So the Israeli elections are behind us, or so it seems. The media is super-busy with coverage, providing occupation for tens of local analysts and commentators, not to mention hundreds of comedians and other jokers making fun of our elected representatives, often rightfully.
Most of the statistics we hear about refer to allegedly “important” things: The balance between “left” and “right”, the options for the next coalition forming the government, the expected economic decrees, you know. Yet, there was one minor piece of statistics that evaded most people’s attention: The amount of people wearing a “Kippah” (religious skullcap) in the new parliament has dramatically increased and is now nearly 40 persons (out of 120).
In order improve the correctness of this data, let us remember some extra facts: (1) The “Kippah” is mainly a Jewish thing, while the parliament also contains members of competing spiritual trends, such as Muslims and Druses, who share many beliefs with fellow religious Jews; (2) The Jewish Kippah goes on the heads of male believers. The statistics somehow ignore the female ones; (3) Many of the so-called “secular” members also proudly declare their strong relations with the local religions, up to declaring their belief in similar contents.
Altogether, it is probably an underestimation to say that about 50% of our elected representatives share the basic beliefs of the local religions. One of two believes that some alien created the sun after the Earth. Half of our parliament thinks woman evolved from man. Every other person knows of ancient heroes riding horses into the sky. And these are the people who decide my future.
God help us all…