Normally, when I’m in the US, I begin to get a shopping fever close to the time I am returning.  Sometimes I can hold out for 2-3 weeks, and this time I have another wedding to get excited about just before we leave.  But this time everything else fades in the light of the coming elections.  Even in a crowded train I was talking to my seatmate (who knew nothing about the fact of Israel much less the coming elections) about the importance of voting.  Poor fellow just wanted to chat to pass the time and I unloaded a thousand facts about why every Israeli has to vote.  21% Arabs have to get out and cast their vote, I say.  And he yawns, Oh, there are Arabs in Israel?  Yes, and every one of us should be educated in how and why we cast our votes.  Education, I blabber, is very important to any democracy.,  Uh-huh, he takes another sip of the paper bag he’s holding.