I am dreading the upcoming elections. Just as the war against Hamas and Hezbollah has brought out the best in our people, the election campaigns are bringing out the worst. We are being forced to remind ourselves of the stupidest and most hurtful statements of Israeli leaders. We are going to have all the mistakes, failures and excuses of our imperfect leadership thrust in our faces. Again.

Maybe this is the price of democracy. But it’s hard to live with.

So when Aryeh Deri pays court to controversial Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, son of the spiritual founder of the Shas party, which represents religious Sephardic Israelis, calling him the Party’s “central religious authority,” he opens up a can of worms.

Yosef, who is in my opinion a fanatic and a very unworthy spiritual leader, stepped up during the debate over drafting yeshiva students to unwisely add fuel to the fire. Who can forget that during a March 2024 weekly sermon, while our reservists were buckling under the heavy demands of army service to finish off Gazan terrorists, he said: “If you force us to go to the army, we’ll all move abroad. We will buy tickets; there is no such thing as forcing us into the army.” And, in the same speech: “The state exists on Torah study, and without the Torah, there would have been no success for the army.”

He and his supporters have consistently maintained the infuriating idea that the spiritual defense provided by yeshiva students is what safeguards active-duty troops and intercept systems like the Iron Dome. And what about what Moses said, in fury, to the Israelites who wanted to take over the other side of the Jordan without crossing it with their brothers to take their inheritance: “Will your brothers do to war and you will sit here?!” According to Jewish Law, even a bride under the wedding canopy goes to war when the Jewish people are attacked. But the “learned” rabbi must have missed that, even though it was in this week’s Torah portion.

Yet, despite these disgusting insults against active-duty and reserve IDF personnel who are risking their lives, the Shas Party has enthroned Yitzchak Yoseph. Perhaps that is why Shas is showing a drastic reduction of support in polls ­—from ten seats to seven. I hope it’s more.

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We really don’t need this kind of inside strife right now, when Europe is gearing up its fierce opposition to the most vital East 1 construction project, designed to link Jerusalem to neighborhoods like Neve Yaakov and Ma’ale Adumim. They oppose it for all the reasons it it necessary, most of all blocking the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state that would allow the Islamists to take over. They also complain that it isolates Jerusalem, separating East Jerusalem from the rest of Judea and Samaria, thus “undermining its viabilaty as a future Palestinian capital.” Duh!! They say that like it’s a bad thing!

Israel Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said clearly that the plan aims “to bury the idea of a Palestinian State.”

 Hallelujah!

Did anyone in their right mind think, after what happened with the trial Palestinian State in Gaza, that Israel was going along with the same plan again? Do they think we are completely insane? This is the price the Fakestinians and their Leftist supporters   are going to have to pay for revealing their true intentions on October 7.

And so, given these existential fights Israel has on its hands with an Islamized Europe bullying us and braying for more blood, I think the real thing we Israelis will be voting for is to block the Left in all its forms.

Many people, despite their unhappiness with the Likud whose policies were, after all, responsible for October 7, feel that in the aftermath, Netanyahu did many good and important things. He resisted pressure to empty all our jails completely, and negotiated the return of all the hostages, living and dead. He got rid of the leaders of every terrorist party: Sinwar, Nasrallah, and Khameini. He has turned Gaza into rubble and continues to take out terrorists on a daily basis. He passed a death penalty for terrorists and are building a gallows facility with a viewing spot for the families of victims.

And don’t forget the beepers in Lebanon! Whatever mistakes he made—and he made plenty—he was a good post-October 7 leader, which is why the Left, which was, is, and continues to be wrong about everything, wants him out and one of their own people installed instead who will no doubt work to undo E1, appease the Syrians, the Turks, the Fakestinians and once again collaborate on Israel’s destruction with their provenly wrong-headed and imbecilic policies to gain “world approval.”

So if that is our choice. Choose an imperfect leader who has learned his lesson (Bibi), or an unproven leader (Eisenkot) who will practice during an existential threat to our existence and whose party, Yashar, doesn’t even have a coherent economic plan, I know what I choose.

No to Eisenkot. No to Lieberman who was AWOL throughout the entire war; absolutely no to the traitor Yair Golan, who complained the IDF made a “hobby” of killing children. (I have two words for him, and they are not happy birthday…) No to all the little parties who might not get in and thus waste my vote. No to all the haredi parties and all the Arab parties, who do not have the good of this country at heart.

But just as we think we can’t stand the tension anymore, we get just what we need: A royal wedding, Israel-style.

The marriage last week of former hostage Eliya Cohen to Ziv Abud, who escaped certain death at the Nova festival, filled us with such tremendous joy and thanks to God. Eliya, held 505 days by Hamas, hid together with his girlfriend Ziv, her nephew Amit Ben Avida and nephew’s girlfriend in a field shelter in Kibbutz Re’im. The shelter inhabitants were massacred by Hamas. Cohen survived with a bullet in his leg under corpses, until terrorists dragged him, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alon Ohel and Or Levy out and threw them into a pickup. He was certain his girlfriend was dead.

She too survived, although her nephew and his girlfriend didn’t.

Married under a chuppah made up of her nephew’s tallit, before hundreds of celebrating, tearful friends and family, Eliya and Ziv posted photos of the ceremony with the words: “Let’s continue to bring the light, the victory and the craziness we celebrated from yesterday until the wee morning hours.”

On their wedding day, Cohen said on social media, “It’s a crazy miracle when I think that we were separated in that terrifying place and we met again in February 2025 and we’re getting married after this crazy journey together.”

May God bless them and may they and their families live in love, light, happiness, and good fortune from now on.

As for all the social media lies, all the counsels and treaties put together whose main purpose is to destroy us, never fear. Listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah from this week’s Torah portion, Isaiah 54:17.

No weapon made to harm you can prevail, any tongue that calls you into judgement, you will prove its fault. This is the birthright of the Lord’s servants; for their innocence is Mine, sayeth the Lord.

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