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Israeli supporters of the Kadima Party watch a broadcast election campaign showing acting PM Ehud Olmert at the party's headquarters, Tuesday. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners March 8, 2006 |
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| Israelis sit next to an election campaign poster showing ailing PM Ariel Sharon in his Kadima Party headquarters. (AP) |
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Israel's 32 political parties kicked off their broadcast election campaign Tuesday, with Ariel Sharon featuring prominently both in ads for his leading Kadima Party and in rival ads trying to beat back the front-runner.
Sharon's image and voice boomed out of TV sets, even though the prime minister suffered a massive stroke Jan. 4 that left him in a coma just weeks after he established Kadima.
Israeli campaign ads run in daily blocs on radio and TV in the three weeks before an election. Catchy pop jingles mix with sophisticated visuals and wooden pronouncements from politicians.
Despite his two-month absence, Sharon's popular legacy as a war hero who gets things done has helped Kadima hold on to its commanding lead over other parties, especially Israel's traditionally largest parties - Likud and Labor.
While Kadima used the debut to emphasize that Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is Sharon's natural successor - the other parties used the state-funded ads to attack Olmert for his social policies and plans to withdraw from more areas in Judea and Samaria.
One Kadima clip had its legislative candidates talking about Sharon as pictures of the prime minister flashed by: Sharon on his farm; Sharon the war hero wearing a bloody bandage around his head during the 1973 Mideast war; the prime minister at Jerusalem's Western Wall; Sharon with Israel's founding father, David Ben-Gurion, and Sharon the prime minister signing papers.
Finally, Olmert pops up, looking professional in a dark suit in a plush office, a picture of his predecessor behind him.
"What state of Israel are we preparing for the next generation?" Olmert asked. "I see a country that lives in final borders, a Jewish state with a Jewish majority," he said, emphasizing Kadima's main campaign platform, defining Israel's borders.
One of the few Kadima clips attacking the other parties focused on Likud's leader, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Showing some of his more embarrassing moments, the clip intoned "Bibi is the same Bibi," using Netanyahu's nickname over and over.
The Labor Party, headed by populist ex-union leader Amir Peretz, emphasized social and economic issues, its slogan "fighting terrorism, building a strong society" the lone mention of the security matters that traditionally determine the outcome of Israeli elections.
Peretz, shown in old pictures when his trademark mustache was bushier and darker, promised to raise the minimum wage to $1,000 per month. Footage of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair making similar pledges flashed across the screen.
The hawkish Likud devoted most of its ads to launching a frontal assault on Olmert, part of a strategic decision to eat away at Kadima's popularity before emphasizing its own agenda.
Talking about the dangers of the Hamas victory in a January Palestinian parliamentary election and slamming Olmert's withdrawal plan as a reward to terrorism, the Likud ad declares - in large print flashing across the screen - "Olmert is blind to the danger. We cannot give him a country."
"Where is Olmert's head," the ad asks, showing an image of an ostrich burying its head in the sand.
Sharon's booming voice pledges in one ad not to carry out any more unilateral withdrawals. Olmert is publicly talking about more pullouts, a commentator said, referring to a recently announced Kadima plan to dismantle isolated settlements in Judea and Samaria. "Fact: Olmert's path is not Sharon's path," the commentator declared.
In an apparent bid to capture the crucial Russian immigrant vote, an opening ad showed Netanyahu playing chess with his father, retired professor Bentsion Netanyahu and talking about security issues in Hebrew, with a Russian translation running across the bottom of the screen.
The ultranationalist National Union-NRP slammed Netanyahu and the Likud, saying it was time for a new right-wing that talks less about security and more about preserving Jewish ideology - a reference to the belief that the Land of Israel, including all of Judea and Samaria, is the biblical birthright of the Jewish people.
Smaller parties focused on narrower social issues. The dovish Meretz party and the pro-pot Green Leaf both focused on gay marriage - which is not recognized in Israel - with Green Leaf's ad showing two women in wedding dresses kissing passionately.
AP contributed to this report.
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