The Israeli welfare state, once the envy of many countries (remember the kibbutz?) is falling apart. All our social services are crumbling. The money goes to the huge army, big enough for a medium power. So does anyone suggest drastically reducing the military? Of course not. What, stick the knife in the backs of our valiant soldiers? Open the gates to our many enemies? Why, that's treason!
So what do the politicians and the media talk about? What is exciting the public mind? What reaches the headlines and evening news?
Only the really serious matters. Does the Prime minister's wife pocket the coins for returned bottles? Does the Prime Minister's official residence show signs of neglect? Did Sara Netanyahu use public funds to install a private hairdresser's room in the residence?
SO WHERE is the main opposition party, the Zionist Camp (a.k.a. the Labor Party)?
The party labors (no pun intended) under a great disadvantage: its leader is the Great Absent One of this election.
Yitzhak Herzog does not have a commanding presence. Of slight build, more like a boy than a hardened warrior, with a thin, high voice, he does not seem like a natural leader. Cartoonists have a hard time with him. He does not have any pronounced characteristics that make him easily recognizable.
He reminds me of Clement Attlee. When the British Labor Party could not decide between two conspicuous candidates, they elected Attlee as the compromise candidate.
He, too, had no commanding features. (Churchill again: An empty car approached and Major Attlee got out.) The world gasped when the British, even before the end of World War II, kicked Churchill out and elected Attlee. But Attlee turned out to be a very good Prime Minister. He got out in time from India (and Palestine), set up the welfare state, and much more.
Herzog started out well. By setting up a joint election list with Tzipi Livni he created momentum and put the moribund Labor Party on its feet again. He adopted a popular name for the new list. He showed that he could make decisions. And there it stopped.
The Zionist Camp fell silent. Internal quarrels paralyzed the election staff.
(I published two articles in Haaretz calling for a joint list of the Zionist Camp, Meretz and Ya'ir Lapid's party. It would have balanced the Left and the Center. It would have generated rousing new momentum. But the initiative could only have come from Herzog. He ignored it. So did Meretz. So did Lapid. I hope they won't regret it.)
Now Meretz is teetering on the brink of the electoral threshold, and Lapid is slowly recovering from his deep fall in the polls, building mainly on his handsome face.
In spite of everything, Likud and the Zionist camp are running neck and neck. The polls give each 23 seats (of 120), predicting a photo finish and leaving the historic decision to a number of small and tiny parties.
THE ONLY game-changer in sight is the coming speech by Binyamin Netanyahu before the two Houses of Congress.
It seems that Netanyahu is pinning all his hopes on this event. And not without reason.
All Israeli TV stations will broadcast the event live. It will show him at his best. The great statesman, addressing the most important parliament in the world, pleading for the very existence of Israel.
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