With Russian voters expected to hold the fate of the September elections in their hand, the various political parties are gearing up to fight for every one of these crucial votes.
Founded as the Russian immigrants' party, Yisrael Beytenu owes all of its political power to its traditional base. The party is trying to promote a series of laws the Russian electorate would find meets its specific concerns, and Yisrael Beytenu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman has already declared that separating religion and state will be a precondition to the party joining any coalition.
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Lieberman has promised to introduce widespread reforms to the conversion process, public transportation on Shabbat, allowing civil marriage and ensuring that commerce remains uninterrupted over the weekend.
These campaign promises are not new, and while Lieberman is trying to court younger Russian voters – only a fifth of whom voted for Yisrael Beytenu in April – it seems that Lieberman is touting them more boisterously as part of his efforts to butt heads with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Likud, for its part, has invested considerable resources in courting the Russian electorate, setting up a special election campaign and focusing on "large electoral hubs" in Ashdod and Netanya.
The ruling party is trying to appeal to the electorate's natural right-wing tendencies, underscoring that Lieberman's insistence he would join Netanyahu's government only if it excludes ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism is unrealistic. This insistence, according to the Likud, is therefore doing a disservice to the sector, and may even cost the Likud the elections, thereby giving rise to a left-wing government.
While Blue and White seems very concerned that it would be unable to gnaw at Yisrael Beytenu's and Likud's Russian electoral base, the party has yet to earmark any funds for a sector-specific campaign or task anyone but MK Yoel Razvozov with the task of corralling Russian votes.
Razvozov, No. 18 on Blue and White's list, is the party's only Russian lawmaker. He is believed to have secured three mandates in April's elections.
The Labor-Gesher partnership, which has sworn to champion social causes and especially those of the periphery, has marginalized the Russian sector, placing its "sectorial candidate" Vladimir Sverdlov in the highly unrealistic 25th slot.
Labor insiders said that the party plans to launch a Russian-speaking campaign in the coming days, which will include interviews by Labor Leader Amir Peretz with Russian media, as well as meetings with leaders of public opinion in the sector.
Over at the Democratic Union, faction leader Nitzan Horowitz said he would reform Israel's marriage act – which gives the Chief Rabbinate absolute control over the issue – so as to allow civil marriage in Israel.
The faction has designated a special campaign director to oversee its appeal to Russian voters, party officials make sure that they are interviewed by the local Russian-language media, and the party is also investing considerable resources in sector-specific advertising.
As for Yamina (formerly United Right), the national-religious faction seems to be ignoring the Russian electorate completely, as it has not launched any Russian-language campaigns, nor have any of its members attended any political events for Russian voters.
Danielle Roth-Avneri, Yori Yalon, Dan Lavie and Avi Cohen contributed to this report.
