In the final full week of a tightly contested election campaign, a peculiarly Israeli paradox is on clear display.
Polls show that a majority of voters are most passionate about socioeconomic conditions that color their daily lives — issues such as being middle-class yet living with overdrawn bank accounts, or being 40 years old and unable to afford an apartment without a parent's help.
But historical balloting patterns suggest that when Israelis are alone in the voting booth, security concerns come to the fore.
Benjamin Netanyahu's speech draws expected cheers, boos at home
Benjamin Netanyahu's speech draws expected cheers, boos at home
Benjamin Netanyahu, facing a tough challenge as he seeks to become the country's longest-serving prime minister since founding father David Ben-Gurion, played masterfully last week to those security worries in a State of the Union-style address in the U.S. Capitol, engineered by congressional Republicans. In it, he likened the Iranian nuclear threat to the dark days leading up to the Holocaust and referred repeatedly to an array of threats to Israel's existence.
It has been a message central to Netanyahu's campaign that will culminate in a March 17 vote. In an early, telling political ad, the Israeli leader's strategists portrayed his two main opponents, former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Labor Party chief Isaac Herzog, as cartoon figures who dither, bicker and panic as a red phone — code for a military or other emergency — rings on unanswered. "At the moment of truth: Netanyahu," the final caption reads.
It's not the stuff of subtlety, but it speaks to a primal political reality in Israel, where existential fears are integral to the national psyche. The prime minister, a former elite commando, consistently portrays himself as a seasoned guardian of Israel's safety — a tactic that his camp hopes will provide a crucial last-minute edge in a contest now seen as a dead heat, with one-fifth of the electorate still undecided. Read more..
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