This Week

Lament For A Shallow Campaign

Recent American immigrants to Israel bemoan the election process.

MATT MILSTEIN
The New Mexico Jewish Link

Tel Aviv
f the current
crop of 20-
something
American
immigrants is any
indication, dissatisfaction with Israel's
election campaign is running high.
"I feel like I'm living in a Third
World country sometimes, with all
the dirty politics," said Danny
Kirschbaum, 23, a soldier who
moved to Israel from New York two
and a half years ago.
Five young immigrants from
across the United States expressed a
general disappointment with the
level of political discourse and cam-
paign material, the lack of admirable
voting choices and the Israeli ten-
dency to imitate the worst of
American gutter politics.
These concerns are exacerbated by
what many feel are the basic existen-
tial issues — the peace process, for
example — being debated in Israeli
politics and over which leaders will be
chosen in the May 17 general election.
"In America, with Bill Clinton
(and the Lewinsky scandal) you also
have a sense that the political system
is not functioning well," Kirschbaum
said. "But there you can laugh it off
It's not going to affect your future,
your security."
"It's perhaps even shallower here
than the American process," said Steve
Gould, 21, who recently moved from
Baltimore and now works for an Israeli
software company. "The leaders here
have almost the same slogans as one
another. The major opposition parties
are almost identical to each other."
Erik Snider, 27, whose family lives
in Albuquerque, was involved in poli-
tics in the United States before he
came to Israel.

I

3/12
1999

24 Detroit Jewish News

reactions, notably a Barak
poster stating, "A party for
everyone except the extrem-
ists."
"It's just illogical," said
Aaron Greenberg, 22, of
Massachusetts about campaign
advertisements. "I haven't seen
one yet to convince me to vote
for them, but I have seen some
to convince me not to vote for
them."
Former Army Chief of
General Staff Amnon Lipkin-
Shahak's decision to form a
new center party intrigued
observers from across the
political spectrum.
Until he formally retired from
Two Israeli boys look at a poster for Centrist Party leader Yitzhak Mordechai, who was cam-
the army earlier this winter,
paigning March 7 in Ashdod, Israel. The Centrists and Labor are both wooing Orthodox Jews,
Shahak was forbidden from
the group that played a key role in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu victory in 1996
making political statements.
When political words from
" I thought things could not be
Americans," Gould said.
this fresh new face finally
worse," Snider said. "I found out when
Hanah Fisher, 23, who moved from
emerged, observers were decidedly less
I came to Israel that the United States
than impressed.
the Chicago area last August, said
does not hold a candle. The political
Netanyahu is changing the way of
"You read his quotations in the paper
process here is much more tolerant
politicians in Israel by following the lead
and they said nothing," Greenberg said.
than in the U.S. — tolerant of scandal,
of the image-conscious United States.
"They ran in circles. All I could tell was
basic mistakes, wrongdoings."
he didn't agree with anyone, but he did-
"The image I have of an Israeli
Still, the Israeli political scene is
n't have a platform of his own. His
politician was someone with an open
increasingly influenced by its big
campaign was full of semantics."
shirt," Fisher said. "Bibi always wears
American brother across the Atlantic.
a suit and tie and he's influencing all
Fisher said she is afraid of a pro-
For instance, Labor Party leader
the politicians the way he presents
gression to more extreme political vio-
Ehud Barak's campaign is bei-ig run
lence of the sort leading up to Yitzhak
himself. In America, they're very slick
by James Carville, the same guy who
Rabin's assassination. "Towards the
and programmed. It's much more
ran Clinton's campaign.
spontaneous (in Israel). You never
end of the campaign, people are going
"You have an attempt by the other
to start being very vicious. People in
know what people are going to say."
parties to copy Bibi (Prime Minister
Israel feel so strongly about politics,
Campaign propaganda saturates the
Netanyahu), who attempts to copy the
they just start yelling."
country. The larger-than-life faces of
Snider, formerly of Albuquerque,
major party leaders stare
said he had asked family and friends
down at pedestrians and
in Israel if they've ever experienced
motorists from nearly every
elections like this "and they said, 'no,
billboard and roadside sign
we haven't.' It's such a balagan (chaotic
in Tel Aviv. But many
mess)."
young American observers
"Perhaps it's part of the maturation
have found the candidates
With 5.4 million people, Israel supports
process," he said. The country is only
really don't have all that
a remarkably fractionated and fractious
50 years old. This is a situation where
much to say.
it
will eventually get better, but it's
Some
of
the
campaign
body politic. Some find that dismaying.
going to take some time." ❑
material drew incredulous