The case of Dvidi Ben Zion is not an isolated incident
The article describes the resignation of Dvidi Ben Zion, the 8th candidate on the Amcha Yisrael list, under heavy community and personal pressure, including protest signs at the entrance to his community and family pleas. The author presents this as a familiar pattern of pressure on right-wing candidates, comparing it to previous cases of Silman, Orbach, and Shaked. The article criticizes Likud hypocrisy, which decried harm to families during protests against Sara Netanyahu, but now calls similar capitulation to pressure a "brave act."
The article, by Akiva Lam, analyzes the resignation of Dvidi Ben Zion, the 8th candidate on the Amcha Yisrael list, presenting it as part of a broad pattern of community and personal pressure exerted on right-wing candidates. Ben Zion officially justified his resignation by the risk to the right-wing bloc, but in a WhatsApp message to his associates described heavy pressure: "My entire community is full. My wife is broken by this." At the entrance to his community, a large sign read: "Dvidi, resign! Don't endanger the country." The author compares this to previous cases: candidate Lali Deri who described an aggressive pressure campaign, the pressure on the Silman and Orbach families, and the campaign against Ayelet Shaked in 2022 under the slogan "A vote for Shaked is a vote for trash." The article sharply criticizes Likud hypocrisy: Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, who was furious in September about signs against him on the way to his children's school, now praised Ben Zion's resignation as a "brave act." The author claims that Likud's comparison between Winter and Benet is a "dog whistle" signaling activists to exert full pressure, creating a trap where any vote for Winter is defined as betrayal from the start.