Elections

The big story today is the municipal elections, which seem to have ended in a deadlock between Labor and Likud. Which is bad news for the Likud, which was hoping to cement its status as the new majority party, but not much better news for Labor, which failed to exploit the stagnated peace process and ailing economy to its benefit. I think the country was largely apathetic about these elections, since most major decisions affecting municipalities are decided at the national level anyways and most of the major incumbents were unbeatable. I think people are restless and dissatisfied with the current state of things, but none of alternative parties (Shinui, Amir Peretz's Am Echad) seem to be igniting much enthusiasm. No one really won anything yesterday, although Likud, with its failure to build on its big victory in last year's elections, has to be getting a bit nervous.