Opposition leader Benyamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister Shimon Peres differ on
the push for peace.
Which Way To Swing
As Election Day Nears?
The coveted uncommitted vote is sought as
Israel's election period enters its final phase.
•
/—
INA FRIEDMAN ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT
S
himon Peres is right where
he wants to be — the man
setting the agenda, forcing
his opposition into the in-
eviable position of being reactive
rather than proactive. But that
might change as this week the
\___ country's election laws allow for
/—' the start of the always intense
television media ad campaigns.
Until now, Mr. Peres' strategy
as being in charge has worked.
Sometimes, such as during the
start of the recent Lebanon op-
eration, Likud leader Binyamin
Netanyahu was even forced to
\____ approve of how his rival per-
/— formed.
It's been a clever strategy and,
so far, pretty successful. By mak-
ing and practically hogging the
headlines — from mini-Lebanon
war to Washington visit to his de-
cision to postpone the Hebron re-
deployment — Mr. Peres has
focused voters on his policies and
•
performance. He also has ma-
nipulated the media into becom-
ing an unwitting partner in
Labor's campaign just by doing
their job of covering the news.
One result of Labor's capture
of the high ground is that there's
been little evidence of the con-
ventional elements of an election
•
/ campaign: Banners, stickers, ral-
lies, coffee klatches, or any of the
other appurtenances and activ-
ities that electrify the atmos-
phere of a pre-election period.
Yet, the public doesn't seem to
mind the low key, indeed almost
the absence, of traditional elec-
tioneering. It has become some-
•
thing of a commonplace in Israel
[
that the outcome of the election
— or at least the direct election
of the prime minister — ulti-
mately depends on the choice
made by the "swing vote." That
block currently runs between 6
percent and 15 percent of the
electorate (depending on the poll).
The undecided voters are
mostly middle- and lower-mid-
dle-class citizens who don't take
much of an interest in politics
and are put off (perhaps in the
wake of the Rabin assassination)
by the intense, strident posture
that marked the right-wing op-
position until last November.
The blur between positions of
Labor and Likud in the past few
months plays into the confusion
of choice. Labor, for example, has
succeeded in removing the future
of the Golan — probably its
hottest political "potato" — from
the debate.
The Likud has accomplished
an even greater feat by accepting
the Oslo agreements as a "fait ac-
compli" and promising to contin-
ue the peace process with the
Palestinians — though it claims
it will "do a better job at it."
Exactly where these rival par-
ties intend to lead the process —
which was expected to be the hot-
ly contested issue of this year's
election — remains a mystery.
And with most of the issues hav-
ing been neutralized, just how
the "swing voters" are to decide
who to support for likewise re-
mains an enigma.
Of course, there's a catch to
running a campaign based on
dominating the headlines: It re-
quires the news to remain good
— which is not always within the
ELECTION page 76
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Chairman
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