Hm, I don't really have a good explanation. There's something about how (economically) left voters distrust tech/business figures, so the ones that do get intj politics tend to be on the right (this seems true in the US too - most techies vote democrat, but the politically high profile tech figures tend to lean right). There is maybe also the religion aspect (religious tech figures are both more likely to be politicians and more likely to lean right).
(Anecdote: Where I work one of the founders is religious right and one is secular left, but the religious right guy is much more of a people person and probably better at appealing to people who aren't left leaning techies, and if one of them ever went into politics it'd probably be him.)
Or maybe it's all just a coincidence, barkat and Bennet are the only major figures I can think of that went from tech to mainstream politics, maybe it's just those two guys. Hard to say.
But do Lapid and Gantz at least have any smart technies as advisors?
My opinion of the Israeli left has gone down a lot. I always instinctively sided with them - I've always been pro-secular, I don't support isolated settlements, don't support Haredi subsidies, would want to see a two-state solution if possible (though since 10/7 I've become far more skeptical), but I really don't like how in the current war they are prioritizing the hostages above defeating Hamas. Perhaps they are just not very rational and were just right about things by accident.
I'm not sure. I guess they decided that it's good politics, but I'm frustrated with them for it, both in that I don't think playing politics in this way is good, and in that I think it's a bad set of priorities to have.
Honestly at this point my ideal Israeli politician would be ... imagine Bennett just come out and said "I am not opposed to the idea or the principle of a Palestinian state, and I don't believe that it's all ours because of the bible, the historical connection notwithstanding, but empirical evidence shows that Palestinian state is a terror state".
So the two less sexy but important issues are general economic policy (where I think Bennet was mostly pretty good) and religious/secular divide (where Bennet was about normal, but I really want a strong push in the secular direction).
My pet subject on that is public transit (it not running on shabbat is a major catastrophe since it means most people just can't rely on it 20% of the time and get cars, and Israel is just too dense for that to be sustainable). But ultraOrthodox staying out of the military and workforce is also an increasing problem, especially since post-oct7 we'll need more soldiers and have more labor shortages, especially in areas that relied on Palestinian laborers who aren't coming in anymore.
(if someone could genuinely solve the P/I conflict that would probably be bigger than those, but I don't think anyone is likely to manage that even if they do all the right things, and I don't think anyone is willing or able to try all the right things).
Yeah I agree. Capitalism, secularism, clear-eyed about Palestinian rejectionism but also against isolated settlements, techno-optimist, etc. If Bennett took off his kippah that would also help.
Shaked I have a question for you. Why is it that in Israel all of the smart tech people in politics are on the right? Bennett and Barkat for instance.
Most tech people are center-left, secularist, pro-market. Can’t we replace Lapid by a successful tech CEO with 30 more IQ points?
Hm, I don't really have a good explanation. There's something about how (economically) left voters distrust tech/business figures, so the ones that do get intj politics tend to be on the right (this seems true in the US too - most techies vote democrat, but the politically high profile tech figures tend to lean right). There is maybe also the religion aspect (religious tech figures are both more likely to be politicians and more likely to lean right).
(Anecdote: Where I work one of the founders is religious right and one is secular left, but the religious right guy is much more of a people person and probably better at appealing to people who aren't left leaning techies, and if one of them ever went into politics it'd probably be him.)
Or maybe it's all just a coincidence, barkat and Bennet are the only major figures I can think of that went from tech to mainstream politics, maybe it's just those two guys. Hard to say.
But do Lapid and Gantz at least have any smart technies as advisors?
My opinion of the Israeli left has gone down a lot. I always instinctively sided with them - I've always been pro-secular, I don't support isolated settlements, don't support Haredi subsidies, would want to see a two-state solution if possible (though since 10/7 I've become far more skeptical), but I really don't like how in the current war they are prioritizing the hostages above defeating Hamas. Perhaps they are just not very rational and were just right about things by accident.
I'm not sure. I guess they decided that it's good politics, but I'm frustrated with them for it, both in that I don't think playing politics in this way is good, and in that I think it's a bad set of priorities to have.
Honestly at this point my ideal Israeli politician would be ... imagine Bennett just come out and said "I am not opposed to the idea or the principle of a Palestinian state, and I don't believe that it's all ours because of the bible, the historical connection notwithstanding, but empirical evidence shows that Palestinian state is a terror state".
So the two less sexy but important issues are general economic policy (where I think Bennet was mostly pretty good) and religious/secular divide (where Bennet was about normal, but I really want a strong push in the secular direction).
My pet subject on that is public transit (it not running on shabbat is a major catastrophe since it means most people just can't rely on it 20% of the time and get cars, and Israel is just too dense for that to be sustainable). But ultraOrthodox staying out of the military and workforce is also an increasing problem, especially since post-oct7 we'll need more soldiers and have more labor shortages, especially in areas that relied on Palestinian laborers who aren't coming in anymore.
(if someone could genuinely solve the P/I conflict that would probably be bigger than those, but I don't think anyone is likely to manage that even if they do all the right things, and I don't think anyone is willing or able to try all the right things).
Yeah I agree. Capitalism, secularism, clear-eyed about Palestinian rejectionism but also against isolated settlements, techno-optimist, etc. If Bennett took off his kippah that would also help.
PM Koplewitz wouldn’t be too bad either!
I would finally achieve my dream of making a mostly-elevated rail metro.
PM Koplewitz wouldn’t be too bad either!