Word: bibi
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Today, Israelis will go to the ballot box to elect a new prime minister. There are now only two contenders for the premiership: Likud leader and incumbent Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu and Labor Party Chief Ehud Barak. Three other candidates, Centrist Yitzchak Mordechai, Israeli-Arab leader Azmi Bishara and hawk Zeev "Benny" Begin bowed out of the race in the 11th hour...
Monday's election--justifiably or perhaps unjustifiably--is perceived to be nothing less than a referendum on some of these pressing matters, most notably the peace process. Whereas a vote for the right-of-center Bibi is perceived to a be a vote for halting the peace process or for moving it forward at a snail's pace, a vote for the left-of-center Barak is construed as a vote for accelerating peace negotiations. However, this kernel of electoral wisdom may not have basis in actuality. If elected, Netanyahu will almost certainly make the concessions necessary for peace, albeit...
...turbo-charge his campaign. Indeed, a friend of mine in Israel remarked just yesterday that Barak appears so slick in his ads that "he could be Bill Clinton." So Clintonesque is one of his ads about how Netanyahu mismanaged the economy that you can almost hear Barak say "Bibi, it's the economy, stupid!" And why shouldn't Barak play the campaign game American style? The photogenic Benjamin Netanyahu is a master image-maker who himself retains an American campaign guru, Arthur Finkelstein. Politics, like most things in Israel nowadays, are undergoing rapid Americanization...
Barak's campaign appears to be quite effective. Polls indicate that Barak will best Bibi by a margin of 49 percent to 38 percent today. However, these statistics may not be attributable to James Carville's deft spinning or Arthur Finkelstein's campaign blunders. Rather, the polls more likely reflect the fact that the electoral landscape has tipped in Barak's favor over the last few days. Thus far, the race between Netanyahu and Barak has been neck and neck. Therefore, every percentage point counts. Very recently, the Israeli-Arab prime ministerial candidate, Azmi Bishara, dropped out of the race...
...underestimate Benjamin Netanyahu." The Western press may hate him, but a significant number of Israelis do not. It is also a fallacy to think that Netanyahu owes his success to a fringe group of anti-peace process zealots. In fact, those on the extreme right reject Bibi as too moderate and will not support him. Rather, Bibi's popular strength is much more organic. Netanyahu is the king of the Israeli underclass. Those who are alienated from Israel's privileged, Ashkenazi upper-class find a real leader in Netanyahu. In particular, Bibi has skillfully stitched together an ethnically heterodox...