It took a few weeks, but it finally happened. The main media outlets in Israel, including the public ones that are funded by taxpayer money, have removed their gloves and are working assiduously to halt the momentum the Likud and the right-wing camp in general have picked up in the past few days.
In the past 48 hours alone, dozens if not hundreds of reports have been written and broadcast that are designed to turn the latest poll results around and create the opposite impression – that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going to lose. To that end, two senior Army Radio hosts joined forces for a special two-hour broadcast; another veteran reporter revealed the source of a story one of her colleagues had reported on at Channel 2; and as a group they are horrified over recent recordings of Netanyahu associate Natan Eshel making racist remarks about Sephardi voters.
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When political correspondent Amit Segal exposed Gantz advisor Yisrael Bachar's remarks about his boss, most of the occupants of the studios preferred to attack the recorder and wonder aloud, without knowing anything about it, if he had acted on behalf of Netanyahu. The content of the recordings itself, Bachar's harsh thoughts about Gantz – with whom he has worked closely for a year – were sidelined. When the Natan Eshel tapes were revealed, in which Eshel said not a work about Netanyahu but rather discussed his own opinions, no one asked in any studio who had recorded him, on behalf of whom, or whether Benny Gantz or one of his people were behind it. Never mind the media's gentle handling of Oztma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir, who is siphoning votes from the Right that will go to waste; and their total ignoring reporter Erel Segal's expose in Israel Hayom on Sunday, which revealed that Gantz attends meetings with the police about his business affairs, despite the police commissioner's denial.
A few weeks ago, the Central Elections Committee became concerned that there were some who would try and exploit the public's concern about coronavirus to disrupt the elections. For the past two days, not a single person in the media has been in doubt about who that entity would be – the Likud. Benny Gantz tweeted something about Netanyahu's "mafia-like" methods, and the rest are falling in line and repeating that message. As if panic about coronavirus could be stirred up in north Tel Aviv alone, but not Bat Yam or Ofakim.
Today, voting began, and with it, the various parties' new spins, lies, and crude messages. Cries of "Gevald!" from every direction, as well as efforts to dampen hope – all in accordance with the requirements of the moment. Today, too, the media will do everything it can to check the Right's momentum and devote itself to the messages from the Right's political opponents. Netanyahu and the other right-wing party leaders will do everything they can to send whatever message suits their needs at the moment, even if there is some discrepancy between that message and the truth. So today, the most important thing is to ignore what we hear and what they are saying, and vote our conscience. We must cast our ballots for the party that best reflects the identity of the nation as we envision it. Everything else simply doesn't matter.
