Rival political parties strike a variety of tones, from humor to somberness, in a series of online videos ahead of Israel’s March 17 elections.
JERUSALEM — With a month to go before Israel’s elections on March 17, the race has turned into a contest of cheeky online videos, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the role of an eager babysitter, and from the studios of the center-left Zionist Union a decidedly unsexy “Fifty Shades of Black.”
The campaign has so far barely touched on the looming deadline in the Iranian nuclear talks, the festering Palestinian conflict or the heightened tensions with the White House over Mr. Netanyahu’s planned address to Congress. Instead, the candidates are playing for “likes.”
Last weekend, Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud Party released a contentious, 41-second spoof of Islamic State fighters in a pickup truck bearing a bumper sticker that reads, “Anyone but Bibi” — an opposition slogan referring to Mr. Netanyahu by his nickname. With Arabic rap music, apparently used without the band’s permission, playing in the background, the fighters ask for directions to Jerusalem and are told, “Take a left.”
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“The main purpose of the ads is not only to say that Herzog and Livni cannot save your children from the Islamic State, but that Bibi is warm, friendly and humorous,” he added.
At least one prominent citizen was not buying it. Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, a longtime rival of Mr. Netanyahu from within the Likud Party, gave a speech at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv this week in which he listed Israel’s security and economic challenges.
“Yet despite this painful reality,” he said, “the politicians are engrossed in the ‘creative’ — making viral clips and slogans. The Israeli public, I feel, are tired. They are fed up with attempts to drug them with satire and stardom. The Israeli public is looking for outlook, for hope. It wants to hear solutions.”
Myra Noveck contributed research.
