ISRAEL: Israel's TV election campaign kicks off featuring nationalism alongside personal attacks

Record ID: 346936

  • Title: ISRAEL: Israel's TV election campaign kicks off featuring nationalism alongside personal attacks
  • Date: 9th March 2006
  • Summary: (W2) TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (MARCH 6, 2006) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) AYALA HASSON SAYING: "Here in Israel we are not ready to deal with social matters. We have to deal with the basics - with security and peace - and then, after, we can go for social matters, for green and other issues that are very important. But we are not ready for them yet, unfortunately." CLOSE OF HAS
  • Embargoed: 24th March 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6WC1XWVAUMPTR1OOAKYVPEM9Y
  • Story Text: Security, a strong stand against Palestinian militants, and personal slandering will again be the dominating features of the upcoming Israeli election campaign.
    Campaign advertisements premier on Tuesday (March 7) for the main political parties. The centrist Kadima party, the left-wing Labour party, and the right-wing Likud each presented some different tactics to win the vote of the Israeli public.
    With Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon hospitalised, Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert leads Kadima to the polls. Nevertheless, Sharon, who was a dominating political figure for years in Israel, is still a strong influence in the political ads.
    "Olmert and his team (Foreign Minister Tzipi) Livni, (Defence Minister Shaul) Mofaz et cetera, continue Sharon's legacy, which is very positive (campaign). It's very emotional, even a little bit sad. You watch those spots, you see those features and you feel sad like you miss Sharon and you want to be part of this legacy," IBA's senior political correspondent, Ayala Hasson, told Reuters television.
    In addition to landmark Israeli events such as peace summits with Jordan and Egypt, Kadima's campaign video featured a dubbed speech on nationalism by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who remains comatose after a stroke in January.
    But Hasson noted that the Kadima, which is considered by political analysts as a favourite going into the election, was also slandering Likud leader, and former Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu by portraying him as an unreliable leader.
    "On the other hand they are attacking Netanyahu on their negative campaign, attacking Netanyahu very hard. They try to remind the public that Netanyahu was a prime minister in Israel and they want to remind the public what kind of a prime minister he was, in their eyes of course - not very responsible, not someone that we can rely on, not someone that we can trust," she said.
    Likud went on the offensive in their commercial, toting Olmert as too "weak" to stop Palestinian attacks and blamed him for the victory of militant group Hamas in a Jan. 25 election.
    In video clips published in the right-wing party's website, Likud blamed Olmert for becoming a "left-winger" who violently clashed with Jewish settlers, and even secretly supports the Hamas leadership.
    Likud party officials said that the video clips presented on their website are not a part of the party's official campaign.
    "The Likud party is taking the traditional kind of campaign, which they always used - they are frightening. They are trying to frighten the people - Hamas is here, missile around our airport, we can not trust Olmert, he doesn't have enough experience, he was a very bad mayor of Jerusalem," said Hasson.
    Labour, led by newly-elected socialist leader Amir Peretz, also promised social and economic reforms in additional to security and featured the slogan: 'Fighting terror, prevailing poverty'.
    Lacking a strong leader who could sway Israeli voters, the party surrounded Peretz by a group of experienced party members, Hasson said.
    "The Labour party is very much aware of their leader (Amir Peretz). Their leader is their weakest link. So they surround him with his team, a team of generals, of professors, of professional people who have experience, political past."
    Despite Labour's efforts to raise social and economic issues on the campaign agenda, Hasson said those matters were yet to be adopted by the Israeli public who is primarily focused on Israeli security as well as on achieving peace with the Palestinians.
    "Here in Israel we are not ready to deal with social matters. We have to deal with the basics - with security and peace - and then, after, we can go for social matters, for green and other issues that are very important. But we are not ready for them yet, unfortunately," she added.
    According to Israeli law, the commercials will officially air on Tuesday (March 7) at 1700gmt and will be aired every evening until the day before the elections.
    Israeli media polls predict Kadima to win the parliamentary vote, with at least 36 mandates, while giving Labour about 20 and Likud 15.

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