Primary Colors -- II

With last night's Kadima party's primary, the primary season I think is now over. The rest of the parties will announce their lists shortly.

According to recent poll published in Haaretz, the gap between Kadima and Likud is narrowing. Not explained is if this is due to the finalizing of the lists, the loss of the elan of Likud/Netanyahu, the positive impression of Tzippi Livni from a joint appearance of all three leaders at a business forum earlier this week, or if it's really significant. My own sense is that people are dissatisfied with the entire political system [see the feedback] and especially with the leaders of the major parties. I expect a low turnout (<40%) on election day and those who actually come to the polls will either be die hard party people or those who feel an obligation to vote as a civic duty (mostly Western people) and will hold their nose to vote for the least worst option -- which one is less of a crook/incompetent fool--and will do the least damage to Israel.

Lost in most of the bickering and cross incrimination's is a real discussion of what kind of country people want, were we want to be and how we can best get there. This morning on Reshet B, on Karen Noybach's "Daily Agenda" program, sought to have a discussion about party advertising campaign and the need to modernize it, only to have it degenerate into a partisan bickering match about how only their party will "'rescue" Israel. It wasn't time that some politician hijacked a discussion to make a partisan point at the expense of thoughtful informative discussion.