Amid the continuous downfall in the polls over the past two weeks and the rise of the Bayit Yehudi on the expense of Likud Beitenu, campaign strategist Artur Finkelstein returned last night to Israel to reassess and advise campaign.
According to Rinah Matzliach, political correspondent for Channel 2, Likud
strategist Arthur Finkelstein arrived in Israel Tuesday and met Wednesday with
Netanyahu and the heads of the Likud campaign. He advised them to stop
attacking Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett but to reveal extremist and
chauvinist statements made by candidates on the Bayit Yehudi list.
The
campaign will stress the importance of Likud Beitenu receiving more votes than
the combination of Labor, Yesh Atid and the Tzipi Livni Party in order to
prevent President Shimon Peres from assigning the task of forming the next
government to Livni or Labor leader Shelly Yechimovich.
The
chairman of the Likud campaign, Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar immediately
took Finkelstein's advice. At a meeting with students at Bar-Ilan University
Wednesday, he criticized Bayit Yehudi's number four candidate, Rabbi Eli
Ben-Dahan, for calling for the cancellation of the Knesset Committee for the
Advancement of Women and its number nine candidate Moti Yogev for leading the
separation between sexes when he headed the religious Zionist youth group Bnai
Akiva.
"It is
legitimate to point out the differences in the lists' positions to talk about
it and not sweep it under the rug," he argued.
Saar said
that the voters would have to decide between those who advance the status of
women and those who do not. "The
voter will decide if he wants to vote for the 'Likud Beytenu' list, which
includes five past and present heads of the Knesset's Committee for Advancement
of Status of Women, and which sees the issue of equality between women and men
as being important."
"If he
does not care about this issue, he can vote for a list whose Number 4, Rabbi
Ben-Dahan, who was Director of the Rabbinical Courts, calls for the abolition
of the Committee for the Advancement of Women or whose Number 9, Moti Yogev,
led a move toward gender separation at Bnei Akiva [youth movement] when he
served as its Secretary General – or whose spiritual head opposes
representation by female lawyers in courts."
The move
might bear fruit and attract Women voters, who according to a Panels Politics
poll conducted for Saloona, 22% of them are still undecided, compared to only
15% among the General public. Right now, Likud Beitenu would get 32 seats and
Bayit Yehudi 15 among women voters, according to the poll.
According
to Arutz 7, Likud will be coming out with an internet campaign to expose the
views of members of the Jewish Home's Knesset list. "Many of those who are
weighing their vote for the Jewish Home party are not aware of their party
connection to the Revival Party and the people who head that party,"
explain the Likud.
The first
attack slogan read, "Jewish Home is against women", exposing the
views of Rabbi Ben Dahan, number four on the list, who called for the
cancellation of the Knesset's Committee for the Advancement of the Status of
Women.
In an
effort to attract young voters, Netanyahu will host a rally with a pub-like
atmosphere Sunday at the trendy Tel Aviv Port, The Jerusalem Post reports. The
rally will come in place of visits to actual pubs, which Netanyahu's rivals
have been doing regularly but the prime minister cannot for security reasons.
