Two days before Israelis head to the polls, strategic adviser Moshe Klughaft published an analysis in Israel Hayom examining how the country's political landscape has shifted and how voters are likely to translate the trauma of recent years into ballot choices.
"On Tuesday, Israel will decide how to translate the trauma into votes. For now, it looks like we've gone halfway," Klughaft writes. "Likud has weakened, but it appears the other side is also unable to form a government. The heads of many parties have changed, but other party leaders are themselves political veterans. The Knesset will receive one of the largest numbers of new members in its history, but the new lists? They're hovering around the electoral threshold. Wondrous are the ways of trauma."
To place the current moment in historical perspective, he suggests comparing today's situation to past events: "Perhaps, in trying to locate ourselves on the map, the most fitting example is the First Lebanon War. It sparked stormy protests, Begin was accused of being a murderer, 'Come down to us, airplane, take us to Lebanon. We'll fight for Sharon and return in a coffin' sang reservist soldiers. It ended in 1984 with a unity government and a rotation that withdrew Israel to the security zone and pulled it out of the economic crisis. Not a bad remedy for getting out of a crisis."
