News
Election campaigns intensify with launch of TV ads
Israel’s general election campaign entered a new phase on Tuesday night with the launch of the parties’ TV campaign ads, two weeks before polling day. Parties are allocated timeslots according to their Knesset strength.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud Beitenu party used its ad to emphasise the importance of a strong Prime Minister in the face of regional threats from Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. Other candidates leading parties into the elections for the first time sought to present their personal stories to the electorate. Labour leader Shelly Yachimovich was filmed in her kitchen for one ad, whilst another emphasised her success in promoting social legislation. Shas leader Ariyeh Deri was filmed alongside his mother, emphasising Shas’s care for the less well off in Israeli society, regardless of their personal background. Kadima emphasised the strong security credentials of its leader, former chief of staff Shaul Mofaz, and his roots as a child immigrant from Iran. Meretz emphasised the background of its leader Zahava Galon as a human rights campaigner.
An ad for the new Yesh Atid party showed its leader Yair Lapid mocking Benjamin Netanyahu’s ‘red line’ speech at the UN, by showing a diagram of a cartoon bomb which illustrated price rises for basic goods and commodities in Israel. Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua party used its ad to promote a message of hope for peace, accusing Netanyahu and Lieberman of promoting fear. Meanwhile Naftali Bennett’s Habayit Hayhudi party mocked the idea that peace was on the horizon, and called instead for a national focus on Jewish values and addressing social problems. A range of smaller parties, including the Greens and Arab parties, also screened ads promoting their various agendas. Hadash used a range of Jewish and Arab youths to present their messages on coexistence and communism.
Meanwhile on the campaign trail, Netanyahu visited the newly upgraded university in the West Bank settlement of Ariel, and challenged the idea that the establishment of the university was a barrier to peace.