For the fifth time in three and a half years, Israel is going to elections. And the politicians work hard. Netanyahu turned the disadvantage into an advantage, from the leadership of the opposition he chose to plow the whole country. Lapid, on the other hand, was busy being the prime minister and did not leave the office too much.
It was one of the longest election campaigns we have known. A long and tiring summer that began with a successful relationship between Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid that fell apart, continued with an old partnership between the Arab parties that crashed and ended with a fresh relationship between Benjamin Netanyahu and Bezalel Smotrich, which ran aground.
Netanyahu invents himself every election campaign, and this time – he brought us the “Bibi-Ba”, who wandered between two to three settlements in each outing, and gave brief meetings, with short and sharp messages. Before the opening of the polls he can register a victory for himself, with his autobiography which has already become a bestseller. He makes the journey with a tight security ring, and with Sara, his wife. He went through all the Likud strongholds – he really only targets Bays and carefully chose where to be interviewed. Usually, in places that are more convenient for him.
The last week was marked by tensions between Likud and religious Zionism. He tried to minimize damage with promises of appointment. Not only did he avoid a meeting with Ben Gabir, but also with Ayelet Shaked, in a series of political events.
Ayelet Shaked does not refer to things around her, not even to Netanyahu’s avoidance of her. This is the most difficult week in Shaked’s political career. She is below the blocking percentage, the pressure on her to withdraw is enormous and she is trying to regain the trust of her base, the national religious head wearers, which she lost in her decision with Bennett to join the government of change.
She admits that she broke promises, and believes that an apology should be made. The summer was not good for her. After a close political connection with Naftali Bennett, according to her, “every good thing has an end”. After the split from Bennett, she was a friend of Yoaz Handel in a relationship that did not last long and was perceived as a zigzag. Now she wants to return to the fold of the right and understands that without Netanyahu, she will not succeed. “If my name was Ayelet Smotrich, he would probably help.”
In Balad, too, they fear the percentage of obstruction, and believe that the elections will be a surprise. Sami Abu Shahada made a brave and politically risky move – he is leading Balad alone, without the joint list, for the first time since 2015. Ab Shahada is loved in Arab society and he builds on that. He doesn’t like the polls, probably because he is far below the blocking percentage in them. According to him, Arab society is very political and his public is going to be surprised in a big way. In my eyes, Balad is the only one that offers justice and equality to all citizens in the country, Jews and Arabs.