Israel Elections: Voters prepare to go to polls
Since we haven’t really moved
beyond the basic introductory task of familiarizing ourselves with the Middle East,
it is in this same area of interest that I find my thoughts residing. I realize
that our young minds are largely sculpted by all manner of skewed media and that,
despite our attempts to appear knowledgeable of the world, our limited experiences
with foreign cultures prevent us from breaking the shackles of preconception. It
is unfortunate and counterproductive, but it is also, more or less, true. It
has already manifested as a core tenet, and been exemplified in multiple video
clips we’ve watched, that the Middle East is not actually as different as we may
believe. While I may believe that any
who took the antiquated illusions of “the oriental” as fact are incredibly
foolish, they have undoubtedly served as blinders to many. To that end, it is
important that we educate ourselves on the topics of culture, politics, and
economics in foreign nations, lest we perpetuate the stigmatic stereotype of the
ignorant American.
It is this line of reasoning that
piqued my interest in this article from the BBC. As it seems redundant to
summarize the article in full considering that a link to it has been provided, I
will say only that it deals with projections for the approaching Israeli general
election, with an emphasis on the favored candidate, as well as projections for
the various parties at play. What interested me most is that, as you read through
this article and other related ones, you may notice some political trends that
are quite similar to those which surfaced during our own presidential election
so recently. This is especially evident in the second article (the older of the
two). It serves as a polarization of our views, to put our presidential race
beside the Israeli election, and see the same political power plays in action
in such a similar governmental structure.
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