Rainy Weekend

This weekend was really stormy, windy and rainy. This is why in our neighborhood the rocket alert siren in the southern area wasn't heard - we all had our windows tightly closed against the weather. On the news we saw that at 10:20 last night a kassam rocket fell in an open field in the southern part of Ashkelon.

This weekend kassams and mortars were fired on the western Negev. ( http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3675270,00.html )

Meanwhile we still have no prime minister. Bibi is trying to form a government that will include Kadima, we wish him good luck!

Election Update 2

The situation is still up in the air. President Shimon Peres is probably going to have to decide who gets to try and form a government. At the moment it seems Mission Impossible!! (Our election system is to blame and needs to be changed!!) 61 Mandates are needed to form a government. It seems Bibi can gather 45 mandates from the rightwing parties and Tzipi has the 28 mandates from Kadima and a big problem - the parties on the left (the would-be allies of Kadima) won't sit on a Kadima government with Avigdor Lieberman. The best solution would be if Tzipi and Bibi combined forces for a national unity government but that would mean rotation of the Prime Minister - something which Bibi refuses to even consider. It's not over till the fat lady (or whoever) sings....

Election results ?

Wednesday: Almost 24 hours after the elections, and the results????.....

Kadima -Zippy Livni 28 KM (KM=Knesset Members),

Likud - Bibi Netanyahu 27 KM,

Israel Beytenu - Avigdor Liberman 15 KM ,

Avoda -Ehud Barak 13 KM.

But it's not over yet. Bibi is doing everything to prevent Zippy from forming a government . As Yediot Aharonot said : " Zippy Livni is the big winner of these elections, but Bibi Netanyahu has the key ...."

From lagging behind with a 10 KM difference she won and passed the Likud. A lot of women voted for her . In Kadima there are KMs that some of you may know, old and new : Avi Dichter, Ze'ev Beilski , Nachmam Shai , and Shai Hermesh.

To see how each city, town, kibbutz or settlement in Israel voted: http://www.politico.co.il/election_results.asp (Hebrew)http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1061917.html (English)

As a reminder of our reality a siren was heard and a Kassam fell in the Western Negev last night at 10:00, and a mortar bomb fell 3 hours ago in the same area .

Who will win?

Election day today. The polls show a close race between Bibi Netanyahu (likud) and Zippy Livny(Kadima). The weather is really bad , rain , strong winds , as if it meant to make it more difficult for the voters. I took my 2 daughters with me. Shir , just turned 18. This is the 1st time she is voting for the governement . Big excitement .I took the little one Gily, 7 years too. I want her to grow to be a good citizen . We'll have to wait till tomorrow to see how next Pime Minister will be ...

• [As a matter of interest, the short piece above was quoted in an article on the elections on the BBC news site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7880487.stm (Just before half way down: You can click EDIT (the menu along the top of your browser), FIND, Ashkelon and find it)]

11.11.08 Municipal Election Day

Election day has come and gone but as neither candidate managed to gain 40% of the vote, it's now clear that there will a second round of elections in two weeks time between Benny Vaknin (35% of the vote) and Itamar Shimoni (21% of the vote).

Mayor Roni Mehatzri, with 15% of the vote, will not take part in the second round. Nicole