Less than week before national elections, representatives from all the major parties try to convince English-speaking immigrants to support them; will also take questions from people on the street.
Israel has just joined the Google Hangout craze by following in the steps of the successful hangouts used by President BarackObama, the Japanese electorate and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Israel has just joined the Google Hangout craze by following in the steps of the successful hangouts used by President BarackObama, the Japanese electorate and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The format of the pre-election debate (in English), which will be aired live on Ynetnews at 6 pm Thursday (Israel time), will be divided into four parts. The first offers party representatives an opportunity to tell new immigrants why they should vote for their party. In the second section, questions from people on the street will be offered up to the politicians. The third section offers politicians a chance to attack their fellow running mates on any one point they like. The end has a special and unique twist to the often savage political world stage.
"Politics really has a way of separating people; I wanted to see how we could bring everyone together," said the Right-leaning David Lev, one of the moderators of the debate. His co-host, Ellis Shuman, is oriented towards the Left. The idea for two moderators with separate views was to make both political guests and viewers feel more comfortable that the event will be both balanced and fair.
Above all, in keeping with the theme of 'celebrating Israel's democracy,' a strong message will be broadcast that people are entitled to their own views and should be able to express them with due consideration and respect for others.
These are the parties that will be represented from across the political spectrum:
Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home)
Labor
Likud-Beiteinu
Meretz
Hatnua
Otzma Leyisrael
Shas
Yesh Atid
"Catering to the Israeli election campaign, with all its passionate diversity, and colorful participants, is sure to take this high-tech communication platform to an entirely new level," remarked of Lev, co-founder of Israel Vibes, producers of the event.
The main focus of the event is to celebrate Israel's democracy and help educate English speaking immigrants to better understand the choice of parties running for election in Israel's often complex political system.
