Well, here we are again. It could be worse, I guess. The words 'fifth election' started floating around even before the first ballots were cast, in an election that felt like a full-frontal car crash. I voted more out of civic duty than excitement and like many of my friends I deliberated a bit between Meretz and the Labor party. In the end, I went with Meretz and was very happy that they passed the threshold and at the same time I was very happy about Merav Michaeli's success as the leader who brought back Labor from the dead. Everything else about the elections was pretty depressing. When the Tuesday night exit polls gave Netanyahu's bloc 61 seats together with Naftali Bennet's Yamina party, an extreme right-wing government seemed closer than ever. But the exit polls missed the Arab population that voted for Mansour Abbas' Islamic Ra'am party which in itself speaks volumes about the poor relations with the Arab society. The final results gave his party four seats, making both him and Bennet kingmakers. There's still the possibility that some kind of government will be created out of circumstances but there's no doubt that it will be a strange and incohesive one, and it's not clear how long it could hold up. I'm disappointed that Gideon Sa'ar didn't get more votes though it seems that he did take away some votes from the Likud party to the 'Just Not Bibi' camp, which as opposed to last year's elections didn't have a major contender but included two right-wing parties-Saar's 'New Hope' party and Avigdor Liberman's secular-focused Yisrael Beytenu party. The true winner of the elections was Eretz Nehederet which stole the show with a sharp satire skit that put an ugly mirror in front of us and laid out the true state of the nation.
Ran Danker's extremely catchy new single 'Madhouse' also seems to give a glimpse into the state of the nation in these almost post-Covid days. Everyone is still wearing masks, and there are still some limitations, but the general feeling is 'let's just open everything and party' at least until the next lockdown, which at the moment isn't a possibility but could become one if a new and more dangerous variant shows up.
Excellent translation by forwards24
Who are you and what do you love?
And how many thoughts, say what are you thinking about?
And how aren't you inviting (anyone) to the wedding?
Say was there a Rabbi there or was it just a ruckus?
Let me answer, let me explain
How I love the catastrophe of the city
Let me enjoy myself, let me move
To open up everything like champagne in Paris
At night I feel like
Dancing with stars
Like throwing off my clothes
Not thinking about whether they are watching
And at sunrise I feel like
Celebrating life
Like running away sometimes
Because anyways it's a madhouse here
When did you choose to come out?
Say aren't you the one who was with Ninet (Tayeb)?
When will you bring us a telenovela?
Whoa your life is really like a movie
Let me answer, let me explain
There's a chance that then I was with half the city
Let me enjoy myself, let me move
To open up everything like champagne in Paris
I came back from New York
After a few years
One suitcase
To a two-room apartment
In Jaffa on the roof
I wrote songs to myself
There wasn't anywhere to run to
I just wanted to come straight back
To the madhouse
