In less than two weeks, Israelis will head to their local voting station for the fifth time in over two years. When national elections occur with this frequency, it is not easy to come up with new campaign slogans, ideas, and promises to persuade the voters.
The entire political sphere is simmering, and only the Left and the Right remain stiff as concrete. It is almost painful to see such a waste of hours paid to consultants, creative directors, campaign and public relations managers. They come up with what they believe are amazing mottos that generate buzz - only for that buzz to fade away within a matter of hours.
Right now, just like before every election, the Israeli society is crudely divided into ethnic groups and sub-groups and all manipulations are kosher as far as the politicians are concerned.
I think the only one who might have targeted new audience is Ayelet Shaked, who in recent days tried to appeal to mothers on Facebook by sharing cooking recipes. It may not be a game-changer, but in the current state, every vote counts. As my mother used to say: "People don't come for the food, they come for the company."
Into this creative void came flying down Zehava Gal-On with her interview in laughably poor English. To those who missed it, the chairwoman of the Meretz party sat down for the interview against the background of a library, and spoke about a burning issue - far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir.
But to be fair, Gal-On is not alone. Some of my closest friends won't be able to string together a sentence in English.
Her interview went viral in just a few minutes. Honestly, it's hard to remember the last time when something done by the left-wing received such a sweeping resonance.
Her performance almost made us forget other comedy highlights from the past week. For example, the image of Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov dressed as James Bond in a tourism campaign. Queen Elizabeth II died just on time, so she wouldn't have to witness that.
For a sweet while, even Religious Zionist Party Chairman Bezalel Smotrich’s plan to cancel the offenses of fraud and breach of trust - which has nothing to do with the ongoing trial of Netanyahu who is, by coincidence, accused of these very same offenses - was pushed aside.
Such a morally corrupt demand that goes against the public interest and reeks of self-interest could have been considered a form of fraud and breach of trust in and of itself.
And as a cherry on top, there was also a brief TikTok interview by Arab journalist Suleiman Masuda with Ben-Gvir himself, who agreed for a moment to stop waving his personal weapon like a child at a costume party.
"Will three million Palestinians get some kind of status in Israel if you're in power?" Masuda asked. "No," Ben-Gvir replied. "Will they be able to vote in the election?" "Will they be granted autonomy?" The answer was always "No."
"Would you like to dismantle the Palestinian Authority?" he asked. Ben-Gvir exclaimed, "Yes!." "And who would take over instead?" Masuda wondered. "No one," said Ben-Gvir.
Absolutely riveting. Good luck to us all!