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Helpful and interesting in understanding where Israeli election politics is at as we head into Shabbat.
כמה עובדות לסיכום השבוע הזה.
1. גוש נתניהו, כלומר המפלגות שהיו בשלטון בזמן טבח אוקטובר וסירבו מאז לקחת אחריות או לחקור, איבד 15 מנדטים. היה לו רוב של 68, עכשיו יש לו רק 53, וגם זה לא בטוח כי יהדות התורה עשויה להתנתק ממנו.
2. בלי לזלזל בעלייה המטורפת בהצבעה ברחוב הערבי, חשוב גם להבין מה קרה בציבור היהודי. בסיום הבחירות הקודמות, הפער בין גוש נתניהו לגוש השינוי (לא כולל הערבים) היה 16 מנדטים. הפעם? פער של 4-5, תלוי אם סופרים את וינטר והנדל. זו מגמה חשובה. צריך להמשיך לשכנע, לצאת לשטח, ללכת לתיכונים ומכינות ופרלמנטים. לא להתייאש.
3. אין שום עדות לזיופים או "גניבה" בהיקף משמעותי, זה ספין כושל של הליכוד ועמית סגל. השב"כ אומר את זה, ועדת הבחירות של סולברג אומרת את זה, המשטרה של בן גביר אומרת את זה. יש חשד נקודתי שנחקר וטוב שהוא נחקר, אבל אין לו השפעה על חלוקת המנדטים. כל השאר, שקרים והזיות.
4. בן-גביר הוא האחראי האמיתי לזינוק בהצבעה הערבית, לא קטאר ולא אף אחד אחר. הישג אדיר שלו. בזכות הגזענות, הפרובוקציות, הסרטונים המטומטמים ובעיקר, הכישלון המחפיר שלו בנושא הרציחות והאלימות, האזרחים הערבים יצאו לקלפי כדי להילחם על החיים שלהם, מילולית. זה דבר חיובי למדינת ישראל בטווח הארוך.
5. ממשלת אחדות יכולה לקום מחר בבוקר אם נתניהו יסכים לוותר על המפלגות החרדיות. גם אם תכתבו פה עוד אלף מגילות לאייזנקוט על כמה צריך אחדות, זה לא ישנה. את הלחץ צריך להפעיל על נתניהו שיסכים להשאיר בחוץ את דרעי וגולדקנופף.
6. יש ויכוח אמיתי בתוך גוש השינוי על ממשלה עם רע"מ (ללא המשותפת). אין שום ויכוח על שיתוף פעולה בכנסת. גם נתניהו עבד עם המשותפת צמוד-צמוד בזמן שהיו יחד באופוזיציה נגד ממשלת השינוי. הליכוד כבר שנים עושה דילים כאלה ואחרים עם המפלגות הערביות. גוש השינוי חייב לגייס אותם להחלפת יו"ר הכנסת וקידום חקיקה. בקטע הזה, תהיו ביבי. על סטרואידים בבקשה.
7. בלילה של הבחירות הייתי משקיף בקלפי בנתיבות. יו"ר הקלפי הייתה ליכודניקית מנתיבות, הסגן שלה מצביע שינוי מכפר עזה, מפקחת טוהר הבחירות גם מנתיבות זיהתה אותי והיו לה דמעות בעיניים מהסיפור שלנו ב-7/10. העברנו כמה שעות נעימות יחד, בלי להעלים את הבדלי הדעות בין האנשים, אבל בכבוד הדדי ותוך הקפדה מלאה על חוקי הבחירות. ככה זה צריך להיות.
שבת שלום, ותיזהרו מספינים.
Jeremy Burton retweeted
Mark Ruffalo, criticizing Israel is one thing. Promoting imagery that echoes centuries of antisemitic caricatures, including grotesquely exaggerated noses, is another. Mocking people through stereotyped physical features is textbook bigotry. Jewish people deserve the same dignity and protection from racist stereotypes as everyone else. There is nothing progressive about recycling antisemitic imagery.
Jeremy Burton retweeted
That’s a disgusting, Jew-hating picture to post @MarkRuffalo. Shame on you.
“Those in the West who want to see change in Palestine need to confront the question of how international pressure might alter the political calculations of Israeli voters and leaders. Sanctions, diplomatic isolation, divestment, sports boycotts and travel restrictions are among the measures that could make the continuation of occupation and denial of Palestinian rights carry a tangible cost.”
equator.org/articles/israel-…
Jeremy Burton retweeted
SIR PATRICK STEWART (1940-2026)
Before everything else, Patrick was defined by being born and bred in Yorkshire, the proud county in the north of England which he loved to the end. You could hear it in his accented voice and in the stern honesty with which he told you what he thought and felt. Yorkshiremen have no truck with half-truths or avoidance of big issues. He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love.
We first met as ambitious young actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company half a century ago but we weren’t in the same productions. My first strong memory was a few years later, meeting him in the street in central London when he told me about an offer to take over a leading part in 'Star Trek'. “But Patrick think of your stage career in the UK. Do you really want to risk—getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?”. Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did for not just his devoted Trekkies but film and theatre audiences, who marvelled at his using international celebrity to star in a string of cinema successes ('X-Men' of course) and in great classical plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Peter Shaffer, Pinter and Beckett at Stratford-upon-Avon, in London’s West End and on Broadway.
America was his adopted home, where he met his adored Sunny who has cared for him through sickness and health, through thick and thin. But he never forsook his origins: and the proudest achievement of the most respected and beloved actor of his generation on either side of the Atlantic, was his appointment as Chancellor of Huddersfield University in Yorkshire.
His farewell performance in 'Avengers: Doomsday' is yet to be seen.
Ian McKellen 29 October 2026
Photo: University of Huddersfield
Jeremy Burton retweeted
Read our full statement at jcrcboston.org/cambridge-cit…
Stewart brought so much joy to so many through his performances.
One of his many, many great character lines: “That is what it is to be human: To make yourself more than you are.”
British actor Patrick Stewart, known for his work in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' and the X-Men film franchise has died. He was 86 reut.rs/4e7DaCv
👇❤️
I have spoken out against anti-Muslim hate in the Michigan Senate race. I will speak out just as loudly when the target is Jewish people.
Let me state a little-known fact: ISRAEL GETS LESS THAN 0.1 PERCENT OF THE FEDERAL BUDGET. That’s less than one tenth of a percent!
But there is an ad running that tells voters they can’t afford groceries because the United States gives so much money to Israel. In reality, the United States spends money in and on countries all around the world – but this ad singles out the Jewish state. The ad is as dangerous as it is dishonest.
You can disagree with how the United States spends money abroad. But telling hungry families that the Jewish state is the reason they are suffering is wrong and shameful.
Blaming Jews for people’s problems is an old story. Anybody who has read the last century of history knows where it leads. It is a dark pathway.
This ad is anti-Jewish hate and should come down immediately. Abdul El-Sayed should denounce it today.
"As the broadest collective voice of the Greater Boston Jewish community, the Jewish Community Relations Council expresses our deep disappointment in the decision to divest, and the very troubling provisions and assumptions contained in this order. At the same time we honor the work of Cambridge Jewish residents and allies who, through persistent advocacy, defeated the boycott order and won important revisions in the divestment order."
Read our full statement about the votes yesterday at Cambridge's City Council.
A Statement on Cambridge City Council’s BDS Vote:
Yesterday afternoon, the Cambridge City Council voted to adopt a revised city order directing the retirement board to divest from companies with “consistent involvement directly contributing to genocide... of Palestinians”. At the same meeting, the Council did reject a second order that would have started a process to boycott these same companies in city purchasing.
As the broadest collective voice of the Greater Boston Jewish community, the Jewish Community Relations Council expresses our deep disappointment in the decision to divest, and the very troubling provisions and assumptions contained in this order. At the same time we honor the work of Cambridge Jewish residents and allies who, through persistent advocacy, defeated the boycott order and won important revisions in the divestment order.
Over the last few weeks, these residents, with support and partnership from several of JCRC’s member organizations, mobilized thousands of their neighbors to sign petitions, show up at public testimony last week in opposition to the original version of the orders, and share their concerns and objections — including how the toxic public discourse on this was impacting their experience of safety and belonging in Cambridge.
Because of these local efforts, the final version of the divestment order includes specific language affirming that the Cambridge City Council does not endorse the broader Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and its platform. Because of their advocacy, the revised order affirms that Cambridge “values its deep and long-standing ties with many Israeli institutions, including companies, academic institutions, cultural institutions, and civil society, and (that) nothing in this order should be interpreted as a desire to reduce those ties”.
These are not insignificant changes, and we at JCRC, along with our members, were proud to participate in and support their efforts in a myriad of ways.
Still, the Council's willingness to apply the deeply disputed label of “genocide” to the conflict is very troubling. We share the anguish over the loss of innocent lives in Gaza and recognize the legitimacy of certain criticism of Israel’s actions. But ‘genocide’ is not simply another term for the tragic loss of civilian life in the course of a horrific conflict. It is a specific, extraordinary and grave accusation, one that demands application of rigorous standards and the careful examination of the evidence and independent judgment. The City Council has not undertaken the careful and informed examination that an extraordinary judgment of this gravity requires.
Further, while amending the order to state that the Council ostensibly does not endorse the BDS movement is a welcome change, this does not mitigate the harm in that the Council did, in effect, embrace elements of this dangerous movement. The BDS movement, through its tactics and goals, does not advance the cause of achieving a just, fair and secure peace for the Israeli and Palestinian people.
The Council's decision also has troubling consequences for Jewish residents of Cambridge. As the Massachusetts Special Commission on Combatting Antisemitism has documented, Jews in Massachusetts have faced exclusion, harassment, and even physical attacks because of their actual or perceived support for Jewish self-determination in Israel. In this environment, and as we heard repeatedly in public testimony before the Council last week, many Jewish residents of Cambridge are very worried that the Council's endorsement of genocide accusations will further exacerbate a climate in which Jewish individuals and institutions are increasingly cast as unwelcome participants in civic and public life in Cambridge — a fear that we were palpably reminded of just this week when graffiti proclaiming "F.. the Jews. Heil Hitler" appeared on Huron Avenue.
We appreciate the Council's stated opposition to antisemitism. But the Jewish community's concerns cannot be resolved simply by adding language condemning discrimination while adopting an order that creates further harm.
🔗 Read it on our website at jcrcboston.org/cambridge-cit…
When the framers were writing our Constitution, Jonas Phillips, a Jewish revolutionary war veteran from Philadelphia, wrote to implore General Washington-- then chair of the convention-- that the new Constitution not require an oath of faith to hold public office (as some of the states then did have).
The framers left it out and since our founding, people of any faith or none have been able to serve in public office in this great nation.
Jeremy Burton retweeted
A Harvard professor getting death threats mailed to him by someone who doesn't like Israel, because Ari is a Jew.
When we talk about the rhetoric of politicians and the permission structures they enable, this is what it looks like.
New podcast drop!🎙️🎙️
Making some sense of what’s next in Israel’s election even as the votes continue to be counter.
Listen, like, share and comment. 🙏
P.s. Can you identify the Easter Egg and the connection?
As votes continue to be counted in Israel, the preliminary results are raising questions about the country’s political future.
On the latest Boston Jewish Now, Jeremy Burton @BurtonJM examines the election’s biggest surprises and what they could mean for the future of Israeli democracy.
Watch or listen now, available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
youtu.be/_jYFbPrCGbw?si=9it-…
Thinking about the founder of revisionist Zionism (and political ancestor to the Likud) Ze'ev Jabotinsky's vision of a constitution for the Jewish state that he passionately believed in but did not live to see: "In every cabinet where the prime minister is a Jew, the vice-premiership shall be offered to an Arab and vice versa."
"We owe our Palestinian neighbors the same compassion we owe our Jewish neighbors, and the two should not compete. Acknowledging Palestinian suffering does not minimize Jewish fear, and confronting antisemitism does not diminish Palestinian humanity. Cambridge cannot let its policy become a zero-sum game in which empathy for one people must be proved by pointing a finger at another. Some will call this a simple question of right and wrong. It is not. This conflict runs centuries deep, and a municipal government should respect that complexity rather than impose a policy that deepens the harm."
I deeply appreciate every word of this op-ed by Cambridge city councilors Denise Simmons & Patty Nolan.
Urging the City Council to reject the BDS resolution that is being voted on today, 10/28 at 3pm EDT
cambridgeday.com/2026/10/27/…
Agree. These comments by Secretary Kennedy are vile.
Support or oppose the candidate, agree or disagree with his views (God know I have opinions), but not this hatefulness.
As a Christian, I deeply believe it is an insult to your God-given intelligence (and conscience) to spout such ignorance about Muslims and Arabs.
Election season has become the playoffs of racism. apnews.com/article/trump-mid…
Jeremy Burton retweeted
Required reading for all those interested in American Jewish views about Israel. The connection between the two communities today is stronger, not weaker, than even 3 years ago. Don’t believe the hater BS about US Jews dumping Israel. It’s just not true. jta.org/2026/10/26/ideas/u-s…
Israel's polls have closed and exit polls--which by nature and timing don't include those voters who cast their vote in the final hour or two--have been released.
So rather than speculate or make declarative interpretations based on the exit polls (which certainly suggest a significant rejection of the current government), tonight I will just acknowledge and honor that the citizens of Israel--Jewish and Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, Christian, Druze and many more-- have voted in massive volume, with a turnout level maybe not seen in decades.
And then let's see what the preliminary results say, which we should see tomorrow (Wednesday) U.S. time.