Relieved that the campaign season is finally over, Israelis went to the polls Wednesday to decide their country’s future.
Although the atmosphere on the street was festive on Israel’s Election Day 1996, the issues on voters’ minds were far from lighthearted.
It appeared that just about everyone was preoccupied with the weighty issues of peace and security.
In a random survey of voters, most called this year’s elections “pivotal” and “the most important elections in the history of the state.”
This opinion was shared by Israelis from all walks of life, from Jerusalem neighborhoods as diverse as the fervently Orthodox neighborhood of Geula to the Arab neighborhood of Sheik Jarrah in eastern Jerusalem.
Most of those interviewed said the choice between the Labor’s Party’s Shimon Peres and Likud challenger Benjamin Netanyahu in the race for prime minister could be the most significant ballot they would ever cast.
“We consider these elections all-important,” said Barak, a Chasidic man who, like many of those interviewed outside polling stations, did not wish to give his last name.
He said, “In previous years, many haredim did not vote because they did not want to support a secular government. Now, though, the rabbis have instructed us to vote because the danger of losing land [in a peace settlement] is so great.
“We’ve been instructed to vote for Bibi [Netanyahu], but most people will also vote for haredi parties like Agudat Yisrael” in the separate vote confronting the electorate for the incoming Knesset.
Sari Genzer, who is from the fervently Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Sorotzkin, also spoke of the significance of the electoral choices facing the country.
“There has never been a more important vote, and I honestly believe that my vote will make a difference in deciding our new government,” he said.
Genzer, who has four children, said, “I see how children become wild, do drugs and make trouble. I want a government that is strong not only in the area of national security, which is important to me, but also when it comes to educating our children.
“I’ll be voting for Bibi and Agudat Yisrael, not because I don’t think Bibi won’t give up land, but because he won’t be as quick to hand things over as Peres will.
“The Arabs have many places to live in the Middle East, but we have just one.”
Amal, a 24 year-old Arab resident of eastern Jerusalem, said she voted for Peres and Labor “because they are on the road to peace.”
Noting that many in her Arab village are not Israeli citizens and are therefore not eligible to vote, she said, “I know many, many people who would like to vote, but they never took out citizenship and they’re feeling frustrated. I’m pleased I have an Israeli passport.”
Amal said she is definitely in favor of the creation of a Palestinian state, a view shared by the vast majority of Palestinians.
But Samel, an eastern Jerusalem resident originally form the Galilee, did not share this opinion.
Interviewed just outside the large polling station Sheik Jarrah, the young man said, “I don’t want a Palestinian state. I’m an Israeli and proud of it.
“I came to vote today because I had to support my country, and the only way to improve it is to work from within.
“It won’t come as a surprise that I voted for Peres and Labor. Netanyahu will only make matters worse.”
After a last-minute push by candidates of all political stripes to gain voters this week, election day was a quiet one with little outward political fanfare.
Earlier in this week, when pollsters began to note a dwindling margin in the race between Peres and Netanyahu for prime minister, the two candidates stepped up an already punishing schedule to meet with those segments of the electorate deemed crucial for victory in the tight race: Israeli Arabs, Russian immigrants and the fervently Orthodox.
But things calmed down by Tuesday because Israeli law prohibits campaigning in the 24 hours preceding national elections.
located in schools and municipal buildings throughout the country, the only campaign leftovers were huge blue-and-white banners, courtesy of Likud and Labor, and hundreds of thousands of leaflets littering the streets and sidewalks.
Because schools and most businesses were closed, many parents voted early, then took the kids on a daylong outing.
The result was that Jerusalem seemed half-empty, while the beach towns and national parks were filled to overflowing.
Discussing the election process with her young son as they waited to be admitted to a polling station in the Germany Colony in western Jerusalem, Rachel Bar-Natan, an archaeologist, termed Wednesday’s elections “especially important.”
“This is the first time we’re voting directly for a prime minister, and we have to decide crucial issues: How or should we continue the peace process? Should we return the Golan? Will there be a separate Palestinian state or a confederation with Jordan?”
Glancing at her son, she said, “We’re deciding on the future of our country for years to come. I’d prefer not to say how I’ll be voting, but believe me, I’ve given my decision a lot of consideration.”
Yelena, a first-time voter from the former Soviet Union, said that she, too, had spent a great deal of time deciding for which candidate and party she would vote.
Sitting on a bus on her way to her polling station, she said, “I moved yesterday, but am traveling back to my old address because I think it’s important to vote.
“I’m in the country about four years and I feel that this is my home. If I don’t vote, how can I decide the future?”
Although she did not say which prime ministerial candidate she would support, she did specify the political party she would back in the separate Knesset race.
“I’m backing Natan Sharansky’s [pro-immigrant Yisrael Ba’ Aliyah Party] because then there will be some people in the government who will be looking out for my interests.
“In the final analysis, that’s what every voter is looking for, don’t you think?”
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