Israel's Election Cycle Reveals a Country Untethered From Reality
This election should reckon with October 7 and the devastation in Gaza and Lebanon. An election cycle that avoids important issues foreshadows what will happen once it's over
The talking heads are all aflutter. When exactly did the prime minister get the phone call early on October 7, 2023? When did he leave his home, and when, to the second, did he reach his destination?
Perhaps he was delayed by the makeup artist? Or the hair stylist? This will be of historic significance, and investigative reporters are digging deep in search of incriminating evidence. Perhaps he went into the bathroom without us being informed? And what did he do for the next 53 minutes?
With a pathos reserved for momentous investigative reports, reporters puffed up with self-importance pounced on his schedule, as if everything rises and falls on the precise moment at which the redeeming phone call arrived.
If only Benjamin Netanyahu had tarried less at home, if only he had been quicker in tying his shoes, we would have been saved. Aside from the nosy parkers' inadvertent contribution to his mythological omnipotence – if only he had been woken up in time! – this prying also attests to the superficiality of this election cycle, which is empty of all content.
People say that this election is more momentous than any in Israel's history. They say the results will seal the country's fate, for good or for ill. Both the left and the right are convinced that October 27, 2026, will go down in history.
But what is preceding Election Day is beyond description. The campaign shows that it's capable of separating the wheat from the chaff yet insists on addressing the trivial, which casts doubt on the election being a momentous one.
There's nothing like the obsession with Benjamin Netanyahu's schedule to reflect the zeitgeist. No one dares tackle any critical issue, and these are legion, with people escaping to the realm of meaningless issues.
The question of what would have happened had he woken up in the middle of the night between October 6 and October 7, 2023, phoned the defense minister and immediately afterward, still groggy with sleep, the IDF chief of staff as well, is the one getting all the attention.
But who is taking an interest in the responsibility for what we did in Gaza subsequently? Who is taking an interest in the warmongering that continues to this day? What about our future? Who cares, only talk to us about that phone call.
Netanyahu is trying to deflect the conversation away from the burning questions, and that's understandable, but the opposition and the media are falling into his trap like flies. For them, too, apparently, it's more convenient not to pick at deep sores, since they too have no real remedy to offer.
This election cycle should be dealing with the blame for October 7, but no less than that, it should also be dealing with the blame for Gaza and for Lebanon, as well as with the failure in Iran, the international boycott and ways to end it.
Most of all, the issue should have been the direction in which the country is heading. Do we remain in Gaza? Do we leave Lebanon? Do we continue with the pogroms? Do we dismantle settler farms? How do we return to the family of nations?
You won't hear a word about any of these, not from the governing coalition and not from the opposition. The media are obviously not challenging anyone. The election as a draft season in sports: who will play for what team?
The election campaign as an employment center. A few hundred people, most of them lacking any heft, searching for a job. Who's in and who's out. That's what all the fuss is about.
If Avigdor Lieberman replaces Itamar Ben-Gvir as national security minister, will this actually change anything? Will Lieberman put an end to the abuse of Palestinian detainees? Even the question of whether Gadi Eisenkot and Naftali Bennett will change the direction this country is following has no clear answer yet.
Yes, it will obviously be more pleasant and comfortable for Israelis, but Israel now needs much more than that. An election cycle that avoids important issues is also foreshadowing what will happen once it's over.
Although nothing has been decided yet, when an election cycle focuses on Chili Tropper's future, Tally Gotliv's move from Likud to Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit, or even the prime minister's schedule three years ago, a dark cloud hovers over what we can expect.
When everything evokes only one big yawn, the question becomes whether Israel, which, according to many people, is facing its most momentous election ever, is even tethered to reality.