Shai Tsur
This is the fourth piece from Shai Tsur in a series of blog posts from Israelis with different perspectives on the forthcoming elections. The writer is a Tel-Aviv based former journalist who works in the finance industry and has his own weblog at Shaister. Read his first piece here, his second piece here and his third piece here.
If it weren't for the vacation, you wouldn't be able to tell it was election day here in Tel Aviv. You certainly wouldn't be able to tell that Israel is facing one of its most crucial elections of the past decade, writes Shai Tsur.
The campaign has lasted approximately five months - five extremely turbulent months in which the political system got completely reshuffled, a powerful and popular prime minister disappeared overnight, and Hamas rose to power in the Palestinian Authority.
But if you take a walk down Ibn Gvirol Street, one of Tel Aviv's main thoroughfares, you would not guess any of this.
In fact, for most voters this has become one of the most boring election campaigns in Israeli history.
Ibn Gvirol's cafes and restaurants are all packed with people enjoying their day off and doing anything but discussing the elections. I walked down the street, in the direction of Rabin Square, this morning.
In past elections, the square played host to huge, fiery political rallies. We have seen no such rallies during this campaign. Instead, the Tel Aviv municipality has turned Rabin Square into "democracy square" for the week.
The middle of the square has been taken over by booths for the numerous parties running for the 17th Knesset.
Many of the booths are empty, especially those of the major parties. The smaller fringe parties are out in force, each happy to explain its positions to a sceptical public. One of the news stations (which is broadcasting from Rabin Square all day) has also set up a mock polling station for children.
The rest of the square has a street fair atmosphere to it. People hawk food and balloons. A large stage has been set up for musical performances. People pass by miniature models of the Knesset and the Wailing Wall, taken from the Little Israel attraction.
A large display has been set up by the producers of the reality show The Models. The display features a plywood cutout of each of the models participating in the show, which is fitting in many different ways.
What you don't find is a lot of actual political campaigning. The only candidate I saw was the head of the Green party, who was trying to convince voters that his party could get enough votes to cross the electoral threshold.
If anything characterises the atmosphere today, it is apathy and indecision. The major parties, as well as the media, have spent much of the last week urging people to go and vote.
This would have been unnecessary 10 years ago, when voter turnount reached 90%. This time around, only around 60% of the electorate is expected to come to the polls. And of those, 20% have yet to decide how they will vote.
Although Kadima's victory seems preordained, the level of voter turnout could easily affect the political balance of power once the elections end and the process of building the next coalition government begins.
Even with all the apathy, come 10pm, when the exit poll results are revealed, most of Israel will be glued to the television.
Except, that is, for those who go to Rabin Square to watch the announcement there.
