Israel will vote to form the 20th Knesset in a month. My AirBnB host predicted that the government would not last in early November. By the first week of December, following some disagreements on socio-economic issues, policies with regard to Palestine and the Jewish Nation-State Bill within the government, the parliament was dissolved and early election (the current government was elected in early 2013) was called for in March.
Campaigning began soon after the announcement of elections and TV ads went viral. The ads somehow did not address the pressing issues such as cost of living and housing, taxation policies, or health and education policies. I noticed that the election campaigns have been far from serious and if this was India a few hazaar junta would have been offended by now. Only one ad was apparently banned because of the illegal use of children in a political campaign.
The TV ad campaigns, if anything, prove that the contenders in the election can take a joke on themselves. The 2014 election campaigns in India by both the BJP and Congress had messages for the electorate. Yes, both the election campaigns played on the short-comings of the other, but it was never slapstick comedy. The "Janata Maaf Nahin Karegi" (Public will not forgive) and Har Haath Shakti, Har Haat Tarakki (Power to everyone, Progress for all) slogans are still fresh in my memory. The spoofs of these slogans were left to the electorate, in Israel though, political parties have become masters of comic spoofs.
The right-wing parties are way ahead of the left-wing parties that are not competing in this category. If you go by this ad by Meretz, they don't make fun of their brothers and sisters. Pure right-wing chutzpah is on display here.
There is one ad where Netanyahu is plays the role of a teacher who's directing toddlers (he calls out them with the names of his opponents) to settle down in class to get work done. Then came part-two, Bibi-sitter (Netanyahu aka Bibi) where the incumbent PM again takes jabs at Labour party candidates and emerges as the calm and responsible baby-sitter you need. Likud has now gone one more step further with this ad. Featuring few jihadis in a car with a black ISIS flag fluttering asking for directions to Jerusalem, it drives home the message that the "Left will surrender to terror". It was in fact only yesterday that an Israeli said to me, "The government instills fear in its people about the Arab nations to keep its people together and under check." The ad is crass, yet powerful.
Israel's far-right party, the Jewish Home party put out an ad where the leader of the party dressed as a secular Jew is seen profusely apologising for no apparent fault of his, when a waitress spills coffee over him or when some one takes away a cycle he was about to rent. The ad that mocks the Left ends with him saying "From now we are going to stop apologising." These videos went viral and have got the Israeli media pondering about this childish campaigning trend that has surfaced over the last couple of months.
I find it rather superficial that ad campaigns are not addressing the core issues. All of a sudden, Modi's name-striped suit debacle seems acceptable to me in the face of humor that has no meaningful content for its electorate. It is insulting that election campaign managers would imagine that mockery of other parties can convince the electorate to choose one party over another.
Campaigning began soon after the announcement of elections and TV ads went viral. The ads somehow did not address the pressing issues such as cost of living and housing, taxation policies, or health and education policies. I noticed that the election campaigns have been far from serious and if this was India a few hazaar junta would have been offended by now. Only one ad was apparently banned because of the illegal use of children in a political campaign.
The TV ad campaigns, if anything, prove that the contenders in the election can take a joke on themselves. The 2014 election campaigns in India by both the BJP and Congress had messages for the electorate. Yes, both the election campaigns played on the short-comings of the other, but it was never slapstick comedy. The "Janata Maaf Nahin Karegi" (Public will not forgive) and Har Haath Shakti, Har Haat Tarakki (Power to everyone, Progress for all) slogans are still fresh in my memory. The spoofs of these slogans were left to the electorate, in Israel though, political parties have become masters of comic spoofs.
The right-wing parties are way ahead of the left-wing parties that are not competing in this category. If you go by this ad by Meretz, they don't make fun of their brothers and sisters. Pure right-wing chutzpah is on display here.
Israel's far-right party, the Jewish Home party put out an ad where the leader of the party dressed as a secular Jew is seen profusely apologising for no apparent fault of his, when a waitress spills coffee over him or when some one takes away a cycle he was about to rent. The ad that mocks the Left ends with him saying "From now we are going to stop apologising." These videos went viral and have got the Israeli media pondering about this childish campaigning trend that has surfaced over the last couple of months.I find it rather superficial that ad campaigns are not addressing the core issues. All of a sudden, Modi's name-striped suit debacle seems acceptable to me in the face of humor that has no meaningful content for its electorate. It is insulting that election campaign managers would imagine that mockery of other parties can convince the electorate to choose one party over another.
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