In the previous elections, Sara Netanyahu was determined. This time, a video will be broadcast that will show who the Netanyahu family is – Ben Artzi, what its roots are.
Last time you smeared me, she told one of the campaign's senior officials, this time there will be an advertisement. An advertisement was prepared, the prime minister and his wife leafed through family albums in front of the camera. Every evening, after the advertisement was edited, a special taxi left for the prime minister's house to bring the latest version for the lady's approval, who would see it and make comments.
Meanwhile, the campaign professionals were squirming.
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How will we kill it this time? It was decided to call Arthur.
Arthur Finkelstein saw it and decided, "It's not helpful." The Prime Minister was convinced and ordered not to broadcast the ad.
From here on out, what happened is well known to anyone familiar with the decision-making process at Balfour. It begins with the horror of the small team involved. So what if Bibi was persuaded? Did anyone talk to the lady?
It really goes without saying that the commercial was broadcast.
In the 1992 elections, the Labor Party hired paid female activists to demonstrate control at a single election rally in Beersheba. Yitzhak Rabin's campaign did not hesitate to attack the stabbing attacks of those days.
In the 1999 elections, the Labor Party again hired activists, who at least in one incident at the Glilot junction were violent. Barak's campaign was right: money for neighborhoods, not settlements.
It's not certain that these actions led Rabin to power in 1992 and Barak to power in 1999 (and no, Herzog doesn't need to imitate the use of violence), but it's not for nothing that I remember these episodes well. They showed that there is an opposition party here that is willing to go to great lengths to come to power.
Netanyahu did it in 1996 with "Netanyahu is good for Jews" and overseas funding - and he is doing it today with the speech about the US president's head.
Herzog and Livni know dozens of stories like the one presented here about Sara Netanyahu's involvement.
What are the chances that they will dare to raise them in the elections?
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What is amazing about this election campaign so far is that the incumbent candidate, who has been in power for six years, is on the offensive, and the claimant to the throne is posting embarrassing apology videos that try to convince us that he is a Zionist.
It's hard to think of a more vulnerable candidate than Benjamin Netanyahu: the milk carton, trips at the expense of businessmen, taking dirty laundry in suitcases to hotels abroad.
The most important leaders in the world said they didn't believe him, he led the most unsuccessful military operation that had been conducted here for many years, two-thirds of the country spent almost two months in shelters because of a terrorist organization, while the leader of the most powerful country in the Middle East begged for a ceasefire.
His decision-making process was publicly exposed as biased by the most foreign considerations, from the obsession with keeping Naftali Bennett out of the coalition because Sara doesn't like him, to the attempt to elect a president who isn't Reuven Rivlin because, well, Sara doesn't like him either.
Netanyahu is completely exposed on the issue of housing prices, the cost of living, and credibility - and Herzog and his sons are busy racking their brains over how to address Yossi Yona's apology for 'unpatriotic' things he once said.
Zionist Camp campaign officials told me that their research showed that a personal attack on Netanyahu could be poorly received by the public. It's not in good taste. Walla.
There is no doubt that Netanyahu succeeded in instilling fear in the senior figures of the political system. He taught them that anyone who mentions Sarah will be erased.
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Yair Lapid's turning point in these elections is the point at which he began to personally attack Netanyahu.
The speech about pistachio ice cream, the private plane, and the water in the Caesarea pool conveyed to the public a willingness to risk his future relationship with Netanyahu and his all-knowing wife.
Herzog and Livni, on the other hand, are acting as if they don't want to tear the delicate thread that will prevent them from becoming ministers in Netanyahu's future government.
Livni hasn't even told us yet how Netanyahu ruined the diplomatic negotiations with petty insistence on every word and by wasting time that was intended (and succeeded) to drive the other side crazy.
So Herzog may receive the title of 'most honest candidate' at the end of the elections, but if his campaign continues like this, he will not be prime minister.
• The article was published in "Haaretz""
