LIVE ELECTION BLOG: Kahane campaigns for the Arabs, Hamas for Likud

[oberliner]

Israeli Arabs had all but decided to boycott this election en masse, until Avigdor Lieberman showed up.

Their fury over the conduct of the war in Gaza and the high number of Palestinian civilian casualties, as well as their dismay over the general mood of support for the war effort among Jewish Israelis, coincided with a voter boycott drive by a such militant Israeli Arab groups as the Sons of the Village movement and the Islamic Movement.

However, the lightning rod of Lieberman's full-volume campaign, the Arab-directed slogan "No loyalty, no citizenship," has galvanized many Israeli Arabs into changing their minds and exercising their citizenship.

Another key factor has been the attempts by Meir Kahane-wannabe Baruch Marzel and his Ichud Leumi colleague MK Aryeh Eldad to enter the radical Arab stronghold town of Umm el-Fahm on election day.

Hamas, meanwhile, has seemed determined in recent days to sweep both Benjamin Netanyahu and Lieberman into high office, launching Qassams and Grads into Israel despite a nominal truce.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1063084.html