The Neglected Issue of the Israeli electoral campaign: maps proximity of the missiles of a Palestinian State to Israel’s population centers

In 1988, when foreign press in Israel had less staff than they do today, our agency covered the Israeli elections for the New York Times, Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, with a staff of five reporters. This was the first time that both Benny Begin and Benjamin Netanyahu ran for the knesset, as Likud candidates, when Yitzhak Shamir was prime minister of Israel. Both Begin and Netanyahu focused their campaign message on the lethal dangers of a Palestinian state. Both candidates distributed maps of where that state might be postioned, leading to the publication of a book, Can Israel Survive a Palestinian State, which was authored by journalist Michael Widlanski and initially published by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

One of the memorable moments of the 1988 campaign was the constant presentation by Netanyahu of shoulder missiles that any Palestinian could use to shoot down civilian aircraft near the Ben Gurion Airport, which would be contiguous to the proposed Palestinian state.

The 2015 Israeli election campaign once again featured Netanyahu and Begin as the high profile candidates of the Likud.

Once again, both Netanyahu and Begin attacked the idea of a Palestinian state during the campaign, yet neither of them provided clear maps for the public to understand that  low intensity missiles from a Palestinians would pose a threat to every resident of Israel.

Les than seven months after 60% of Israel came under missile attack from Gaza, which Israel had retreated from in 2005, the Likud lost an opportunity to make its case to the people of Israel.

Th​ese are ​the ​ maps that Netanyahu and Begin  could have shown during the campaign:

• Map in English (PDF)
• Map in Hebrew (PDF)

You might say that  a picture is worth a thousand missiles.