Netanyahu plays Monopoly in new Likud ad

With just 10 days to go until national elections, the rival Zionist Union and Likud parties released campaign ads on Saturday featuring frontal attacks on each others’ leaders.

In the wake of a report by Yedioth Ahronoth detailing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s willingness to make robust compromises with the Palestinians for a peace deal during his previous term, the Likud party shot back with an ad featuring the prime minister negotiating a mock peace deal with the Palestinians while playing the popular board game Monopoly.

“I want Jerusalem,” one of Netanyahu’s opponents says as he tries to negotiate a real estate swap.

“I will not give up Jerusalem. Forget it. Jerusalem stays ours. Forever,” the prime minister says, only to be prodded by a second player to give up the capital city.

“Have you gone crazy? Who do you think I am, Boujie?” Netanyahu says, referring to the head of the Zionist Union by his nickname.

“I will not give up Jerusalem,” he assets, only to be nagged anew by his opponent, who offers a tempting host of properties in exchange.

“Go to Tzipi [Livni of the Zionist Union], she will give you everything for free,” Netanyahu replies, placing down houses and a hotel on the “Jerusalem” stretch of the board.

“I want you to understand something: Jerusalem is not up for grabs,” he declares, before stating his party’s concern for the city, along with other measures.

In a post on his official Facebook page accompanying the video, Netanyahu echoed the clip’s sentiment, calling for a “united” Jerusalem and “no retreat” from the West Bank in the face of international pressure.

The ad was released a day after Yedioth Ahronoth published a leaked document that indicated that in back-channel negotiations conducted during his previous term as prime minister, Netanahu offered to establish a Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 lines, evacuate Jewish settlers from the West Bank and acknowledge Palestinian aspirations in East Jerusalem.

The Zionist Union ad did not feature co-party chiefs Livni and Herzog; instead, it asked Israelis on the street to name something positive Netanyahu had done in his nine years in office.

The 45-second clip features a varied selection of Israelis who appear to be stumped by the question, responding to the query with a drone of “umms.”

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=800192583363677

“Nine years of… ummm… nothing,” the narrator declares, stating that Netanyahu failed in his three terms — the last two consecutive — as prime minister.

“On [election day], we are switching out Bibi,” the ad says, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.

Another video, released a week ago by the V15 group, which has been campaigning against Netanyahu, has been garnering a lot of attention, hitting the 400,000-viewer mark over the weekend.

The slick clip features an Israeli voter standing in the polling booth and, through the act of voting — for a party that isn’t Netanyahu’s Likud — ousting the prime minister and his wife from their official residence.