Ukraine Refugees In Israel Expected To Form Own Political Party By 2023

“Everyone wants to be Yisrael Beiteinu.”

Ben-Gurion Airport, March 28 – Jews fleeing the destruction and fighting in their erstwhile country of residence after a Russian invasion will find their interests inadequately represented in the current mix of factions hoping to make it into the next Knesset, experts predict, and will therefore organize to establish their own, in keeping with recent decades of Israeli election sensibilities.

Thousands of refugees from Ukraine have so far arrived in the Jewish State, the vast majority of them with intent to stay; they thus gain citizenship under the country’s Law of Return. However, analysts believe, none of the existing political party’s in Israel’s variegated system offer the right blend of values, priorities, and sensibilities that the new immigrants prefer, and as such those new immigrants will, within the next several months, conclude that they must form their own party. Experts also predict the party will attracts far from enough votes to meet the electoral threshold, and, like most of those that came before it, will fade into irrelevance following that poor showing.

“Everyone wants to be Yisrael Beiteinu,” explained analyst Hanan Krystal, referring to the lone exception to niche immigrant parties and their lack of longevity. “[Avigdor] Liberman has managed to maintain enough support among immigrants from the former Soviet Union to keep his party not just in the polls, but even in the position of kingmaker. How he does that is a subject for another time, but suffice it to say that the issues he pursues aren’t ‘immigrant’ issues per se, which means he can attract votes from other demographics.”

“The problem with the ‘immigrant’ demographic,” he continued, “is that after a while they cease to want to be viewed as immigrants. [Natan]Sharansky’s Yisrael Ba’Aliyah Party did fine at first, but he eventually realized that successful immigration means absorption and assimilation, at least to some degree. Poetically, Likud absorbed Yisrael Ba’Aliyah. And that’s the ‘success’ that any immigrant party can hope to achieve.”

Other commentators drew parallels to special-interest parties in Israel and their dismal record of achievement. “I’d be hard-pressed to name a single successful single-issue party,” stated Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken. “The one that came closest, recently anyway, was the Green Leaf Party, whose pet cause was marijuana legalization. They fell tens of thousands of votes short of representation. It would shock me if another ‘immigrants’ party could muster a fraction of that, especially immigrants whose Jewishness makes me uncomfortable, so I refuse to say anything complimentary about them.”

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