ISRAEL: Pre-election press roundup
The voting begins in just over 12 hours -- about 9 p.m. Pacific time.
Right-wing Likud party chief Benjamin Netanyahu holds a slim lead over Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's Kadima party, according to the latest polls -- slim enough that many are considering it neck-and-neck.
The once-mighty Labor Party, led by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, is a distant third and hoping to fend off ultra-nationalist Avigdor Lieberman.
Lieberman's sudden rise is this election cycle's primary obsession. The Moldovan immigrant struck a deep chord with his call for a loyalty oath to the Jewish state by all of Israel's 1.4 million Arab citizens.
The prospect of Lieberman being in position to demand a major role in any coalition government has prompted a fierce reaction from all sides. Liberal columnist Gideon Levy declares ultimate victory for the banned racist policies of the late extremist icon Rabbi Meir Kahane.
"This is a matter of legitimization. All society bears responsibility for it," Levy wrote in Haaretz. "Kahane was ostracized; Lieberman is a welcome guest in every living room and television studio."
Others on the left are debating whether to rally around Livni as a "lesser of multiple evils" compromise. And one Arab writer says Israel's Arab citizens "got what we deserve" for fueling anti-Arab distrust among Israeli Jews.
"We managed to make the Jewish public hate us so much that many are willing to support a racist party," wrote elementary school principal Ali Zahalka.
Despite a Livni push to be the "hope and change" candidate, there doesn't seem to be much of either on display. Analysts are predicting low voter turnout,amid a combination of apathy, electoral burnout and bad weather.
"We won't go to the polls tomorrow out of love or appreciation. Not with a sense of exaltation, not even a festive feeling," wrote Sima Kadmon in Yedioth Ahronoth. "The Israeli citizen will go to vote tomorrow under duress."
In one of the greatest headlines ever written, Jerusalem Post columnist Michael Markur summarized this election's campaigns as "Testosterone-drenched slogans of tribal loyalty."
Police, by the way, are on high alert throughout the country, and the government announced a closure of all Palestinian areas from Monday evening to Wednesday morning.
One of the more volatile election-day subplots: Umm al-Fahm. Arab residents of this mixed northern city are up in arms over the electoral commission's decision to allow a prominent ultra-right-wing politician to serve as a polling-place supervisor. Local officials are considering blocking his entry to town.
--Ashraf Khalil in Jersualem
Is Israel free to do whatever they please? Why doesn't the media judge them for their actions? Iran has not attacked a country in over 200 years and we send a satellite into space and the "world" (6 or 7 western countries) has a fit.
Posted by: Reza | February 09, 2009 at 07:35 PM