Haaretz columnist urges people not to vote

Haaretz columnist Rogel Alpher, whom we last saw attacking Elie Wiesel's hair and claiming that only Israeli citizens (and Palestinians, and people like him planning to leave Israel) may voice an opinion on Israel, is now urging Israelis not to bother voting altogether.

On Tuesday, we will be going to the polls and feeling like idiots. None of Israel’s pressing problems will be solved by this election. Even after the formation of the next government, the process of becoming an irreversible binational state will continue, thus depriving us of a normal, moral life.

As the campaign draws to a close, an aggressive push has been waged to encourage people to vote. Endless broadcasts on behalf of government agencies and the commercial television networks have called on Israelis to exercise their right to vote. Voting in these elections has been portrayed as an act that enables Israel’s citizens to influence their current existence and future fate.

An ideological steamroller of a campaign has tarnished the reputation of those who don’t vote: Comrades, these are negative types, a band of really dangerous people. They gripe, but refuse to roll up their sleeves. They are quitting the community, turning their backs on society – wild, rotten weeds that weaken our collective existence. So inform on them. The police will push them into the paddy wagons and you will no longer see them. Don’t get infected by their spiritual atrophy. Stick with us.

It turns out the only real, subversive act involves expressing a lack of confidence in the effectiveness of the election as a process – one that lets the citizens shape the country’s identity and as an instrument for change. The major fear – the only fear of the establishment – is that the public will wake up and understand that the election is just a virtual game, an Israeli version of sci-fi film “The Matrix.”

Is not voting an option? Is it an act of protest that will make a mark? At least it lets us maintain our self-respect. At least then we’ll know that we weren’t puppets on a string, fools unaware of the circumstances of our ridiculous lives. On the other hand, elections have become a ritual, like the Passover seder – something you have to participate in, even if you’re not overjoyed about it, without believing in the blessings, but rather to derive a measure of satisfaction from the tradition. Happy Election Day.

It is highly amusing that Alpher, who has been saying since last August that he plans to emigrate from Israel since he is such a moral person, is complaining about people saying people like him are quitting the community.

To Alpher, voting for Meretz is not an option. Voting for the United Arab List is not an option. Presumably, even they are too right-wing for his enlightened tastes.

Alpher sees the truth while other Israelis are blind. He is enlightened while all else are in the dark. He knows that not voting is a "protest" that can make change far better than voting can. How, exactly, he doesn't say.

Perhaps he wants an Israeli intifada to replace the democratically elected government with his own idea of a moral leadership that can then dismantle the state and become one with the Arab world which will treat the Jews fairly. Who knows what goes through the mind of someone who imagines police arresting people who don't vote? (In 2012, 32% of Israelis didn't vote; a steady deterioration from the above-80% turnouts in the 1950s and 60s The jails must be very, very full.)

It is clear that Alpher is on the fringe of the fringe, a person who lives in a tiny bubble even within the Tel Aviv bubble. He doesn't want to vote because he feels that he is better than everyone else, yet no one was brilliant enough to nominate him.

But to the world community, for whom Ha'aretz represents their idea of how liberal Israelis think, Alpher is mainstream.