The elephant in the note: the economic discourse in the electoral process does exist, but as usual it is on the margins Israel today

Before each election, the various politicians and candidates ask themselves what the desired agenda is.

Which of all the issues at hand will best serve the party's campaign?

Often this agenda is interrupted - sometimes by other parties, sometimes by reality itself.

It is a well-known rule in Israel that no matter how much they plan and try, in the end the security agenda may pop up at any moment and disrupt everything for them.

Not only the media agenda, but also the voting at the ballot box.

You can wave many flags during one election campaign, but in the end it is a wave with limited responsibility.

From the moment the political or security flag is raised, all others will be lowered to half-mast.

That is why the current election system is very different from its predecessors.

Without much media noise, and without widespread echoes in headlines and publications, below the surface the economic crisis and the cost of living occupy the agenda of the election campaign.

Groaning under the minus

This is less reflected in the media, but has become a discourse today in the thoughts between a man himself and between a man and his wife.

The distress is great and the disadvantage is felt in every pocket.

Many more people find themselves groaning under the deficit than last year, many of them are looking to politicians who might save them after the elections, but these are busy with their own.

It seems that there has never been such a disconnect between the will of the people and the campaign run by their elected officials, or those who pretend to be.

The economic discourse does exist, but as usual it is on the margins, far behind the political, security and even civil issues.

The price increase is felt in every pocket, photo: Oren Ben Hakon

The cost of living (illustration).

Found on the margins, photo: Oren Ben Hakon

against their will

The "Israel Today" poll, which is actually the last poll for this election cycle, shows that about 49% of the population with the right to vote in Israel define the economic crisis as the most troubling issue right now.

This is a big gap compared to the other issues that worry the Israeli public: the security situation and the political conflict (19%), the split in the people (12%), the governance in the Negev, the Galilee and the mixed cities (9%), the Iranian threat (3%) and the transportation problems (2%) .

Some of the political candidates in these elections presented economic plans in recent months and scattered promises to fight the cost of living.

But they did it, it seems, more out of necessity.

None of them raised the economic flag high, as was expected from an event that worries the public the most.

The Knesset Plenum, photo: Dodi Vaaknin

Despite the desire of many politicians from the current government to obscure the problem, to make it disappear and not deal with it for understandable reasons, the public is still upset, very upset, and not willing to ignore it.

Israel Hayom's latest survey for this election was conducted, as usual, through the "Mind Pool" institute under the management of Prof. Yitzhak Katz, and it is particularly large: 1,201 participants, who are a representative sample of the adult population in Israel with the right to vote, and an extremely small sampling error of 2.7 only % here or there.

The full results of the huge survey will be presented tonight at the Israel Hayom election conference to be held in Tel Aviv.

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