The Election Existence by Tali Cohen Shabtai

Introduction:

On Election Day for the 24th Knesset on March 23, 2021, the 10^th day of the Hebrew month Nissan, 5771, the masses of the House of Israel will go to exercise their democratic right from 7:00 in the morning until 10:00 in the evening.

The citizens of the State of Israel will elect their house of representatives for the fourth time in less than two years.

To mark the election in Israel, here is a poem by the poet Tali Cohen Shabtai:

The Election Existence/ Tali Cohen Shabtai

I’m not a poet of associations

my poetry passes through several stages

of rationalism

after the emotion

We are a few days before

the election for the government;

It seems that

God is a media spin

in

this matter

between a secular government

and a Messianic government.

Preserving the Jewish character

and at the same time allowing

pluralism

is an optional idea

but not substantive

if possible then

we’ll reach the

“land of milk and honey”, who knows.

It is not my intention to mock an alien state

like the Bible mocks the Egyptians

who do not

get to receive

any of the rainwater that descends on Israeli land

and

in addition,

the Egyptian

irrigation method

is similar to ‘urination.’ 

I use this verse as an allegory

And like the affection

I feel for foreign countries

like for passersby

over locals in Israel

who gave Israel this name

that appears in the Bible more than two thousand times

over

other names

without creating serious problems for the identity of non-Jewish citizens.

I am contemplating before the election giving this name to the state so as to maintain neutrality

and without committing to an ideology or specific political reality.

But the State of Israel is far from

neutral

with three religions that play odds and evens

about Jerusalem in particular

and Israel in general

When in the ‘sheva’ prayer the Jews

were the first to proclaim, “You have chosen us from all nations,”

Christianity and Islam claimed that they are the substitutes of Judaism

as a chosen nation for Israel

This way you cannot reach a compromise or slightly negotiate

We will never get to saying ‘Peace’.

But right now at 7:00 A.M. the neighbor

seating his children in a stroller for kindergarten in Palestine

and is telling me what Israel

is today

better than any other interpretation.

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