Upcoming elections: Ugly and dirty
Upcoming elections campaign expected to be short but painful
It will be quick and painful. The upcoming elections campaign, as short as it will be, is expected to be jam-packed with bad blood that will flow like water, and with political and personal mudslinging at all directions.
Most parties, from Left to Right, are expected to use the genuinely heavy weapons in their arsenal, the dirt, the investigations, the personal attacks, and the sharpest messages available.
The notable figures to be targeted will be Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz, and Likud Knesset Member and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Members of Likud have not wasted time, and for a week now have been firing in all directions, but particularly in Peretz’s direction. It seems everyone - starting with the lowliest Knesset member and all the way to the prime minister’s associates – is directing his or her guns at Labor leader Peretz, who in recent days became the “glue” that appears to be bringing the Likud together. He is also the scapegoat everyone enjoys blasting.
Big devil, small devil
Suddenly, Likud members who object to the prime minister realize that Ariel Sharon isn’t the devil. That is, he is the devil, but there’s a worse one, who is willing to divide Jerusalem, bring Arab parties into his government, take care of the weak, and who is generally dares to present an agenda.
And he even looks like Stalin. What could be better for Likud “rebels” who are searching for any possible way or reason to flatter Sharon in recent days in order to keep him in the Likud?
For Likud members, Peretz changed the rules of the game. Likudniks expected Shimon Peres to overcome his usual tendencies and win the Labor party primaries. But Peres was consistent with his longtime policy, lost in the last 100 yards, and cleaed the stage for the Histadrut labor union federation chairman, the man who is able to scare Likudniks.
And when something is scary and can sway voters the best defense is to go on the offense, as well as bogus unification behind little devil Sharon, who can defeat big devil Peretz. And Sharon, meanwhile, is also signaling that not all is well with the labor leader who made it big.
If we were to gamble, it is likely that Peretz would be the most harshly attacked personality in the upcoming campaign, from almost every direction. Likudniks will try to show he is inexperienced, a populist, an “Arab-lover,” a destroyer of healthy national economies, and generally delusional. Sort of like former Labor leader Amram Mitzna.
Shinui, for its part, would attempt to show the Labor party is hovering somewhere in an extinct communist world, whose sole purpose is to undermine the middle class. And Shas, of course, will attempt to prove that being Moroccan is an advantage, but only if you vote for Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s followers, and only if you’re clear that Amir Peretz may be dark-skinned, speaks with an accent, and helps the poor no less than Shas leader Eli Yishai – yet doesn’t follow Jewish customs. Far from he in fact, he is, lo and behold, secular. Really secular.
Benjamin Netanyahu will be attacked just as much. Should Sharon split the Likud and form a new party, and should Netanyahu head the Likud, he will be everyone’s target. Sharon and his associates, who do not bother to hide their revulsion, as well as the Labor party.
The main goal would be the same: Prove that the Likud has turned into a right-wing, delusional party where far rightists and the settlers call the shots. Or in other words: Nobody wants to see such Likud in the government, just as nobody wants to see the prone-to-pressure-and-blackmail Bibi, who hasn’t missed an opportunity to make all the wrong political moves and attempted to undermine a government he was a part of.
Sharon most popular PM in decades
Should Sharon form a new party, everyone – and particularly center and center-left parties – will attempt to prevent their constituencies from voting for the new party. Meanwhile, the Right won’t make it easy for him either: They will say he will divide Jerusalem, concede more land to the Arabs, and evacuate more settlements. Still, political sources estimate that fears of a “boomerang effect” will deter campaign strategists from taking direct shots at the most popular prime minister in decades.
However, should Sharon choose to stay in the Likud, the Labor party would be quick to remind voters who those Likud members are. Peretz himself, by the way, does not intend to take it easy on Sharon. Immediately after winning the Labor primaries, he made it clear that in his eyes, Sharon and Netanyahu are one and the same when it comes to socioeconomic issues.
“This will be an ugly, dirty campaign,” sums up a well-known strategic advisor. “Everyone will vilify everyone else, everyone will attack everyone. The main goal would be to prevent voters from switching sides, and all moves would be kosher. Expect plenty of mud.”
