Israeli Candidates Star on Prime-Time Political Show

Entertainment-starved Israeli television viewers flocked to their sets Tuesday night for a quadrennial treat: the opening of the national election campaign season on the airwaves.

Instead of the usual talk shows and dated American mini-series, they watched 45 minutes of a unique televised ritual that is sometimes dramatic, sometimes funny--and occasionally informative.

“It’s like a boxing match,” said one Israeli journalist and aficionado familiar with past political advertising campaigns on television. “It’s fun to see who hits the hardest.”

Israelis are scheduled to go to the polls Nov. 1, one week before national elections in the United States. But while political advertising in America is scattered throughout the broadcast schedule, here it is packaged by law into a nightly prime-time program during the final month before the vote.

While many viewers watch the pre-election propaganda program for entertainment, the political parties treat it as vitally serious. And political analysts are hoping that the start of the television broadcasts may liven up what they describe as a disappointingly sleepy race.

Both Labor and Likud, the largest of 28 parties registered to appear on the ballot, have collected tens of millions of dollars to finance their campaigns, and insiders say 20% to 50% of the money will go for production of television ads.

By law, neither the face nor the voice of any candidate is permitted on the air except during this special program for 30 days immediately before the election. That means that government officials up for reelection--which is nearly all of them--can appear on television only in their parties’ political ads.

This rule led to an extraordinary bit of film during the 1981 campaign, when then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin met then-Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. On its main news broadcast, Israeli television could only show Sadat appearing to talk and laugh with an empty chair. It was not until the following political advertising program that viewers could see Begin sitting next to the Egyptian leader.

Each night’s party-produced election spots are reviewed a few hours before air time by a Supreme Court judge, who is the sole authority on what may or may not be broadcast. During the 1984 campaign, the judge banned one right-wing ad depicting the Knesset being blown up and another that simply had “too much blood,” an Elections Committee official said.

Radio and television time is free for all parties. Even the most obscure, such as the Politeness Party or the United Yemenites, get 10 minutes during the monthlong campaign. Those parties represented in the Knesset are allotted time based on the size of their parliamentary delegations. Likud this year is to receive 4 hours and 28 minutes of air time, compared to Labor’s 3 hours, 58 minutes.

Tuesday’s opening installment, which featured the eight largest contending parties, was by most estimates uncharacteristically subdued and serious--merely hinting at the conflict and comedy expected in the days ahead.

‘Mr. Reasonable’

Likud’s spots starred Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Finance Minister Moshe Nissim against a backdrop of happy Israeli faces and dynamic industry. Shamir came across as what one Israeli termed “Mr. Reasonable” in a clear effort to counter expected Labor attacks on him as a right-wing extremist.

Labor, meanwhile, reminded voters of the first two years of the current national unity government, when Shimon Peres, now foreign minister, was in the prime minister’s chair--before he switched jobs with Shamir. That is when Israeli troops were withdrawn from an unpopular war in Lebanon and triple-digit inflation was brought under control.

The continuing Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was featured in almost everyone’s message, however.

On the far right, the Tehiya party, which advocates annexation of the occupied territories, showed film of a windshield being shattered by a rock and soldiers on patrol in smoke-filled Arab streets.

“They want to destroy us,” a party official intoned.

By contrast, an Israeli Communist Party ad depicted a reserve soldier, home from occupation duty, meditating on the horrors of subjugating a rebellious people and saying Israel should instead be helping the Palestinians set up their own state.

In between, the spiritual mentor of one religious party promised that God would help anyone voting for its candidates.

According to the Israeli press, large and small parties alike have much more lively footage ready for future programs.

Likud has its own version of Pac-Man, which eats away at Israel’s borders until the country is shrunk to its pre-1967 size--a fate it claims is in store if Labor forms the next government.

Labor, meanwhile, is said to have prepared 25 one-minute spots on Shamir. Typical is one in which an interviewer asks people on the street what they see as the Likud leader’s main achievements during his two years as prime minister.

“Achievements?” questions a young man as he scratches his head. “Shamir?”