Riding a wave of popularity and enjoying an extraordinary embrace from the media, senior Blue and White party officials are continuing the prolonged campaign of silence imposed upon them by their advisers. On Wednesday, the party's top four, co-chairs Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, Moshe Ya'alon and Gabi Ashkenazi arrived in the Golan Heights to continue their silence. On Monday, they went to the party's campaign headquarters at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds, and remained silent there, too. They have appeared on the evening news programs and in-house campaign stops, where they have also stayed silent. Of course, they did technically speak because words did come out of their mouths. But nothing of significance was said unless one takes into account their statements on maintaining Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights – as if there was anyone to return it to - or accusing the government of promoting what they called an anti-agricultural policy.
That's how it is when you are worried about expressing an opinion on controversial issues. The great desire to steal three or four Knesset seats from the right-wing camp forces party members to walk on eggshells, taking extra care to avoid a slip of the tongue and most importantly, prattle on about issues on which there is to a great extent a consensus.
Blue and White is set to launch its campaign platform, which looks something like a manifesto an ad agency came up with. Every word is measured, every letter precise in order to be able to speak at length without having said anything at all. One wink to the Right, and then another to the Left. Peace with security. Israel with the Golan Heights. The settlement blocs under Israeli control and Jerusalem our eternal capital. Civil unions and negotiations with the haredim. Preserving tradition and transportation on Shabbat. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, and not much of anything at all.
In the meantime, it is the smaller parties, and in particular those on the Right, that have grown nervous and impatient. After having committed to not attacking one another, New Right party leaders Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked have begun to fire from inside the right-wing armored personnel carrier in an attempt to fight the decrease in Knesset seats with attacks on the Likud, while Habayit Hayehudi tries to reap the Knesset seats for itself.
The Likud's mission to take Knesset seats from the satellite parties on the Right is also in full swing, and this trend will only increase as Election Day nears. Because a situation in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs both a 61-majority right-wing bloc but also for Likud to be the biggest party involves two conflicting aspirations. Any other situation will allow the president to declare the winner in the election and that is the last thing Netanyahu wants.
