David Weinberg, Director, CIC Israel Office, looks at some of the new and notable candidates in the race for the Knesset, including a surprising number of journalists.
Journalists in the Running: One interesting feature of this election campaign is the unusually high number of prominent Israeli journalists who have thrown their hats in to the political ring.  This includes Ori Orbach of The Jewish Home party, a popular national religious commentator and satirist for Yediot Ahronot and an IDF Radio news show host. Haaretz‘s Daniel Ben-Simon is running on the Labor party list. Israel Radio’s Gideon Reicher is running with the Gil Pensioners party. Yediot Ahronot ‘s Ariella Ringel Hoffman is on the Green party list. And TV Channel 10′s Nitzan Horowitz is on the Meretz slate of candidates. Israel Radio’s Shelly Yechimovich entered politics three years ago, and is now is the fifth spot on the Labor list.
New and Notable Figures in the Running: The Likud slate encompasses a broad spectrum of right and center-right political perspectives, including quite a few new or resurfacing figures. Among the most prominent are: former MK Benny Begin (the son of former Likud prime minister Menachem Begin); Lt. Gen. (res.) Moshe (Bogey) Yaalon (a former IDF chief-of-staff who was shunted out of office by Sharon because he was a critic of the Gaza disengagement plan); and Dan Meridor (Begin’s cabinet secretary and a former justice minister, who was long a rival to Netanyahu). Former IDF Major General Yossi Peled is on the Likud list too.
Notable and new on the Kadima list is Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski. Former Haaretz correspondent Daniel Ben-Simon is on the Labor list. Rabbi Prof. Daniel Hershkovitz of the Technion Israel Institute for Technology is the new leader of The Jewish Home national religious party. Alon Davidi, a prominent community activist from Sderot, is on the same list. Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Danny Ayalon is on Israel Beiteinu list, as is former deputy police commissioner Yitzhak Aharonovich.
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