The war in Gaza has made Israel's election campaign a short one -- and there are concerns that turnout be low next week. The World's Quil Lawrence reports from Jerusalem.
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MARCO WERMAN: Israel is wrapping up one of its shortest national election seasons in memory. The three weeks of war in Gaza left almost no time for campaigning, and there's concern in Israel that turnout will be low next week. The World's Quil Lawrence reports from Jerusalem.
QUIL LAWRENCE: Israel has usually seen an impressive voter turnout – about 77 percent if you average all of Israel's elections, according to Arye Carmon, President of The Israel Democracy Institute. Unfortunately, he says, that dropped to 63 percent in the last election.
ARYE CARMON: We are very much concerned because the burden of the different issues on our agenda is such that this borders already with issues of legitimacy. In other words, the government that will be elected, that will either need to lead either a peace process or a confrontation with American administration because of different opinions, would really need the big support of the Israeli public.
LAWRENCE: Carmon's Democracy Institute has even devised a website to help people decide. It's a short questionnaire that creates a political map. There's a “you are here†marker suggesting which party best represents the subject's politics. Carmon says it's needed because the campaign this year was short and without much substance.
CARMON: We did not see the future leaders of the state of Israel coming out and outspokenly talking about the plans: how to save the economy, what's the future of the negotiations with Palestinians, how Israel is going to deal with the Syrians, what is going to be the relationship with the new American administration, how they're going to deal with issues like poverty, et cetera, et cetera. We did not hear. It's a blurred campaign.
LAWRENCE: There is a noticeable swing to the right. The front-runner is Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud. He's followed closely by the center right Kadima, led by current foreign minister Tzipi Livni. Then it gets interesting. The traditionally strong Labor party, led by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, is running dead even with the far right candidate Avigdor Lieberman, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union. But the Israeli system is not winner takes all, so any of the four could end up in a coalition together, says Etta Bick, of Ariel University.
ETTA BICK: This is the reality of Israeli coalition politics. You form a government with the possible coalition partners based on some kind of agreement. In other words, you have a coalition agreement in which you actually write out what's going to be the policy of the government.
LAWRENCE: So with promises of changing certain policies and giving away cabinet posts, whoever wins next week's elections will start to haggle with the smaller parties. Part of what may be turning people off from this election is that all the major candidates seem prepared to make compromises to stay in the government. And they're the same old faces, says Bick.
BICK: There's nothing new. We tried a peace process. We tried a war. We tried an economic policy. There's a certain lack of enthusiasm. It's not like an Obama election which people get the feeling of, “Wow. This is going to be time for a change.†I think they realize that it's more of the same, and the same is not necessarily very optimistic.
LAWRENCE: Her pessimism is underscored by the continuing negotiations over a long-term ceasefire in Gaza. Weeks of indirect talks haven't produced a breakthrough, and there's no sign that any new Israeli government will have a better chance of reaching an agreement with the Palestinian factions. For The World, this is Quil Lawrence, in Jerusalem.
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