If Reuven Zelinkovsky has his way, Israel will make a great leap toward regional peace if his Natural Law Party wins a Knesset seat in Monday's election. All it will take, he says, is 1,500 Israelis putting their heads together according to the principles of transcendental meditation, and all of the troubles that have plagued the Middle East for decades will disappear.
Meditation dissolves tension, and that is the source of all our problems.
Look at Lebanon. For years, Israel hasn't solved the problem. Israel has always had its fair share of offbeat characters, but this year it seems like they are all trying to get into the Knesset. Among a record 33 parties competing on May 17 are about a dozen obscure, single-issue parties such as Zelinkovsky's. In fact, new parties say the system, first used in 1996, offers them an incentive to run because citizens vote separately for a prime minister and a party.