Pre-election video stars zombie Livni

‘Tis the season to be jolly. No, we don’t mean Christmas, but rather Israeli primaries season, which as ever is producing a glut of amusing low-budget lampoon clips of questionable taste.

The latest offering was a video posted to the Internet on Wednesday by Jewish Home party hopeful Ronen Shoval.

The faux-horror short opens from the point of view of a terrified cyclist desperately pedaling through an eerie forest, closely pursued by a zombie-like Tzipi Livni (the leader of the Hatnua party) and Peace Now director Yariv Oppenheimer.

Just when it seems that the panicking cyclist is about to meet a fate worse than death at the hands of the two, Shoval steps out of the woods to save the day. He diverts the zombies’ attention by tossing them a copy of the Haaretz newspaper. Livni and her shambling sidekick head off into the trees while Shoval offers national salvation and coffee to the living. The message: Shoval “speaks Leftist” (whatever that means).

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=781252878595028

Shoval is a co-founder of the Im Tirtzu extra-parliamentary movement, which last year sued libel activists who created a Facebook group accusing Im Tirtzu of being a fascist movement. Im Tirtzu lost the case and is currently in the process of appealing.

Ever eager to “go viral,” other politicians have also been harnessing social media for their party primary campaigns.

For instance, former deputy minister Danny Danon, who hopes to replace Netanyahu as the Likud party’s candidate for prime minister, published a video Wednesday attempting to capitalize on the almost universally reviled (among Israeli Jews) MK Hanin Zoabi of Balad. The animated musical clip, set to the tune of “Oh Susanna,” features sheriff Danon prowling through an old Western town, promising to run Zoabi and other Arab political baddies out of town.

The chorus to the song is “Oh Zoabi, start to cry, my dear, because now Dani the real right winger is here,” and it features portraits of former prime minister and Likud founder Menachem Begin together with early Revisionist Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky giving enthusiastic thumbs up in the background.

Zoabi has raised the ire of right-wing lawmakers in the past for, among other things, her participation in a flotilla protesting Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip and statements calling for “a siege” to be placed on Israel. Her failure to condemn Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians over the summer earned her a six-month ban from participating in Knesset committee meetings.

In the video, sheriff Danon is seen locking Zoabi behind bars along with Balad party founder Azmi Bishara, who fled Israel amid allegations that he spied for Hezbollah and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.

Zoabi said that she would file a police complaint against Danon over the video, which she claimed was racist against Arabs and incited violence against her.

Earlier this month national religious Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett started the ball rolling with a video in which he disguised himself as a bearded hipster who apologizes for everything even when others are clearly in the wrong.

After peeling off the mass of chin hair and a baseball cap to reveal his more familiar beardless visage and smooth pate, Bennett delivers his punchline — “From now on, we must stop apologizing” — a dig at perceived unpatriotic left-wing attitudes.

Zahav Gal-on, the leader of the left-wing Meretz party, was quick to respond with a video of her own in which she dressed up as a settler woman.

At first, Gal-on’s video seems like a tit-for-tat response to Bennett’s campaign spot. (In the short clip, uploaded to Facebook, she is seen putting on a long skirt, wig and headscarf, then asking her assistant if the settler look is convincing.)

But after she finalizes her outfit, the video cuts to its real message: “Meretz doesn’t make fun of its brothers and sisters, Meretz works for everybody.” (Bennett often refers to his supporters as “brothers and sisters.”)

With nearly three months to go until the March 17 election, there is still plenty of time for other political hopefuls to show their creative, if not altogether convincing, skills.