Israeli election battle plays down Palestinian revolt

Press, 6 October 1988, Page 8

Israeli election battle plays down Palestinian revolt

NZPA-Reuter Jerusalem Israel’s political parties have launched a. monthlong television election campaign, with the first appeals to voters largely ignoring a Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories. The broadcasts on State-run Israel Television, which began on Tuesday night, will play a central role in the runup to elections on November 1. Under an Israeli law condemned by freespeech advocates, television news may not cover the campaign. In the opening campaign, the Rightist Likud block of the Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir, and the Labour Party of the

Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, focused on inflation and the withdrawal of the bulk of Israel’s troops from Lebanon. Only the extreme Opposition parties on the Right and Left — the Tehiya party and the Arabbacked Communists — devoted their campaign broadcasts to the uprising, in which at least 288 Palestinians and six Israelis have died. Labour and Likud are partners in a Government coalition, formed after inconclusive elections in 1984. Public opinion polls have forecast another Labour-Likud tie. Some commentators have said they hope the television campaign will

awaken interest in an election that many, expecting a rerun of 1984, dismiss as unnecessary. In their broadcasts, both major parties claimed credit for bringing annual inflation down from 500 to 16 per cent. Labour boasted that it single-handedly withdrew Israeli troops from Lebanon in 1985. Uncommitted viewers greeted such messages with scepticism. Labour’s broadcast asked: “Who took you out of the Lebanon quagmire?” One Israeli, watching television in a Tel Aviv department store, shouted to his friend: “Chaim, where was your last reserve duty?”

Chaim, having served in an Israeli-patrolled border security zone in Lebanon, shouted back the obvious answer. Messages about a better economy were lost on many shoppers trying to beat midnight price increases by buying up eggs, chickens and milk products. Both Mr Sb,amir and Mr Peres struck a similar stance during the broadcasts, with a blue-and-white Israeli flag at their side and a background of catchy jingles. Pollsters had predicted that voters would be influenced mainly by party policies on the uprising, both military and political.