In interviews after losing the election, Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni, the two leaders of the Zionist Camp, explained their failure by blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for unleashing a racist campaign against Israel’s Arab minority.
Herzog and Livni are undeniably correct. Netanyahu did act like a first-class racist who tried to sow fear by announcing that Arab voters were flocking to the polls in droves. But the reasons for the results are to be found elsewhere. Blaming Netanyahu for it shows how disconnected they are from the country's mood, and how unwilling they are to engage in any real soul searching.