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ISRAELI ELECTIONS Irom preceding page
election frenzy," explained Dan Dostrovsky, a 57-year-old accountant whose knitted skullcap suggests his identification with the modem-Orthodox National Religious Party. "I think it's healthy that people feel detached. Raucous rallies were never conducive to serious decision-making."
Not The Old Days
Nevertheless, until now — and especially since the early 1980s — Israeli election campaigns have generally been colorful, frenetic and, above all, strident. So why the change?
"Public apathy would imply the expectation of a low turnout at the polls, and that is not the case at all," cautioned Prof Dan Bar-On, a psychologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. "What we're seeing in the street and on the roads isn't a lack of interest in the elections, but a change in style, a different way of doing things."
Dr. Bar-On agreed that most people already have decided how they will vote and are therefore bored by the campaign; that the two main parties have deliberately blurred the differences between them, which acts against generating excitement; and that the campaign is essentially a single-issue affair (the peace process) — and a worn issue, at that.
"The campaign is ignoring most of the "personal,' long-range issues facing Israeli society, be they economic, social, or religious," said Prof Bar-On. "No one is talking about the issues that wall have to be faced afterward — the gap between rich and poor, the relationship between religion and state, etc."
Others say the candidates themselves have changed the elections.
"It's true that the campaign looks sterile if you compare it with the days when Menachem Begin could draw tens of thousands of enthusiastic supporters to rallies in the main squares," said Prof Dan Bar-Tal, a political psychologist at Tel Aviv University. "Shimon Peres is the uncontested leader of his party, but he is not a charismatic politician. [Binyamin] Netanyahu lacks even the unqualified support of everyone in his party. And neither candidate knows how to work up a crowd."
Above all, however. Dr. Bar-Tal opined that the climate of restraint is a direct effect of the Rabin assassination.
"The impact of the assassination has been greater than many of us — who stressed the public's tendency toward forgetfulness — originally assessed," he reflected. "Both Labor and the Likud are calibrating their strategies carefully, because neither wants to be accused of incitement."
So far, in fact, the Likud election broadcasts have been care-fiil to attack Mr. Peres' policies, not the man personally (in sharp contrast to its 1992 campaign, which virtually portrayed Yitzhak Rabin as a drunk).
"Both parties evidently feel they have something to gain from a quiet campaign," said Dr. Bar-On, who also warned against the illusion that the present mood of civility signals a sea change in Israeli society. He sees it, rather, as merely the "calm before the storm."
He quipped: "No one need fear that Israel is on its way to becoming a Denmark or Sweden." 11
1aybe 111 vote Peres. But they're both garbage/'
- Dani Yitzhak, 36, a salesman and lloating voter