Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used unconventional marketing means in his campaign for the parliamentary elections (April 9), amid fierce competition especially from Israel Resilience Party chaired by Benny Gantz and quests to establish a strong coalition to threaten Netanyahu’s position for the first time in ten years.
The Israeli PM used in his campaign pictures of him with US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, not to mention his pursuit to meet them during the electoral battle.
Netanyahu launched Likud TV, which is a marketing TV channel dubbed after Likud party. It airs daily in the evening through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
“When all the stations are creating their own news, we’re here to tell you the truth. To provide positive coverage, that’s true," famous presenter Eliraz Sadeh said in the inaugural webcast.
Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid (There is a Future) opposition party, commented: “I’m waiting to see your news segments ‘Hamas is laughing at Israel,’ ‘hospitals are overcrowded,’ ‘it’s impossible to finish the month here’... in a positive and real way, of course.”
Opposition leader Shelly Yacimovich said: “It’s not funny, because this is an exact pilot of the media as Netanyahu would like it to be, and even actively tried to create: obedient, castrated, humiliated, kneeling and fawning over the leader; without tough questions, without investigative reports and without talking about integrity and the rule of law.”
In another context, Yedioth Ahronoth reported on its website that a meeting is expected between Netanyahu and Putin before the Israeli elections, knowing that the last meeting between the two was on Nov. 11 on the sidelines of ceremonies to mark the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice which brought the First World War to a close.
