By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANNetanyahu and Livni(photo credit: REUTERS)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign team intends to target the Zionist Union’s co-candidate for prime minister, MK Tzipi Livni, in its next campaign video, the Likud’s strategist Aron Shaviv tweeted Monday.Polls have indicated that Livni is not nearly as liked by the public as Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog. New Zionist Union strategist Reuven Adler has reportedly recommended keeping Livni out of the limelight.“We won’t let him hide her,” Shaviv tweeted.“Watch out for our next video.”While the Likud has usually released videos on Saturday nights, this time Shaviv said the video would be released on a regular weekday.The Zionist Union released a new video clip Monday night that mocks Center-Left voters who are considering casting ballots for another party because they do not like Herzog’s voice. The clip shows Herzog speaking but the voiceover heard is much more masculine and gruff.“Herzog” talks about his military service in the clip, outlines his experience in politics and in the security cabinet, and notes that when he took over Labor, it had only 14 seats in the polls.“The Zionist Union is now the largest party in Israel according to the polls and the only one that can replace the failed Netanyahu government,” the voice says while Herzog is shown moving his lips. “Yet the reason some of you are undecided about whether to vote for me is my voice.”A Midgam poll broadcast on Channel 2 Monday night showed the Zionist Union with 25 seats and the Likud with 24. But another survey by pollster Yitzhak Katz broadcast Monday on the Sephardi haredi (ultra-Orthodox) radio station Kol Barama found the Likud leads 25-24.The Midgam poll found that 51 percent of the public believes Netanyahu is the most fit candidate to be prime minister and 28% believe it is Herzog.
Despite the Zionist Union leading in the Midgam poll, when asked who they believe will form the next government, 67% of the respondents said Netanyahu and 17% Herzog with one month left before the March 17 election.In what it says will be a preview of what will happen after the election, the anti-Netanyahu organization V15 intends to come to his official Jerusalem residence Tuesday with moving trucks and cardboard boxes.“We want to help the Netanyahu family start packing their personal belongings,” a V15 spokesman said.
