The word "historic" tends to get thrown around quite a bit lately. The historic peace accords, historic flights to the United Arab Emirates, the historic US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, the historic US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem.
Well, you can now add another item to the list: the historic election campaign.
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No, there's nothing historic about Israel going to an election. After all, that's become something of a routine over the last two years. It's because this election campaign will change everything we thought we knew about Israeli elections.
Up until now, things were fairly simple. It was Right versus Left, the Likud's Menachem Begin versus Labor's Shimon Peres.
All that is about to change. It will be the Right versus the Right, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu versus New Hope leader Gideon Sa'ar and Yamina party head Naftali Bennett. The kinds of slogans used by the Likud in each of the previous elections, "Gantz. Left. Weak," comes to mind, are irrelevant when you are contending with right-wing hawks like Bennett, Sa'ar, and Bezalel Smotrich, whose Tkuma party is a member of Yamina.
Up until now, campaign issues focused on a series of familiar issues: a Palestinian state, the economy, religion and state. The coronavirus pandemic has altered our world, and it will transform the campaign too. Bid farewell to talk of evacuating settlements and one state for two peoples. Say goodbye to disputes over public transportation on Shabbat. Conversion and the Haredi draft will also be pushed to the back of the line.
Instead let us welcome a new agenda, one that focuses on medical workers and scientists, small businesses, individual freedoms, and the fairly simple campaign promise of a return to normalcy.
On the practical side, too, this election will be different as political conventions and other in-person campaign events have all been banned.
We may even see convoluted discussions on who gets to call themselves a member of the Left and Right at this point. Who do the peace accords belong to? The Right or the Left? Is sovereignty a right-wing issue or is it further Right? In the midst of a pandemic, is there any such thing as a political center? And what remains of the Left?
Yes, this campaign will be a fascinating one, that much is certain.
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