“Molotov cocktail on the way to the polls”

The unity government of the Likud and the Alignment succeeded in overcoming inflation and reducing the IDF’s presence in Lebanon, but in the second half of its term something seemed to be not working. The coalition was called a “national paralysis government”

The reminder of the explosive situation came two days before the elections to the 12th Knesset, in which Israelis were required to decide between the firm line of the Likud and the conciliatory line of the party. Ynet and the National Library on a journey between election campaigns.

One of the burning issues in the 1988 election campaign was the first intifada that erupted spontaneously. The reasons for the outbreak of the intifada are debated among researchers and commentators. In July 1988 Jordan announced that it was cutting itself off from Judea and Samaria, and in November 1988 the Palestinians declared independence in Tunis, and it was clear that this was a frontal confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians.

Apart from the damage to human life, the first intifada gradually worsened the situation of the Israeli economy. Trade with the Palestinians waned, and workers from Judea and Samaria gradually ceased to work in Israel and found no viable alternative. Unemployment has risen and the Israeli economy is facing uncertainty.

Two days before the Knesset elections, a bus leaving Nahariya for Jerusalem was attacked with Molotov cocktails thrown at it by terrorists near Jericho. The attack claimed the lives of a mother and her three children, and the life of the late soldier David Delrosa, who tried to save them, was injured and died after two months in which he fought for his life. A bus carrying people to the victims of the attack was also attacked.

Some claim that this attack, which naturally caused a severe shock to the Israeli public, pushed many to the right-wing parties. But there are others who claim that the trend in the Israeli public was clear even before.

Even Election Day itself was not without security events. According to a report in Yedioth Ahronoth, a car with Likud posters that the electorate was going to the polls in Jerusalem was attacked by a Molotov cocktail thrown from a house in the Wadi Jouz neighborhood.

“I ran outside and saw a woman running on the road, all burning and shouting,” an eyewitness said. “Neighbors came to help her, poured water on her. I saw my car in the middle of the road, and the burning Subaru deteriorating downhill, without a driver.” The driver who returned later: “She was sitting in the back seat and suddenly we snatched the bottle from behind. We ran to rescue the woman, who was completely burned. We turned and rolled her on the road to put out the fire. It was horrible.”

Another issue that came up in the election campaign was the London Agreement signed regarding the Palestinians and Judea and Samaria. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who ran in the party-led elections, was secretly meeting in London with King Hussein of Jordan, in a meeting that resulted in a UN-sponsored international conference to find a solution to the Middle East conflict.

Under the agreement, Jordan will assume responsibility for the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, and sign a peace treaty with Israel. The two agreed that Jordan would represent the Palestinians in its delegation to the conference, so that it would be conducted without the involvement and participation of the PLO.

Although the agreement was closed after Peres received Prime Minister Shamir’s approval, the latter did not approve of the possibility of an international conference, claiming that it could put Israel under impossible pressure. On the other hand, Peres believed that Jordan could be a beneficial lever for solving the Palestinian problem in a way that would be possible for Israel.

In the end, Shamir refused to advance the agreement, but within a short time the first intifada broke out and King Hussein cut himself off from Judea and Samaria.

In the elections to the 12th Knesset, the amendment to the Basic Law of the Knesset was implemented for the first time, which allows the Central Election Commission to invalidate lists that deny the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, deny its democratic character or incite racism.

The committee disqualified Rabbi Meir Kahana’s “so” list from participating in the Knesset elections, and discussed a request to disqualify the “advanced list for peace.” By a narrow majority, the committee decided not to disqualify the list, which was composed of leftists.

Members of the Election Commission have appealed to the Supreme Court against the decision to approve the list’s participation. Finally, by a majority of three Supreme Court judges versus two, the court decided not to disqualify the list. The decision was justified by the fact that, according to them, no conclusive evidence was presented that the list denies the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people.

The compilation of the Likud list in the elections to the 12th Knesset was held in two rounds. In the first stage, the members of the party center chose a “panel” of 35 candidates to be placed in the first places. A week later the placement is done according to election rounds of “sevens”, so that in fact the party leaders can “fix” faults in the list.

The election to the party panel was held in a huge show at the Country Club in Herzliya. Netanyahu, who was one of the prominent stars in the event alongside Benny Begin, revealed that he is among the only candidates who cannot vote, because he is not a center member.

“Bibi did not use any gimmicks. Even in the heavy heat, his shirt was kept ironed, and his presence swept the engravers’ affection,” Yedioth Ahronoth wrote. The former ambassador who returned to Israel won first place on the panel, and swept the majority of votes. Moshe Katsav was chosen in second place and Benny Begin in third place.

“I was surprised, and I will certainly not hide that it is also flattering. I am satisfied and tired, but it is clear to me that the main result is the excellent staff that Shaharut will present in the Knesset elections, people of virtue,” Netanyahu said late at night when the results were received.

Asked if this was a revolution led by Herut, he replied: “We will not go into surgery at this early hour, but it has once again been proven that freedom is an open movement, in which people decide according to material considerations.”

Election Day for the 12th Knesset was particularly stormy on the Haredi street. In Jerusalem, ultra-Orthodox voters discovered that their ID cards had been stolen from their wallets, bags or coats. In Bnei Brak, a 77-year-old city resident was robbed after leaving his home for the polls. An unknown group attacked him, took his ID card, and disappeared.

At the entrance to the polls in Bnei Brak, representatives of the ultra-Orthodox parties “stood behind the trees and videotaped what was happening at the entrance. This material, they say, will be passed to the chairman of the election committee to show him that there are invalid ballots.

The police opened an investigation on suspicion that the “Chaim Tovim” nursing home in Bnei Brak collected the ID cards of the dozens of elderly people staying there. According to the police, ultra-Orthodox elements used these ID cards to vote once again in the election.

In the morning, a riot broke out at the polls on Malkei Israel Street in Jerusalem after a woman was caught voting with the identity card of a woman who had recently passed away. She escaped from the police straight into the crowd, which she brought there, and the policeman who was at the scene was unable to catch her.

In Arad, two women were caught coming to the polls with ID cards that are not theirs. Members of a polling committee in the city noticed that the woman behind the curtain was not the same as the picture on the ID card and she was arrested by specially alerted police officers. A few hours later, police in the city arrested another woman who voted with the ID of a woman who died about two years ago.

One of the passengers on the bus who was attacked with a Molotov cocktail near Jericho on the day before the election contacted the Jerusalem Regional Election Commission requesting that she be allowed to vote even though her ID card was burned on the bus.

The deputy chairman of the regional committee was helpless because the Interior Ministry could not help and issue her an alternative identity card. However, he came up with another idea: “Contact the defense minister, ask him to enlist you in the IDF, so you can be allowed to vote.”

On the day after the election, some of Israel’s key coaches of the time shared experiences from the polls. For example, Tuvia Tzafir said that when he came to vote, the police asked him to imitate “I told them that election propaganda should not be done at the polls. When I entered, the committee members said, ‘Oh, here is the whole government coming to vote together.'”

The one who announced that he did not vote was the singer Jackie McKayten, who explained “I do not care about politics, I have more important things to do. I sat all day with friends and chewed wine … On TV in the evening we only watched the parts of the entertainment between the election reports.”

The main headline on the day after the election already referred to the coalition negotiations – “Shamir is trying to form a government this morning.” The feelings were summed up in Yedioth Ahronoth as follows: “Everyone is disappointed except for the religious and Gandhi. Intensive courtship of the religious began at night.”

The smiles froze on the faces of the leaders of the party. When the results of the TV sample became known, Peres told Uzi Baram, the party secretary, ‘The attack in Jericho took down a lot of voters.’ In a festive pose on stage in the hall of the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv. “

While the Likud had already picked up the phone to representatives of the religious parties, the party began talking to the leaders of the Arab parties in an attempt to create a “blocking bloc for the Likud.” However, the left-wing parties also understood that if they wanted the possibility of forming a government, they must cooperate with the ultra-Orthodox, and the Retz party announced that it did not oppose a meeting with the religious parties in the coalition.

27 lists ran in the 1988 elections, only 15 managed to pass the blocking percentage and be represented in the Knesset. It was evident that after four years of cooperation the public chose to punish the big parties and strengthen the small parties at their expense.