No one talked about the “Iranian threat” — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s signature trademark — during the campaigns leading up to the municipal elections held throughout Israel on Oct. 30. In the hallways of Elimelech Rimalt grade school, where a polling station was set up for residents of the coastal town of Netanya, there was no talk of the government’s ineptitude in dealing with the “incendiary kite terrorism” plaguing residents of Gaza’s border communities and setting fire to their fields. Instead, the discourse focused on plans to build new hotels along the beachfront, insufficient spending on education and too much investment in municipal fountains.
Naturally, the agenda of local elections is different from the one expected to engage Israelis during the soon-to-come Knesset elections in 2019. Nonetheless, local voting results provide some insight into the prevailing mood in Israeli society these days.
