Yisrael Beytenu video shames non-voters

Avigdor Liberman in all out push to boost voter turnout in secular strongholds.

YISRAEL BEYTENU leader Avigdor Liberman addresses a faction meeting at the Knesset yesterday.  (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
YISRAEL BEYTENU leader Avigdor Liberman addresses a faction meeting at the Knesset yesterday.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Yisrael Beytenu is going all-out on its campaign to boost voter turnout in secular strongholds in order to thwart the establishment of a right-wing, religious coalition, publishing a campaign ad designed to shame Israelis who do not vote on Election Day.
With the sound of sinister music in the background, the party points out the number of people who did not vote in the April election in Tel Aviv, Rishon Lezion, Bat Yam and Petah Tikva – adding that, “in their merit,” the leaders of the ultra-Orthodox and religious-Zionist parties are now cabinet ministers.

“Too many Israelis didn’t go out to vote in the last elections, and look at what happened,” reads the advertisement, adding that Yisrael Beytenu will help build a “nationalist-liberal, unity government without the ultra-Orthodox or messianics,” in the next Knesset.
Yisrael Beytenu’s fortunes in the polls have sunk somewhat since Blue and White co-leader Benny Gantz co-opted its strategy of promising a national-unity government without the ultra-Orthodox and religious parties.
Party leader Avigdor Liberman is seeking to ward off a precipitous collapse in support in the actual ballot by underlining the sectoral and religiously radical nature of the ultra-Orthodox and religious parties and by appealing to secular Israelis’ fear of the increasing power of these political factions in the country.
Yisrael Beytenu released another ad on Monday, highlighting the militant rhetoric of ultra-Orthodox politicians regarding the election, saying that on Election Day “the ultra-Orthodox are going to war,” while subsequently showing packed beaches in reference to Israelis who use their day off on Election Day for leisurely pursuits, rather than voting.
Liberman is also trying to stop the bleeding away of support from Yisrael Beytenu to Blue and White, and has highlighted Gantz’s lack of clarity and apparent vacillations on whether or not he would sit in a government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Just last month, after being badgered by a news host on Ynet TV, Gantz said that if Netanyahu offered him a rotation agreement for prime minister where Gantz would go first, then he might have considered such a deal.
Gantz subsequently stated that he would not sit in any coalition with Netanyahu.