<b>Same campaign, 30 years straight:</b> Netanyahu's endless anti-Arab message

In Likud's main campaign ad in the 1996 election, 30 years ago, Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat played a starring role. Acting on the advice of American campaign adviser Arthur Finkelstein, who believed that a good campaign needs a villain, the campaign focused on the ultimate bad guy: the PLO leader, "the man with hair on his face," as Menachem Begin put it, who wore a kaffiyeh and had outsmarted Rabin and Peres on his way to conquer Jerusalem. Same Campaign, 30 Years Straight: Netanyahu's Endless Anti-Arab Message Benjamin Netanyahu at a Likud election conference, 2020. A screen behind him reads, "Without Ahmad Tibi." Credit: Tomer Appelbaum From Arafat to Mansour Abbas, Likud focuses on delegitimizing Jewish politicians because of their ties with with Arabs – and Arab politicians simply for being Arab. Then as now, there is an ironic gap between Netanyahu's messages and his actual policy Loading... Click the alert icon to follow topics: Comments Loading...