Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Likud Beitenu Undergoes Dramatic Shift of Strategy to Regain Momentum

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.
https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/0/?ui=2&ik=000be9aacb&view=att&th=13bfe49593dbb37a&attid=0.1&disp=inline&safe=1&zw&saduie=AG9B_P8EYSwSsXnv9C4OJhLG5NBU&sadet=1357181716462&sads=vZv9zhy9Dk1oBnqMSRCAhQVTuSA&sadssc=1The 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.