September 29, 2008: Kadima’s Livni must assemble a working coalition

By Michael Regenstreif

As I write, it’s the day after the Kadima Party election in Israel.

As polls had predicted, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni came out on top, but her margin of victory over Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz was much smaller than anyone seemed to expect, just 431 votes. Livni captured 43.1 per cent of the votes cast while Mofaz took 42 per cent. The vote totals of the other candidates were inconsequential.

Livni has now begun the process of trying to assemble a coalition government. If she’s successful, Livni will become Israel’s second female prime minister after Golda Meir and its first in more than 34 years.

If Livni doesn’t manage to put together a working coalition by the end of October, Israelis will go to the polls in an early general election that will see her vie for the office of prime minister against Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Labor’s Ehud Barak, both of whom are former prime ministers. Opinion polls in advance of the Kadima vote suggested a general election would be a close race between the centrist Livni and the right-wing Likud leader.

I like much of what I’ve seen, so far, of Livni. She is tough, scandal-free – she’s sometimes referred to as ‘Mrs. Clean’ – and has shown the ability to evolve in her thinking.

Livni’s parents were Irgun fighters prior to Israeli independence and her father was a Knesset member representing Likud. She followed her father into Likud and was first elected to the Knesset in 1999 as a protégé of Ariel Sharon.

And just as Sharon evolved in his thinking about the peace process and territorial compromise during his final years as prime minister, so too did Livni as one of his cabinet ministers.

She followed Sharon out of Likud to help establish Kadima as a third-way alternative to Likud and Labor. As foreign minister, Livni has been Israel’s lead negotiator with the Palestinians in Israel’s search for the two-state solution.

Assuming Livni’s success in putting together a coalition, she will, as noted in the JTA report beginning on page 1, have a heavy agenda of priorities that will demand her attention.

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The Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy, together with Canadian Jewish Congress, the Canada-Israel Committee and the Quebec-Israel Committee, has produced a document called Federal Election 2008: Guide to the Issue for the Community. It lays out what they consider to be the major of issues of concern for the Canadian Jewish community along with suggested questions to ask of candidates and parties.

Reports on the Federation’s Communications and Community Relations Committee’s meetings with the major parties will be published in the October 13 edition of the Bulletin. Unfortunately, that will be too late for anyone who wants to read the articles before voting in the advance polls before the Sukkot election day. Therefore, we’re posting the articles online as soon as possible. In fact, by the time you read this column, the articles should be available ottawajewishbulletin.com.

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We have a JTA brief on page 4 that talks about some people being upset that they’ve received Rosh Hashanah cards from the prime minister. A Conservative Party spokesman denied the party had a prepared list of Canadian Jews and declared they hadn’t purchased one.

I’ve read election column notes and letters-to-the-editor in several Canadian dailies from Jewish people wanting to know how the PMO knew they were Jewish and from non-Jews wanting to know why the PMO thought they were Jewish.

A column in the Ottawa Citizen mentioned a Jewish person in Ottawa who “subscribes to no Jewish publications and doesn’t give to any specifically Jewish causes, so he isn’t sure how the PMO got his name.” The Bulletin has not, and would not, supply or sell a list of subscribers to any political party or office. But I’d like to know why I, with a publicly Jewish media job that entails contact with politicians and their staffs, including Conservative cabinet ministers and MPs, didn’t rate a card.

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The June 16 issue of the Bulletin included an article that described how Soloway JCC member Marion Dewar was recovering the use of her injured hand through the centre’s gentle yoga course. Ms. Dewar, the universally respected social activist and former mayor of Ottawa, died earlier this month at age 80 from injuries suffered in a fall while visiting Toronto. We offer our sincere condolences to the Dewar family.

September 15, 2008: Prime minister chooses Sukkot for election day

By Michael Regenstreif

The federal election campaign officially began last week after Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to the governor general. The election will be on Tuesday, October 14. Although federal elections are traditionally on Mondays, this election will be on a Tuesday because Monday that week is Thanksgiving Day, a legal holiday.

The day Harper chose for the election happens to be the first day of Sukkot, a day when observant Jews will not be able to participate in the democratic process. Although, as both Canadian Jewish Congress and B’nai Brith Canada have pointed out, Jews who observe the festival won’t lose their vote. They’ll have ample opportunity to vote in advance polls.

But there’s more to being part of the process than just voting. Observant Jews will be denied the opportunity of staffing polling stations or of helping their candidate get out the vote on election day. Observant Jews who are active in campaigns may be denied the opportunity to celebrate or commiserate at their candidates’ headquarters as the returns come in on election night. And observant Jews who like to stay home and watch the coverage on TV may have to miss out because they won’t turn on their television set on a holy day.

All of those things, and more, are part and parcel of participating in our democratic society. A religious holiday of any major faith that keeps citizens from full participation in the process should not be used as an election day.

There was no necessity for Harper to have called the election when he did. He could have waited until he actually lost the confidence of the House of Commons; something he had pledged to do when his government passed legislation fixing the election date for every four years unless the government loses a non-confidence vote in the House.

Or, the prime minister could have set the election date for two weeks later when the Jewish holidays would not have been a factor.

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A hearty Mazal Tov to everyone connected to the Soloway Jewish Community Centre. This week marks the 10th anniversary of when the Soloway JCC moved into the brand new Joseph and Rose Ages Family Building. In addition to its first-class fitness facilities, the Soloway JCC provides superb programming for all sectors of the community, and for all ages, from infants to seniors. The Soloway JCC is something we can all be very proud of.

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We’re pleased to introduce another new column this issue. Liana Shlien’s Campus Life debuts on page 52 and will focus on Jewish student life on Ottawa-area university campuses. The column is scheduled for the first issue of the month during the school year. Liana is a fourth-year journalism student at Carleton University and worked at the Bulletin over the summer as our staff reporter/intern. She’s continuing to work part-time with us now that classes are back in session.

Finally, Shana Tova – Happy New Year – from all of us at the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin.