz democratic state and we intend to supplant it with a truly democratic, that is, anarchic, state.

 

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel

[email protected]

March 29, 2006