So where do we stand in #Israel, more than 2 weeks after the generals elections? Generally the new parliament - #Knesset - was sworn in and started to work. The existing government now uses every trick it can to delay forming a new government or even delay the work of the Parliament. Furthermore, #AvigdorLiberman through a wrench into the negotiations for forming a new government.

In the 27.10.26 #IsraeliElections, turn out was high, in all sectors. There are 11 parties in the newly-elected parliament, of 120 seats. They are:

Pro-Netanyahu block - a total of 53/120. Mainly #Likkud (#Netanyahu): 27, and also the smaller #OtzmaYehudit (Ben Gvir) - 7 and #HatzionutHadatit (smotrich) - 6, and the two ultra orthodox parties: #UnitedToraJudaism - 7 and #Shas - 6.

Anti-Netanyahu block - a total of 67/120. But of those 19/120 are the two "Arab" parties (#JointList: 11 and #Raam: 8), whereas the rest 48/120 are the main "Eisencot-bloc": #Yashar (#Eisencot) - 21, #Together (Bennet) - 12, #TheDemocracts (Golan) - 8 and #YisraelBeitenu (Liberman) - 7.

At this point there was an obvious coalition: all the anti-Netanyahu block. It's a solid majority. The problem is that too many in the Eisencot bloc (explicitly not the Democracts, specifically yes Liberman, the other two: not clear) promised that they would form a coalition without "the Arabs". Even though polls before the elections showed that this would be impossible.

It is also not clear how much the Joint List really wants to be in the government. They are inherently an opposition party. It's not clear how much they are willing to change. But this is a side issue. Ra'am is very much willing to be in the government and has already gone through various hoops to do that.

Politics, as we know, is the art of possible. Suddenly Liberman has come up with a great idea: in order to avoid including "the Arabs", let's try to enlist the ultra orthodox instead. This also leaves his party in a more comfortable position in the new coalition: potentially even as an axis of it, rather than somewhere at the edge of the right wing. And potentially even (as some people claim) in a position to somehow become prime minister.

Including even one of the ultra orthodox parties (United Tora Judaism is a more likely candidate) is still very complicated and will make it very problematic for the newly-formed government to seriously tackle major issues with the ultra orthodox population in Israel.

So what happened after the elections?

The next thing that needed to happen (except getting official results. Likkud and some other opposition parties tried to falsely blame others for stealing the elections. Failed. But that's for a different post) is for various parties to recommend to the president who would form the government. Eventually all the anti-Netanyahu bloc (67/120) supported Eisencot. Netanyahu was supported only by 46 of its block, and United Tora Judaism decided to not recommend anybody.

That means that as of this Sunday (Nov-8th) the clock is ticking for Eisencot to form a government.

The Knesset was sworn in on Tuesday (Nov 10th). However the chair is still the old one from the previous seat - #AmirOhana. Ohana used maximal delay tactics to avoid replacing Knesset Chair until next Wednesday. Some temporary committees have already started to work.

A number of proposed laws in them were signed generally by members of all 6 anti-Netanyahu bloc. In the single (and very procedural) vote, again it was basically divided by the original anti-Netanyahu vs. the pro-Netanyahu blocs. Thus so far the work in progress coalition is that of the 67 members, and not with any ultra orthodox. We'll have to see if this forms into an actual coalition.

#ilpol

I own a #FLX1 phone and use it as a daily driver. Recently @furilabs@fosstodon.org issued a new update for the software on the phone (#FuriOS) - 14.1.0 . There is a rewrite to the phone app, that is greatly improved.

There is a single place for all the phone stuff. I can call from the phone book. I really like it. It's a nice improvement over the combination of gnome-calls, gnome-addressbook and chatty, that are not really well-integrated.

Indeed I lost the support XMPP and Matrix that #Chatty has. But I mostly used XMPP support for notifications, and relied on #Dino anyway. And failed to use it for Matrix and used #Nheko instead.

However, what I dislike is that the code seems to be geared for internal development. The app seems to be:
https://github.com/FuriLabs/telephony

Not very inviting. No place to report bugs. I had a major problem (if I lock screen and get a call, or even dial through the command-line interface - telephony-cli, quite nice - I get a very-partially-functional interface similar to gnome calls that fails to be controlled (so mute or disabling speaker is impossible) - "libcall"(?). I ended up contacting support and sound that this is because of functionality not yet implemented.

I appreciate the FuriLabs folks very much. But I keep getting memories of Ubuntu of 10 or 15 years ago, or working on their own (even with libnih - a name that they actually used in upstart). This is a phone with its very own and somewhat different than others stack. And now it has just gotten more different than others.

Anyway, I hope it works well.

Yesterday (Tue. 27/10/2027) was the day of #IsraeliElections . I spent the final hours of that day as an observer at a voting station. This is part of the #CivicElectionsGuard - משמר הבחירות האזרחי. It is a non-profit organization aimed at placing more observers at voting stations. In those elections it managed to have almost every station covered all day long, to keep from #ElectionFraud.

https://mishmarbechirot.org/

Elections in Israel are nation-wide. Voters elect the same day all over the country (which is not large. Roughly the same size of e.g. Austria). A ballot includes a single note for a list of candidates to the Knesset - a parliament with a single house of 120 members. Lists are identified by a short name composed of up to three letters. Lists are roughly named "parties (technically a list may be composed of several parties). For more information, see:
https://www.gov.il/en/pages/election-about-info?officeid=26857f24-4eaa-4032-a39d-5dc66d374ee3

There were almost 13,000 voting stations. The operation of manning them - a team of almost 100,000 people on election day, and without major issues, is managed by the Central Election Committee. This is an independent governmental body (not controlled by the government. That is actually true in practice) run by a Supreme Court judge.

Each voting station has its own elections committee. There are three members to the committee, appointed by parties, and there are three helpers, appointed by the Central Committee - two secretaries (up until previous round there was only one) and there is an elections inspector with a body camera (new since 2019 round two. To make sure there's no excuse for people to take photos inside the station). The camera is normally off. It is turned on in case of an incident. And at the time of counting (where there are anyway no voters inside).

So now we finally get to the observers.

All of those are payed workers, that typically stay all day (7:00-24:00 or even 6:00-3:00 the day after. It's a long day!). Apart from that, any list running in the elections and not represented in a committee for the station may place an observer (for any part of the day). Observers seat at a different table and may only observe, but do nothing. Up until this round, this was a convenient way for a party to follow voting inside a station and see who has not voted yet. In this round of elections, reporting from inside the station is no longer allowed. It is probably still done, but not as reliable.

In the past there have always been some people who wanted to make sure elections run well and volunteered to do so through people they know in various parties. In 2019 (I'm not sure if before round 1 or round 2) a group of people has decided to make this easier for people - sign up with us, and we will talk to a party to have you observe on their behalf.

Over the rounds of elections this has become a well-oiled machine.

There has been several ways to sign up with them. I'm not familiar with whatever filtering they apply on candidates (I know there is some). I signed up well in advance. I was asked to give my preference of location and time of day (there are three shifts of 6 hours. First one includes observing the setup of the station. Last one includes observing the counting.

I volunteered to the last shift (with counting) on a nearby town that is a devout coalition stronghold. I was given some training materials, as well as a support group, several Zoom meetings to attend - all to make sure I know what to do. I have already been an observer before, so I know the basics.

Still they worked on an "app" (a web app) for observers. That app was simple and helpful. Authentication was through OTP with SMS to my phone. It defined generally a clear workflow: at specific events it got me into simple scenarios (at startup, periodically check the notes. A simple messaging system that worked well.

The station I was in has been in the same room with a different station (voters from the same area were directed there, and were split by initial letter of last name between the two stations). The message every voter gets (by snail mail and through SMS) has in it not only the address and number of the voting station, but also the number in the list of voters. This saves lookup time (but of course does not bypass authentication). All in all it went smoothly. There was only one attempt I saw to badly manipulate voting notes (covered the notes of one list with a single note for another). And on several occasions people just grabbed many notes of a list they probably didn't like. But Apart from that, nothing really happened. It was boring. And boring is good.

Out station was run by a very strict and efficient secretary. A high school math teacher in real life. Who has worked as such committee secretary several times before. She said that considering the time involved, the pay is not that much great (although it is nice), but she feels she is doing an important job.

There is normally a final rush of voters arouund 21:00-22:00, before the close. But this time: nada. There was a high turnout all over the country (our station was 81%, slightly higher than the national average. Note that this does not include locals who voted elsewhere in double envelopes), But all the rush was in morning through noon.

Counting was almost uneventful. Our box had no disqualified ballots. The other one across the room had two disqualified ballots. One was a problematic note, I think. And the other was a joker who placed the following in the envelop: ב, י, ב, י, מחל. Counting was mostly done at 00:15. Fully done, with all administrativia, at around 00:45, I think. Then the two secretaries and one committee member had to drive to the regional elections committee (15 driving, given roads are clear), and then wait in line there (maybe an hour, given queues are full) to submit results, where they would be processed.

And of course I was not the only one. The Civic Elections Guard managed to find such volunteers for three shifts for almost every station nation side. I saw during elections day that they were still missing some 200-300 volunteers for counting. There were other places that were not fully manned (especially the noon shift). But still it was a massive effort.

Given the (expected and actual) massive voting in Arab-populated areas, #Likud, the main coalition party, tried to cast doubts about them in every possible way. Including adding their own people around voting stations. Having reliable reports from everywhere helps counter that (so far the Central Elections Committee seems rather dismissive of those complaints).

So all in all, nothing happened, I of course felt disappointed seeing all the votes given to parties I dislike. But this helps making sure that it's very difficult to commit any form of effective elections fraud. After being (albeit passive) part of the process, I have become even more confident of the process itself and how robust it is.

#Israel #ilpol #elections

This morning at 6:29 we held a local mostly-silent demonstration to remember October 7th 2023 and the government that has so far taken no responsibility over it.

You can see part of what happened there (Hebrew) in my Peertube mirror of our local group's Youtube channel: https://tube.shela.nu/w/hvkibKEvhr3idzNsg6f7im .

This has been but one of many local events in many places all over the country. Our government has failed to prevent that horrible day. Furthermore, at that day and the following months, the government simply did not exist: We the people had to do its job. And so far almost none of them has resigned.

Today is 7.10. Elections are on 27.10. In 20 days. And it is our job now, as the people to replace the failed government.

BTW: The government tried to shift even the memory: the official day of remembrance as set by the government was, according to the Jewish Calendar, two days ago. It is set to two days after the date on the Jewish calendar, as the date is a holiday, and you don't want to mix the two.

But the families of the victims have created their own ceremony. And managed to label it as the "National Ceremony". It has gained more attention than the official one. Broadcasted on major TV channels (not on the BB-TV channel-14, of course. But that one is an anti-press channel).

That ceremony will be held later this evening. The protests today were arranged by "the protesters" (loosely aligned with #TheDemocrats [edit: accidentally tagged 'Democrats'. I meant the Israeli left-wing party]). The ceremony is of a movement called Kumu that is more of a centric movement that aims to unite everyone.

#7october #Israel

At the end of August (Aug-25th 2026) we all heard that Israeli police took over a compound of #UNRWA in East #Jerusalem - in #KafrAqab . At the time this was a handy photo op for the clown minister of police Ben Gvir. But this wasn't a PR stunt organized by that clown. It is part of an interesting process that happens in East Jerusalem.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-launches-operation-to-take-over-east-jerusalem-unrwa-facility-it-says-it-controls/

What is happening there? Let's put legal issues aside. The city replaces an area that UNRWA used to prepare aid for the West Bank with a school (right now, later also community center, etc.) for the (Arab) people of Kafr Aqab. What's behind this, apart from a general Israeli dislike of UNRWA?

What we call "East Jerusalem" is a large swatch of land Israel has annexed of the West Bank in 1968. Its residents carry a ("blue") Israeli ID card, but almost all of them are not Israeli citizens (Some new Jewish neighbourhoods were also built there, but it is very clear which part is Jewish and which is Arab, with minor exceptions). However, Jerusalem has remained as the unofficial center of the West Bank. However, Israel considers Jerusalem (all of it) as its capital, and ever since the 1990s acted against moves by Palestinians that demonstrated Jerusalem (as a whole, or parts of it) to be the capital of Palestine.

In 2002, following a wave of bombings, Israel decided to build the Separation Wall to set a clear border between Israel Proper and the West Bank. In Jerusalem the wall all of a sudden separated between most of Arab parts of East Jerusalem. Parts of East Jerusalem, including Kafr Aqab, were left behind that wall.

The economy of East Jerusalem crashed due to this disconnection. In the past 20 years it has gone through a painful process of adapting. This mostly meant integrating into the Israeli economy. This is mostly about lower-paying jobs such as shop clerks and security guards. But Suleiman Maswadeh is a better role model.

Just to be clear: it is a reluctant integration. Arabs in Jerusalem are very much discriminated against, in countless of ways. Arabs are roughly 40% of the population but avoid voting to the city council, Still it is clear that generally Arabs prefer living in East Jerusalem than moving to the West Bank, as life is much harder there, and being able to mostly move and works freely inside Israel helps.

Kafr Aqab and similar quarters have become sort of "no man's land", as they were not well-controlled by Israeli authorities, but Israel would not allow the Palestinian Authority to assume control there. So, for instance, building that rise as high as water could be pumped (14 floors?) with dodgy quality. A disaster waiting to happen.

At some point in the 2010s some of the Israeli authorities (mostly the City of Jerusalem) started noticing this process and stopped the automatic "Arab [specifically in Jerusalem] is bad and should be crushed" mentality and realized it is useful and should be encouraged. 10 years ago all schools in East Jerusalem were teaching according to the Palestinian curriculum with graduates getting the Palestinian #Tawjihi certificate. And then figuring out it is useless in West Jerusalem and ended up working in construction.

The city started encouraging schools to convert their curriculum to a modified Israeli one (including teaching Hebrew: Jews hardly speak Arabic, Arabs tend to learn Hebrew), and even building new schools that teach it. Currently 38% of Arab students learn the Israeli curriculum. And many more attend and graduate the Hebrew University or some academic colleges in Jerusalem, that require an Israeli #Bagrut certificate instead.

So in that sense this action is remarkable, because it shows the city acting beyond the Separation Wall. The city can raid UNRWA as much as it wants, but if people of the neighborhood don't want this school, there's really not much in the way of police to protect it.And yes, the City confiscated a resource UNRWA used to help people in the West Bank and converted it for a resource used for the benefit of the people of East Jerusalem. The City does not care that much about people in the West Bank (according to a definition in which East Jerusalem is not part of the West Bank).

Does this mean people of East Jerusalem are becoming increasingly Israeli? In some senses: yes. In others: no. One indication is the municipal elections. Last ones were in 2024. East Jerusalem Arabs still avoided voting there.

#EastJerusalem

As noted in a previous post, I'm an activist for #TheIsraeliDemocracts – #הדמוקרטים – a liberal, Zionist and democratic party in #Israel . There are upcoming general elections in less than two months (Oct 27th). According to polls, our side is likely going to win. In this post I would like to write about what could and should happen assuming this would be the case.

A short overview of the current parties. See a previous post (not up to date). Generally the main opposition block. or Eizencot's block, is expected to have roughly 60/120 seats. It may need extra coalition members from other parties. This is mainly what pundits write about now, so please go read about it elsewhere.

Israel has a parliamentary system. In the elections the members of parliament (that has a single house), the Knesset are being elected. They will be sworn into office two weeks later, on Nov. 10th, and this will start four more weeks (potentially with an extension of two more weeks) to form the ruling coalition and the government. Negotiations for forming the coalition tend to be painful and mostly happen at the last minute. So we should expect a government to be formed on Dec-8th or even Dec-22nd in case of an extension. And proceeded by many dramatic news items about all of it going to explode. And assuming that there won't be a 2019-style stalemate. But let's hope there won't be any.

The newly-formed government will likely have a wide spectrum of parties, including the Democracts and maybe Ra'am on the left and Israel Beitenu (Liberman) on the right. Most parties are right-leaning. None of them seem to have the fanatic flare of Ben Gvir and Smotrich, but at least some seem to share the sentiment of "the whole world is against us" that you see today in the actions of foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar.

I guess that the base of the expectations of the government is not the current Israel government. Rather, the one before it. That was also a wide coalition, united basically by being anti-Netanyahu, and by parties trying to do good for the whole public. It sounds naive, but it was just that: even the 2021-2022 government of Bennet and Lapid was a breath of fresh air compared to governments before it, let alone the dysfunctional government that followed it.

And then we get to the first problem: most parties in the Eisencot Block want to focus on the "80% we all agree on" and start the healing process. For instance, a lot of attention needs to be given to the whole issue of conscription and the state of Ultra Orthodox communities. The education system may need rebuilding. And taxes may need to be raised.

But the Democracts think that instead of maintaining such a large military force, we should try to close as many fronts ASAP, and that recruiting ultra orthodox to the military as is may have a bad effect on the military now. Although everybody agree that the state-tax-funded autonomies of the ultra orthodox must not be defunded.

And then again, there's also disagreement about Palestine. People on the Right seem to be afraid of that. I tend to think that they will be forced to follow something similar to Trump's Gaza Peace Plan forms a place to rebuild trust among the two parties, that is currently broken.

Right now we can hardly expect anything from the current government. We tried replacing it before elections and failed. However, we (including the small me as the fly riding on the horse) managed to stop almost all of the "Judicial reform". Levin, Rotman and co. planned to have this done by May 2023, and hardly any of this got through. We managed to start the process of tearing down the horrible structure of ultra orthodox communities, even though their parties[1] were part of the ruling coalition with a majority in parliament. However, just about the only effective minister in the government was Smotrich, who managed to expand the land grabs in the West Bank. In that front we did very poorly.

So, please wait a bit with steps against Israel. They currently mostly serve to bolster the mentality of "the whole world is against us". However, once a new government is formed - expected in December, it is very much accountable and responsible for its actions.

#ilpol #IsraeliElections2026 #Eizencot

[1] I guess a separate topic on the whole issue of ultra orthodox, conscription, their education system, and the funding of all of that is required. There are two ultra orthodox parties that in practice represent the interests of the corrupt religious elite of them, and that helps keep them very much poor and poorly-educated.