Why do Israeli party political campaigns focus on personalities – rather than issues and policies?
A13: One needs to make some distinctions here: The small and the peripheral parties do campaign on and about the issues, although they might also challenge leaders or figures in other parties, with or without mudslinging. On the whole, they are canvassing the electorate so that they will be large enough to have parliamentary leverage and possibly be included in the next coalition government, in order to introduce their more radical policies, forestall the radical policies of other parties from the opposition benches, or work on parliamentary committees to promote their policies through government and independent legislation in the parliamentary process. The three main parties, Kadima, Labor and Likud – which do have substantially different platforms on specific issues like the peace process and socio-economic policy – are competing for government. While it looks like the Likud will win back a lot of its lost votes from Kadima and Gil, and while Labor might also lose many of its seats t
