Does an Israeli who lives abroad have the right to vote in the coming election?  Not according to Israeli law – and all these years that’s what my friends who I see only in the US have told me.  If they don’t live under a certain government they have no right to choose the leaders.  

But this election is different.  in this election their own fates will be decided as well.  The fates of Israel and the Jewish people in the world.  The antisemitism that has grown up under this government is simply dangerous to the existence of Jews everywhere.  So I wasn’t surprised that most of the people I met tonight were on their way to  Israel for the elections.  Some who had almost lost their connections to the country of their birth and were firmly placed in their American lives suddenly decided that they had to be part of the decision.  Strange.