JERUSALEM: As Israelis trudge once again to the polling stations Tuesday to elect a new government for the fifth time in a decade, many of them may still be asking themselves who they are going to vote for, and why.
According to a campaign ad of the governing Kadima party in the days before the election, 900,000 Israelis, whose votes would be worth 30 seats in the 120-seat parliament, had not yet decided which party to support.
The fear among those competing for office is that many of the so-called floating voters, confused and disillusioned, will opt to stay home.
The problem, analysts here say, is that nobody really knows what this election is about. The leaders of the major parties vying for the job of prime minister have mostly avoided discussing the critical policy issues facing Israel, such as how to deal with the West Bank, Hamas-ruled Gaza, Syria or the threat of a nuclear Iran.
Instead, their campaigns have focused on the trustworthiness of their rivals, or lack thereof.
"Everybody has been running negative campaigns against everyone else," said Dan Caspi of the department of communications at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Elections in Israel "have lost their function" as a mea
ns of choosing between competing ideologies, he said.
Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu, an ultra-nationalist, anti-establishment party, has risen startlingly to third place in recent polls, overtaking the once dominant center-left Labor Party of Ehud Barak.
Source: Herald Tribune
According to a campaign ad of the governing Kadima party in the days before the election, 900,000 Israelis, whose votes would be worth 30 seats in the 120-seat parliament, had not yet decided which party to support.
The fear among those competing for office is that many of the so-called floating voters, confused and disillusioned, will opt to stay home.
The problem, analysts here say, is that nobody really knows what this election is about. The leaders of the major parties vying for the job of prime minister have mostly avoided discussing the critical policy issues facing Israel, such as how to deal with the West Bank, Hamas-ruled Gaza, Syria or the threat of a nuclear Iran.
Instead, their campaigns have focused on the trustworthiness of their rivals, or lack thereof.
"Everybody has been running negative campaigns against everyone else," said Dan Caspi of the department of communications at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Elections in Israel "have lost their function" as a mea
ns of choosing between competing ideologies, he said.Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu, an ultra-nationalist, anti-establishment party, has risen startlingly to third place in recent polls, overtaking the once dominant center-left Labor Party of Ehud Barak.
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