From Bibi to Barak

One town's shift shows why Israelis voted for change.

By Flore de Preneuf

May 18, 1999 | Monday was a big day for Jacob Zigelboim. After working as a vacuum-cleaner salesman for several years, he was busily preparing to open his own state-of-the-art video shop. And after supporting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for three years, he decided to vote for his opponent, Ehud Barak.

Surrounded by walls of fresh paint, Zigelboim, 28, explained his turnabout in terms of freedom. Under Netanyahu, he saw "religious people controlling almost every aspect of life in Israel. It bothers me because I believe in 'live and let live.'" Today, a shop like Zigelboim's that stays open on Friday night risks being fined and closed by the religious-led Ministry of Labor. A secular government led by Barak could make it possible for his shop to rent videos on the Sabbath.

Defections like Zigelboim were common Monday as Israelis overwhelmingly rejected Netanyahu's reelection bid. Three years after Netanyahu narrowly defeated incumbent prime minister Shimon Peres, who took over after Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, Barak won 58 percent of the vote Monday, compared to 42 percent for Netanyahu, according to early estimates.

Those results would have seemed implausible just a few weeks ago. Throughout the campaign, Israeli pundits were predicting a close election, trying to decipher how the dynamics of a five-way race and an all but certain run-off, would ultimately play out. But in the final 24 hours of the campaign, the puzzle was greatly simplified: All three minor candidates dropped out of the race, leaving voters to choose between incumbent Netanyahu and his left-leaning challenger Barak.

Labor's resounding victory Monday left Netanyahu supporters to wonder why so many voters jumped ship since the 1996 elections.

Here in Rehovot, a small town southwest of Tel Aviv, voters were clearly pro-Netanyahu in 1996. While Netanyahu won by less than 1 percentage point nationwide, he beat the Peres by nearly 7 points in Rehovot.

Before Monday's election, there were again plenty of campaign posters on the walls proclaiming "Only Netanyahu" but the hesitations and defections of people in the streets told a different story.

The reasons for the erosion of Netanyahu's support are as different as the people who put Netanyahu in power in the first place. Like Zigelboim who moved to Israel from Lithuania, many secular immigrants from the former Soviet Union were wary of Netanyahu because of his connection with religious parties, even though many supported his hard-line stance on the issue of Israeli security.

Leonard Zakharov, a recent immigrant from the former Soviet Union and once a Netanyahu supporter, is not so much disappointed by the prime minister's policies than turned off by what he calls "small things". He is irked by Netanyahu's association with Shas, a religious, Sephardic party whose leaders have referred to the new Soviet immigrants as prostitutes and criminals. "Netanyahu and Barak are the same. But Barak has promised to separate himself from the religious," said Zakharov, 58, who left Ukraine four years ago.

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