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Election Positioning

Why is it that Israeli politicians are so negative.  Their public vocabulary is full of words that evoke negative reactions.  A quick survey of the front page or today's sites for ynet, haaretz and jpost shows the following statements:

"preventing peace" -- Surprisingly, Condolessa Rice said this and she's not even Israeli!  This is a meaningless phrase.  Why would any sane individual want to prevent peace.  

Meir Sheetrit said: "I predict a dangerous situation in which the rightist bloc would win 65 Knesset seats and Netanyahu would have a greater chance of forming a coalition."   What's so dangerous about your political opponent winning the election?  Perhaps  Sheetrit meant to say, "I predict that my party will suffer from a loss of prestige and credibility if a right-wing coalition locks us out of power."

Sheetrit went on to say: "Netanyahu and his rightist partners will not bring peace, but rather economic stagnation brought about by economic crisis."   Regardless of Netanyahu's plans, does Sheetrit's party have any good ideas?  Where are their plans?  How do they differ?  We need to know positions, not just negative slogans and hate-mongering.

Oh for the good old days of US national elections.  Where the candidates try to avoid negative statements and to focus instead on their own strengths.    I don't expect to see any platforms in Israel politics.  Other than the basic "land for peace" mantra, there seem to be no real platforms.  Israeli politicians are very good at throwing money to the poor.  It makes the poorer people a little better off, but it really makes the voters feel less guilty about their own positions.  

Where are the marketing professionals?  You don't buy a Honda because they tell you that buying a Ford will cause global warming.  Perhaps the one exception is that Apple sells laptops because Microsoft did such a poor job with Vista.

I would suggest that describing a convicted rapist as such would probably be a helpful political statement.  But calling your opponent a danger or an obstacle is just embarrassing.  Get a life. Tell me why you are better, not why he is worse.

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