Newt ‘efting’ Grinch-rich can con the whackos and Mittster can’t, but Newt has more baggage than a 747. If someone searches the CSpan video archives, there is a wealth of materials showing Newt being Newt. YouTube will need a Newt Channel to handle it. The best part is that you don’t have to do much beyond cutting the selections down to the YouTube time limits. I stumbled on to him late nights while working shifts and thought it was a political comedy show, but it was Newt giving speeches to an empty House after everyone else went home for the night.

They are losing the realists to emigration for those who have marketable skills. Supporting Israel is a lot easier if you don’t have to put up with the government.

The whackos have always had an advantage in voter turnout. Actually, that is what makes me think that Newt might be a more successful candidate that Mitt for the Repubs. Newt can bring out the whackos, but Mitt can’t. My Mother watches TV and she thinks that Huntsman and Ron Paul are the only candidates who make any sense during the debates. I warn her to stop watching, or she will have to up her blood pressure meds.

And the people who didn’t vote? Effectively they DID vote — for NuttyYahoo.

– Badtux the Democracy Penguin

The governments are created from coalitions formed from multiple parties by the leaders of the parties, not by the voters.

Bibi is prime minister because he leads the largest party in the coalition, while Avigdor Lieberman is the foreign minister because he leads the second largest party in the government.

If you have a small party and don’t reach a threshold limit, you get nothing, so some percentage of voters are represented by no one in government.

That is before you get to the people who have given up on the political system, because no matter who they vote for, the government continues to do the same stupid crap – rather like the US, actually.

Proportional representation is certainly better than the ‘first passed the post’ system we have, but it isn’t without faults.

Then why do they keep electing governments that do all that posturing and cause all those problems?

I agree that a sizable percentage of Israelis fit your description, but a majority? Israel is a democracy. *Truly* a democracy, they have proportional representation, unlike the United States. If they truly wanted a no-drama country, they could elect a government that promised no drama. Instead, they elect… Bibi.

‘Nuff said.

– Badtux the Democracy Penguin

This isn’t a sustainable system, from either a demographic or political stand point, and would already be in deep trouble without American assistance.

I would think that the majority of Israelis just want a regular country, without all of the posturing and problems. That’s why so many emigrate – to lead normal lives.

A very large number of the Soviet ‘Jews’ aren’t even considered Jews under Israeli law, which follows the matriarchal line, and, as you note, many of those who make it over that hurdle, are not observant Jews. They want a life, not a cause.

The core founding principle of the modern State of Israel is two words: “Never Again”. That is, never again will millions of Jews die for lack of a nation willing to take them in, the way that millions of Europe’s Jews died because nobody — not the U.S., not Britain, nobody — would take them in once Hitler declared them persona non grata. Hitler was happy to ship Jews overseas, that was cheaper than building extermination camps, but *nobody would take them*. The whole purpose of the modern state of Israel is to make sure that such a situation never happens again, meaning that Israel must remain Jewish in order to guarantee that, and if it requires a renewed bout of ethnic cleansing to do so… well. Israel has never shown many qualms about that.

That said, if the ultra-orthodox want to keep their little enclave of Jewishness, they’re going to have to start fighting for it, instead of leaving that to the Russian immigrants. Because the Russians aren’t all that eager to fight for the Hasidim, who they view as akin to aliens dropped in from another planet. The Russians aren’t particularly culturally Jewish in the first place due to the many decades of Communist rule over them and the fact that they and their children now make up at least 20% of the population of Israel is not a recipe for peace and tranquility when you have the Hasidim trying to run roughshod over them.

Well, at least the Tibetan monks weren’t throwing rocks and spitting on tourists for walking around on the ‘wrong’ day of the week, something that has happened to more than one Christian group touring in Israel.

You are correct that when religion absorbs the majority of a country’s GDP, things are going to get nasty, and the process is starting in Israel with the demonstrations.