The electoral crisis Israel has been facing over the past year, which includes calling unprecedented third general elections, means getting Israelis to vote is something of an uphill battle for Israel's political parties.
The March 2 vote has to overcome more than the usual agenda items of regional upheavals, major diplomatic developments and growing security tensions, as this time, its worst enemy may be voter fatigue. Recent polls suggest that the political logjam is likely to continue after the elections and many in the public are wary that come September 2020, Israel will be going to the polls for the fourth time.
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In the digital age, increasing public engagement in politics means investing in social media campaigns, and if you expect voters to turn out en masse yet again, this means shelling out more than just a few shekels.
According to data compiled by Israel Hayom, since August 2019 some 24 million shekels (roughly $7 million) have been invested in political ads on Facebook alone.
The analysis of the last 90 days indicates that the Likud is pulling out all the stops with respect to digital advertising, and challenger Blue and White is also investing heavily in new media.
An overview of the past three months shows, for example, that Blue and White co-founder Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid has paid NIS 690,000 ($200,000) for promoting political posts Facebook. Blue and White leader Benny Gantz has spent NIS 470,000 ($173,000), followed by Labor-Gesher-Meretz chair Amir Peretz with NIS 453,000 ($132,000), and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with an investment of about NIS 368,000 ($107,000).
Facebook stressed it makes this information available to the public as part of its efforts to promote transparency with respect to political content on its platform.
Blue and White, it seems, is more than willing to spend a fortune of Facebook advertising: When it comes to Facebook and Instagram ads Likud's challenger has so far spent some 6.2 million ($1.8 million).
The ruling party, in comparison, has invested about a third – NIS 2.4 million ($702,000) – on social media ads, mainly on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu new Facebook page, which has 2.5 million followers.
Another heavy heater is the social media ring is the Labor-Gesher-Meretz alliance, which has poured some NIS 1.6 million ($468,000) into its social media presence.
Yisrael Beytenu isn't far behind: Over the past few months the party, whose electorate comprises predominantly Israelis from the former Soviet Union, has invested NIS 576, 000 ($168,000) in leader Avigdor Lieberman's Facebook page in Hebrew and another NIS 170,000 ($49,000) it his Russian-language page.
Yamina leader Minister Naftali Bennett has so far spent NIS 38,000 ($11,000) of Facebook advertising, Ayelet Shaked, who chaired the party in ahead of September's elections, spent NIS 75,000 ($21,000), Shas leader Aryeh Deri has invested NIS 276,000 ($80,000) on social media, and United Torah Judaism has spent only NIS 28,000 ($8,000) of its social media presence.
