Elections matter. Vote!

It’s fall! The trees are turning color a little reluctantly, so it’s a little greener and a bit less vivid than it should be this time of year, but still it’s cool, and the breeze is exciting. It promises change. 

Our politics are as unsettled as most of us can remember them being for a very long time — for our lifetimes, probably — and Israel’s, too, are, to use a technical term, a gigantic mess.

Israel votes on October 27. It’s been coming forever — the last election was in 2022, before October 7 —but somehow, magically, quickly despite how long it’s taken, it’s here now, and it’s about time. Whether Benjamin Netanyahu is able to build a coalition that will allow him to remain as prime minister will determine what happens next in the besieged Jewish homeland. 

I’ve always thought of Israeli politics as a democracy so unfettered that it’s practically run amuck. The election won’t be over when the election is over. Because it’s a parliamentary system, there won’t be a straightforward winner, just a chance for the party that wins the most votes to try first to form a coalition. There are no intermediate layers of government between the municipalities and the top of the structure — no states, no counties, no bicameral legislature. There are no ties to places or constituencies; citizens vote just for ideology and personality. Polls are even less helpful there than they are here, because once voters frazzle themselves deciding how to cast their votes, then it’s up to the slate they elect to decide what coalition to join, and how to manipulate the power their seats have given them to gain the most they can from the bigger parties.

It’s immensely complicated, no doubt fascinating to political science students, political junkies, and both amateur and professional psychologists, and it can take a very long time to work itself out.

Meanwhile, Israel’s position in the world, in which it now is seen as a pariah state, is likely to be affected seriously by the outcome of the election.

And then, on Tuesday, November 3, we Americans — at least those of us who go to the polls on Election Day, instead of voting by mail, by depositing ballots in secure drop boxes, or by voting early — go to the polls. (In New Jersey, ballots delivered at home can be dropped off until Election Day; if they are mailed, they must be postmarked by that day. Early in-person voting is from October 24 to November 1.)

Of course we’re always told that each election is the most important in the nation’s history so far, but this one really might be (and certainly the one in 2028 will be). The country is tearing itself apart, people are on edge, there seems to be huge change coming, and every single one of us who is a citizen, and who has registered to vote (it’ll be too late to register in New Jersey by the time you read this; you’ll have until October 24 in New York) should be sure to do so.

We hope that every voter will consider the effects and repercussions of the vote, and cast it carefully and thoughtfully. In some districts, there are issues of competing identities that must be thought through. It’s a challenging task, but a monumentally important one.

It’s certainly not too early to start thinking about it now!

Of course, if this were an ideal world, I’d hope that everyone ends up voting for the candidates I prefer, but in this real world, I just hope that everyone votes, and that after Election Day, first in Israel and then here, the world can start to heal.

—JP