Elections are not won in Excel
Oved Yechezkel argues that the change camp in Israel fails to win elections because it appeals to voters' rational economic interests, while the public is primarily driven by group identity, belonging, honor, and fear. The article analyzes Benjamin Netanyahu's ability to identify deep public emotions and turn them into a political identity, and warns of a slide into political violence and mutual delegitimization.
Oved Yechezkel analyzes in an opinion column why the change camp in Israel struggles to win elections, despite what he defines as severe failures of the current government. He opens with a response he received from a close friend, describing a public suffering from the high cost of living, the collapse of the education system, and the drying up of healthcare services, yet still swept up by populism. Yechezkel argues that this is a wrong working assumption: human beings are not only rational economic creatures, but creatures of identity, belonging, honor, fear, and pride. He analyzes Benjamin Netanyahu's ability to identify deep public emotions such as insult, a sense of persecution, and fear of losing power, and turn them into a political identity. According to him, criticism of Netanyahu from institutions perceived as hostile (media, academia, the legal system) only strengthens the shared sense of persecution. Yechezkel warns of a slide into political violence and mutual delegitimization, and calls on the change camp to build a positive alternative narrative rather than settling for criticism and data.