Felice Friedson and Linda Gradstein/The Media Line
A large poster of a leprechaun voting for Guinness beer greets pedestrians walking by Mike’s Place, a bar in downtown Jerusalem. The confluence of Election Day and St. Patrick’s Day is a boon for the bar’s owners, who hope the day off work will mean more drinkers of their green-tinted beer. They also promise Irish music.
“I voted for the Green Leaf party (which wants to legalize marijuana),” Reuben Beiser, co-owner of the bar who sported a tie with clover and a green top hat, told The Media Line. “It is a legitimate cause during illegitimate elections.”
His business partner Udi Khaniel voted for a new party called Kulanu, headed by Moshe Kahlon, who is popular in Israel for introducing competition into the cellular phone market and has focused his campaign on skyrocketing housing prices that have made buying an apartment out of the reach of many middle-class Israelis.
“I want to buy a house and maybe, just maybe, Kahlon can help me,” he told The Media Line.
There are 25 parties competing for the 5.88 eligible voters in Israel.Despite Israel’s technological achievements, ballots are still paper, and will be counted overnight. All three TV channels will publish exit polls at 10 p.m. that are usually relatively accurate.
All around Israel, businesses are using the election campaign as a sales gimmick. The Muffin Boutique is holding an election for customer’s favorite muffin. The Jerusalem zoo is staging a contest for favorite animal. Pizza Hut is offering an electionday special of two pizzas with toppings for $25.
Google has even joined the election craze in Israel.Israelis who logged on to Google this morning saw a colorful graphic in which the second “g” was replaced by a ballot box.
Early reports said voter turnout was heavy, and a tight race was expected between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, and the leading challenger, Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Union party.
In a twist that shows the complexities of Israeli politics, the party expected to come in third is the Joint List, made of four Arab parties running together for the first time. Since neither Likud nor Zionist Union is expected to come close to a majority of 61 seats in the 120 seat Knesset, meaning that the leader will have to cobble together a coalition with some of Israel’s smaller parties. The Arab parties have never joined a governing coalition, but could support a center-left coalition from outside the government.
While 20 percent of Israel’s population are Arab, voter turnout has traditionally been less than the Jewish turnout, which was 67.8 percent in the previous election. This time, more Arab citizens are expected to vote after the Arab forces joined forces. In another achievement for Israel’s Arab population, the Central Elections Chairman, who is responsible for overseeing the entire process, is Salim Joubran, a Christian Supreme Court Justice who sparked controversy in 2012 when he refused to sing Israel’s national anthem, Hatikva, at a ceremony with other judges, although he did stand up.
When Netanyahu called the election three month ago, saying that his fractious coalition was proving ungovernable, there was little doubt that he would win a fourth term, third consecutive, as Prime Minister. But in the last few weeks, Herzog has gained strength as an alternative and is presenting a serious challenge to Netanyahu.
David Rubinger, 90, a prominent photo-journalist has photographed every Israeli Prime Minister since Ben Gurion in 1948. He says that in this election, several parties did not even publish a party platform. Although he voted for Netanyahu in the past, this time he will vote for Herzog.
“They said they are going to try to revive the negotiations which I know the right wing does not want to do,” Rubinger told The Media Line. “Any arrangement which assures us a life without war would mean a peaceful future.”
At the same time, he said it is easier for a right-wing government to make a peace deal than a left-wing one.
Another long-time Israeli journalist, Ya’acovAhimeir, had a different take.
“This campaign has become more personal and more of a competition between the two major candidates,” he told The Media Line. “Major issues were not discussed in a serious way.”
He also said that candidates often change their rhetoric once in office. Former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, he said, used to boast that he would retire and live in the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel captured from Egypt in 1967. It was the hardline Begin, who in 1979, signed a peace treaty with Egypt and ordered a complete Israeli pullout from Sinai.
Meanwhile, one of the candidates actually has a connection to St. Patrick’s Day. Yitzhak Herzog’s grandfather, a rabbi with the same name, was the Chief Rabbi of Ireland, living in Dublin, from 1921- 1936.
Back at Mike’s Place, customer GadiSaper, sat drinking green beer with two friends.
“First vote, and then drink,” he advised.
Hanna Rais contributed reporting from Jerusalem