Israel's third election in seven years is being held Tuesday, March 28. (Useful background from the
Jerusalem Post,
Ynet News, and
BBC.) The campaigns have been far more subdued than in the past few votes.
So, we have been left with the time given by the government TV station for TV spots -- but the budgets to produce those spots have been smaller. Also, ratings for the spots (they run in one-hour blocks, so they are easy to measure) have been poor.
Countering expectations, online advertising has been modest. All the parties have Web sites, but few have offered much campaign content in English -- despite their promises to reach out more to English-speaking Israelis.
One interesting new-media angle is that Ynet, (in Hebrew and English) the largest Israeli news site, is sponsoring its first exit poll. The three TV stations (one government-funded a la BBC, and the other two private) all will do their own, as well. Polls close at 10 p.m. Israel time (3 p.m. EST), so we should have four exit poll results at 10:01.
Exit polls have been wrong before in Israel, and the four pollsters all will use different methodologies (from a pure poll at the voting booths to a pure telephone poll, with some combinations of the two, as well). So we likely will see different results from each poll.
For fast results online, in English, go to Ynet, Haaretz, and the Jerusalem Post. (Disclosure: I am Ynet's founding editor, and I write a weekly column there.) Also, the English-language TV arm of Israel Broadcasting will be doing a few rare, live spots in the middle of the ongoing Hebrew coverage (click "English TV News"). Some of this may be available soon after airing online. In addition, a new online broadcaster, Jerusalem Online, is promising live online coverage.
Even with results likely in by early Wednesday, we will not know the final shape of the government for a week or more. Despite the apparent lack of interest by the Israeli public, this election is well worth watching.
If I may be permitted a bit of self-promotion, I...
