Crucial Elections

By: Larry Gordon

After many months of anticipation, the long-awaited, highly analyzed, and incessantly talked about midterm elections are finally here.

It’s additionally fascinating how intertwined the U.S. and Israel are to the extent that not only do their combined Air Forces fly together to take down Iran, but their citizens go to the polls at just about the same time also. And that’s the case in this election as it has been many times in the past.

Of course, the technicalities of the two elections could not be more different. Here in the U.S., we have a midterm election, which decides what kind of support the president will have in both Houses of Congress.

In Israel, they have a vastly different parliamentary system which elects political parties rather than individual politicians. It is the leaders of those parties who are generally chosen by the president of Israel to patch together a ruling coalition of 61-plus members, thereby creating a majority ruling coalition in the 120-seat parliament.

As I write this article, the competition is fierce between the long-serving incumbent Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and former IDF General (and political novice) Gadi Eisenkot. Here in the States, President Trump has already made it clear that he prefers to continue working with Bibi, but it remains to be seen how the Israeli public feels about that.

Here in the States, the midterm election is next week which, among other things, will decide the balance of power between our legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. The prognosticators, which include a large amount of anti-Trumpers, are anticipating that the slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives will be turned over and switched to a Democrat majority.

But as of now, we don’t see it that way and we hope that the push by Trump over these last few weeks, combined with the threat of the radical left, presenting a clear and present danger to the future of the U.S. will motivate people to vote Republican. Why would clear-thinking American voters want to hand over a great deal of the decision-making process to people who want to reopen our borders and push the country even further into debt?

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu hold joint press conference 2025

Credit The White House

Caption Gadi Eisenkot

Credit Yahav Studio‏, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia

It has become increasingly clear that the Democratic party of yesterday is not the same as today’s Democratic Party. Unfortunately, even though the Marxist-Socialists are a minority, it seems that the party is being dominated by these radicals who want to fundamentally undo America as we know it.

In fact, that is precisely where both elections cross paths. If Bibi Netanyahu can form a government, he will most likely be able to stay the course. If Eisenkot is the new leader chosen to form a new government, it is a new day for Israel on many levels.

First of all, as we have seen, Bibi is a Trump-type Conservative-minded person. Both men understand each other and get along quite well. Eisenkot has nothing of America in him the way Bibi does. In fact, Eisenkot barely speaks any English.

On top of that, Eisenkot is apparently ready to bring an Arab party into his coalition if that’s what it takes to form a government. This has happened before when Naftali Bennett was prime minister and brought the Arab Ra’am party into his government. It proved to be a disaster, and it caused Bennett’s government to collapse in less than a year.

Here in the U.S., there are many key elections to watch. At the top of the list is the Michigan Senate race between Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers. If Rogers can win in Michigan and Bruce Blakeman can beat Kathy Hochul in New York, it will be a sign that this country is maintaining its sanity. But those races can go the other way too, which would be a worrying sign for our country.

With Zohran Mamdani winning the mayoralty in New York, there seems to be a quasi-momentum to elect more people like him, which is the makings of a disaster. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

At the same time, New York Governor Kathy Hochul was quoted the other day saying that a Netanyahu loss would be the best thing for Israel. It’s a mystery why that is her concern, but at the same time, the anti-Trump protests here in the U.S. have mostly featured Palestinian flags along with chants of “Free Palestine.”

Governor Kathy Hochul

Credit Metropolitan Transportation Authority CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia

County Executive Bruce Blakeman

And that is probably the one thing these two elections have in common. One of the worst and most egregious characters to rise in U.S. politics has to be Abdul El-Sayed, who deserves to lose handily, and we hope he will.

There is hardly a speech either he or Mamdani makes where they don’t accuse Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, and in El-Sayed’s case, he always mentions that he didn’t take any campaign donations from AIPAC, as if AIPAC would give him a cent under any circumstances.

Back to Kathy Hochul, who we pray will lose to Bruce Blakeman next week, she said the other day that in her mind, Netanyahu is the cause of much of the anti-Semitism today, especially in the state that she’s supposed to be running: New York. Those words are just an indicator of how she will devolve into Mamdani’s water carrier if elected.

Back to Israel. As the votes are being counted, once again Bibi Netanyahu finished at the top so far with 27 Knesset seats. But now the real hard work begins with the matter of forming a ruling coalition. As in the past, one of the most contentious issues is the drafting of yeshiva students.

As of Wednesday, there are still 600,000 votes that have not been counted from soldiers and overseas personnel, so there’s still a possibility of dramatic changes in the final numbers.

How the matter of the draft will be worked out is anyone’s guess. The Chareidi and yeshiva leaders are firm on no military service for yeshiva students. There are numerous ways to settle this problem for the good of the country and Jewish communities everywhere. In September, Netanyahu said in his video: “There is no straight (in this election). Yashar (Eisenkot’s party) is a bluff. In this race there’s either left or right.” Same as in the United States! 

Read more of Larry Gordon’s articles at 5TJT.com. Follow 5 Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.