Will Center Party prime ministerial candidate Yitzhak (Itzik) Mordechai clean up the Oriental vote? With his Kurdish background to go with an impressive military record and a sympathetic personality, and three Ashkenazi rivals, the answer would seem to be: very likely.
Not, however, according to Ze’ev Avrahami ("Ha’ir" February 19). "Mordechai? Don’t make me laugh," he quotes a Yemenite woman in Bnei Ayash (unemployment 10.2%) as saying. "Everything Bibi did to him just shows what a king Bibi is. If Itzik was a top grade Mizrahi (Oriental Jew), he wouldn’t have let it pass. But Itzik isn’t one of us."
"We Mizrahim have a clear hierarchy," she explained, "and the Kurds aren’t even on the first rung of the ladder... Your readers will read this and think I’m a backward Mizrahi woman, but, listen to me, only Bibi can make peace for us...
Education
"He came with his degrees from America and his career there," the woman went on, "and he even got his hands dirty and worked selling furniture. Education is terribly important to us. Tell me, how come, when they talk about [Ehud] Barak, they take care to mention that he studied in this place and that, but when it comes to Itzik, the subject isn’t mentioned? I go to Teddy (Jerusalem’s Teddy Kollek stadium) every Saturday... and at Teddy you feel it, you know, that Itzik stands no chance against our king."
Mordechai and Shahak go to market
Avrahami isn’t the only one to cast doubt on Mordechai’s ability to land the Oriental vote. Uzi Benziman ("Ha'aretz" February 19) followed him and Center Party number two Amnon Lipkin-Shahak on a tour of Tel Aviv’s Hacarmel market, where the stall-holders are almost all of Oriental origin. Such visits are de rigeur for Israeli politicians wishing to show their street credibility. A Center Party rent-a-crowd shouted slogans in his support, but, according to Benziman, Mordechai met only with cries of "Bibi! Bibi!," and "Traitor!" from the stall-holders. Nevertheless, Benziman noted that "even those who shouted at him, sought to touch him."
Nahum Barnea’s impressions of the market tour ("Yediot Aharonot" February 19) were a little different. "Hacarmel market received Mordechai warmly, and at times with open, infectious enthusiasm," he wrote. The visit was clearly professionally organized, but Barnea reported that Mordechai told him the stage management was nothing compared to what happened when he himself was organizing such visits for Netanyahu, as Likud number two in the last elections.
"30% is enough"
One stall holder told Mordechai about hungry people coming to the market at the end of the day to pick up rejected produce. "What has Bibi given us? Nothing," Barnea reported him as saying, and continued, "I told Mordechai that, in the market, beyond the range of his embrace, people were skeptical. ‘We don’t need 100% of these people’, he replied, ‘30% will be enough for us’"
"He [Mordechai] is convinced," Barnea wrote, "that Netanyahu is trying to divide the people into two, with all the religious on his side. That’s the ploy. This is why he decided to vote with the religious over the Religious Councils Law. The law, he is certain, is marginal, unimportant, but it was more important to spoil Netanyahu’s tactic."
Keep visiting the rabbi
On that score, Rafi Man ("Ma'ariv" February 23) is on Mordechai’ side. On the Center Party candidate’s much publicized homage to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, whose recent scathing remarks about the Supreme Court led to calls for him to be investigated on criminal charges, Man wrote, "We have to hope that the former Minister of Defense will continue visiting Rabbi Ovadia.. the cultural war between religious and non-religious will continue to be waged after the elections. For now, the urgent task is to prevent the re-election of the man now sitting in the Prime Minister's Office, a man who is not only strangling the peace process, but also the norms of proper government.
"The left and the center have too few good cards to play against Netanyahu’s unrestrained ambition and tireless manipulating,. One of the best of them is the card called Yitzhak Mordechai. That card should be exploited to the end, even if the odor arising from the meeting with the abusive rabbi is far from pleasing to the noses of Netanyahu’s opponents."
White House support
Mordechai also receives support from a quite different quarter, according to Shimon Schiffer ("Yediot Aharonot" February 19). "A reliable source in the US capital," he wrote, "said ‘the administration fears Netanyahu will win again. The White House would prefer to see Yitzhak Mordechai win the elections’. According to the source, the administration’s experience of Mordechai was good. ‘He has a warm, open personality,’ the source said, ‘and he says the tough things we expect people to say about Netanyahu.’ The administration has already despaired of the possibility that Ehud Barak will win the elections."
First round knock-out needed
But other commentators no less anxious than Rafi Man or Bill Clinton to see the back of Netanyahu are urging Mordechai to drop out of the race. On the analysis of both Yoel Marcus ("Ha'aretz" February 19), and Gideon Samet ("Ha'aretz" February 24), Netanyahu will win if the prime-ministerial election goes to a second round.
Samet detects a desire for change in the country, but believes it may not find expression unless the opposition joins forces. Marcus points to various advantages the Prime Minister will enjoy in a second round, chief among them the fact that by then the new Knesset will already have been elected, and, as incumbent, Netanyahu will be able make all the promises necessary to form a winning coalition.
Both Samet and Marcus believe it is vital for their cause that Netanyahu is beaten decisively in the first round, and both believe the man to do it is not Yitzhak Mordechai, but Ehud Barak.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on February 25, 1999
Responses to Press Cuttings are welcome. Please send comments to davidg@globes.co.il
Israel’s Main Hebrew Dailies:
| Readership as % of population |
| | Weekday | Weekend |
| Yediot Aharonot | 50.8% | 63.5% |
| Ma’ariv | 23.8% | 31.9% |
| Ha’aretz | 6.5% | 7.9% |
| Globes | 2.8% | 2.2% |
The above figures are based on a survey carried out by the Israel Advertising Association in October 1998. The survey covered a sample of 10,000 people representing a cross-section of the adult population of Israel. Each percentage point represents 37,000 people.
Other newspapers referred to in this edition:
Ha'ir Tel Aviv local weekly.
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