Even in Israel, campaigning doesn’t get much rougher than this. The country has always respected pluck and thrived on in-your-face discourse. But the vitriol of this month-old campaign has shocked even the most hardened observers. Everyone seems to have it in for Netanyahu–and the prime minister refuses to pack up his office without a fight, however dirty. Though there are more candidates than ever competing in this race, they represent fewer and fewer points of view. All agree on the basis for the land-for-peace security deal with the Palestinians, for instance. So they are attacking Netanyahu not on his policies but on his character. ““It’s the morality, stupid,’’ says Dan Meridor, Netanyahu’s former Finance minister who defected from Likud to found a new–and as yet unnamed–centrist party. ““It’s not whether the border will be right or left of Nablus, important as that is. Morality and leadership are the issues.''
Ever since his government fell apart last December, Bibi’s supporters have been defecting left, right and center. They are disgusted with what they see as his fickleness over the peace process, his pandering to the religious right and his failure to keep his word. Last week Likud suffered its biggest blow yet when former Defense minister Yitzhak Mordechai, whom Bibi fired just ahead of his own defection, signed on to lead the new centrist party founded by Meridor, former Tel Aviv mayor Roni Milo and former chief of staff Shahak. In his final cabinet appearance, Mordechai read pointedly to Netanyahu, who was sitting across the table, from the Book of Psalms: ““Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and a deceitful tongue.’’ Netanyahu responded by calling the centrists ““a party of losers’’ who are ““not going to get anywhere.’’ Other Likud officials labeled Mordechai a ““traitor.’’ The descent into juvenile name-calling alarmed political analysts–but clearly got the public’s attention. ““We are in the midst of a leadership crisis that is a direct result of the character of our prime minister and the way he runs his government, so that makes it very personal,’’ says Arye Carmon, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank. ““This is the nastiest campaign, and it’s only going to get worse.''
At least Israeli voters have some choices for a change. Mordechai, who is Kurdish-born, has special appeal among the blue-collar and immigrant populations. He would be the first Sephardic Jew ever elected prime minister and could ““break the [Jewish] tribalism between east and west, left and right,’’ wrote columnist Nahum Barnea in Yediot Ahronot last week. But so far Bibi’s biggest challenge still comes from Labor; a recent poll showed Mordechai finishing behind both Netanyahu and Labor Party leader Ehud Barak. Labor has remained largely above the fray, demanding an Israel ““for everyone, not just for extremists.’’ Barak has focused on social and economic issues, arguing that money Netanyahu allocated to yeshiva students and settlements should be spent instead on general education and infrastructure projects. He may yet get the centrists’ support; Mordechai has indicated that he would do anything to defeat Netanyahu–even team up with Labor.
The enmity among the candidates often goes back a long way. Many served together in the armed forces and competed for top military jobs as young men. Labor’s Barak, for instance, was Netanyahu’s commander in the Army. Mordechai and Shahak may be allies now, but four years ago Mordechai left the Army when Shahak passed him over for a promotion. ““They are all fighters, and they like a fierce battle,’’ says Meir Shalev, one of Israel’s leading novelists and commentators. ““Everything is rooted in this atmosphere of violence.''
But their focus on personality instead of ideology is new. Before the last elections in 1996, the electoral system was changed so that Israelis now cast two votes, one for a party and one for a prime-ministerial candidate. That places a much sharper focus on the character of the candidates than the old parliamentary system, in which the prime minister was simply the leader of the party that won the most seats in the Knesset. A bill is pending to change it back, but even if it passes it won’t apply to this campaign. The tomatoes are likely to keep flying. After all, the election is still more than three months away.
